Monk wasn't an album artist per se. Monk's Music [...] is contradictory: strident, reassuring, fractured, centered. It isn't perfect, whatever perfect means. Here and there it sounds like a rehearsal or a jam session. Some solos wander, particularly on "Epistrophy," and the trumpeter Ray Copeland and alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce are comparatively weak links. But Monk's Music also sounds loose and deep and urgent. At its best it suggests a party in a specific room; you come to know the room. After Monk finishes his solo in "Well, You Needn't," he shouts "Coltrane! Coltrane!" to signal who's up next. Ravi Coltrane, John's son, told me that when he first heard Monk's Music he was 21, listening in a university library with headphones on. At Monk's shout, he startled, thinking someone was looking for him.
Source: Pitchfork
