For two musicians whose music had such formidable and thorny reputations, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane seemed to get along together rather nicely, as you hear on the 1957 set Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane, now available in the OJC Remaster series.

Perhaps it's because, at their most elemental, Monk and 'Trane were both great blues players, restless explorers and, for all of their improvisational freewheeling, musicians to whom structure was essential. For example, Monk's elastic rhythm in "Ruby, My Dear" constructs the perfect skeleton for the sinew and muscle of Coltrane's tenor. "Off Minor" pirouettes and tumbles with all the clumsy grace of Monk lost in dance, his accompaniment behind the horn soloists (including another tenor legend, Coleman Hawkins) oddly unnerving and yet inviting.

It's quite typical of the glorious contradictions that make exploring Monk's catalog such an adventure, but the highlight of an album named for who Monk played with came from a tune the pianist played all alone: A 9-minute solo blues that proved to be so much more than merely "Functional," and captured every intimation of Monk's brilliance. (This tune was one of Monk's favorites because he thought it helped him sound like stride master James P. Johnson.)

Monk With Coltrane was recorded in the same sessions that gave us the transcendent Monk's Music and Thelonious Himself. Even though those two companion titles were released in '57, Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane was not released until 1961.

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  Ruby, My Dear

  Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, from T ...
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  Off Minor (Take 4)

  Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, from T ...
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  Epistrophy

  Thelonious Monk, from Monk's Music
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  ’Round Midnight

  Thelonious Monk, from Thelonious Himself ...
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  While My Lady Sleeps

  John Coltrane, from Coltrane [Rudy Van ...

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