More of the Music of Thelonious Monk
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The Riverside pressings we’ve auditioned of both The Thelonious Monk Orchestra – At Town Hall and Thelonious Monk Quartet Plus Two – At The Blackhawk were just awful sounding.
The OJC reissues from the ’80s, although better, were not overflowing with the rich, natural, relaxed sound we were looking for either.
Ah, but a few years back we happened to drop the needle on one of these good Milestone Two-Fers. Here was the sound we were looking for and had had so little luck in finding.
Which prompts the question that should be on the mind of every audiophile: What are the rules for collecting records with the best sound quality?
The answer, of course, is that there are no such rules and never will be.
There is only trial and error. Our full-time staff has been running trials — we call them shootouts and needle drops — for more than twenty years now, with far more errors than successes. Such is the nature of records. It may be a tautology to note that the average record has mediocre sound, but it nevertheless pays to keep that rather inconvenient fact in mind.
Even worse, if you make the mistake of pinning your hopes on a current reissue — and you unfortunately find yourself a member of that minority of audiophiles with top quality equipment, a dedicated, heavily-treated room, decades of experience, reasonably high standards and two working ears — your disappointment is almost guaranteed.
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