Thelonious Monk Quintet feat. Steve Lacy

Reportedly, Thelonious Monk never liked his compositions being recorded by other artists. However, there were exceptions and one was Steve Lacy's Reflections, the first all-Monk-composition album recorded by someone rather Mr. Monk himself. Recorded in 1958, it also featured with Mal Waldron, Buell Neidlinger and Elvin Jones.

Whether because of the release of that or Monk's personal liking for Lacy, Monk invited him to play along his quartet in 1960. Monk had already complimented Lacy in at least one occasion: during a gig at the UN building in New York City, Jimmy Giuffre Quartet featuring Steve Lacy played opposite Thelonious Monk where they performed two  Monk's compositions. The composer almost instantly hated it, however he had some nice words in his sleeve for Lacy and right after that UN gig he invited Lacy to play with him in the Jazz Gallery. Other gigs followed in 1960.

One existing recording of that brief stint comes from a radio broadcast in the World Jazz Series by CBS which I post here. Monk is accompanied by Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), John Ore (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). The occasion was the Quaker City Jazz Festival in Philadelphia, the date, March 3, 1960. [This accuracy of this date's been challenged. Please see the comment section.]

Kicking off with Evidence, in which Rouse is no less than stunning, the band plunge into Straight No Chaser. Rythym-A-Ning is the final song on which Lacy's solo get muddied with an annoying series of announcements, first by Louis Armstrong, and then by the CBS announcer who encourages folks to buy the US saving bounds for a more secure future. Needles to say, now we can see clearly that a o bound brought any secure future to anyone, but some Thelonious Monk recordings did.