Thelonious Monk Palo Alto

• Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy

• 1. Ruby, My Dear
• 2. Well, You Needn’t
• 3. Don’t Blame Me
• 4. Blue Monk
• 5. Epistrophy
• 6. I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams

'Palo Alto' is a previously unknown and unreleased live Thelonious Monk recording from 1968!

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, racial tensions across
the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in California, was not
immune to the events of the day. Danny Scher, a rising junior at Palo Alto High
School, had a dream to bring Thelonious Monk to Palo Alto to perform and help
bring about racial unity in his community as well as raise funds for his school’s
International Committee.

After somehow securing Monk’s services to perform on Sunday, October27, Scher initially had trouble selling tickets and convincing people that Monk was even going to show up.

With many twists and turns along the way and several hundred people waiting inthe school’s parking lot to await Monk’s arrival before purchasing tickets, the concert eventually happened and was a triumph in more ways that Monk or Scher could have imagined. This is a recording of that historic concert.

The band is Thelonious Monk on piano; Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone; Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums.