Monk's Dream  by Thelonious Monk

The jazz pianist and composer Thelonius Monk inaugurated his collaboration with Columbia Records in 1963 with his exceptional album Monk's Dream, a record containing eight pieces of pure jazz without experiments and innovations, but which you can enjoy from the first to the last. The producer of the album was the legendary Teo Macero.

The album was recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City on October 31 and November 1, 2, and 6, 1962, but was released in January 1963. In Monk's Dream, Thelonius Monk presents five of his own compositions and three interpretations of musical themes by other composers. Among them is Just A Gigolo, which Irving Caesar adapted into the English language as the piece is based on the Austrian tango Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo.

The Thelonious Monk quartet consisted of himself on piano, Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, John Ore on bass, and Francis Dunlop on drums.