In the midst of all the fantastic new jazz coming out at the moment you occasionally get a special something from the masters that influenced all these new musicians.
Recorded by a school caretaker, this new live Monk album Palo Alto was recorded at Palo Alto High School in California. The album features tenorist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley along with Thelonious Monk on piano. You can read more about the album and its history in this Downbeat article.
A year later this Monk concert was filmed live at Berliner Jazztage festival. Combining archive footage and new found recordings along with timeless studio records we can really get the full picture of the music these inspirational jazz greats were creating at a time when jazz was evolving in many directions as a result of their inovations decades earlier.