I’ll be the first person to tell you that I know next to nothing about jazz. I always enjoy it when I hear it playing, but the most jazzy my house ever tends to get is the one month of every year that we listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Thankfully, that changed in 2020. As a fan of new music, and good graphic design, I was drawn to the Palo Alto (Live) album cover, so I downloaded and listened. Of course I already knew the name Thelonious Monk, but I couldn’t tell you the name of any of his albums, or particular performances of his that were good. Upon listening to Palo Alto (Live), a previously unreleased recording of his from 1968, I was immediately taken back in time. The quiet, almost polite sounds of the audience clapping, the smooth sounds of the drums, sax, bass and Monk’s piano, all capture an era very much removed from today.

Monk died at age 64 back in 1982, so he personally had nothing to do with the release of this music for us to all enjoy. The story of how a 15-year old kid pulled this Palo Alto High School concert together (captured in the documentary above), the recording by the school’s janitor, and the tapes being stored away and “lost” for 50+ years, all adds to the music’s mystique.

Being completely uneducated about jazz, I can’t give you good reference points for what to expect here. But what I can tell you is that if you love the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas like I do, then you should love this recording by Monk and his band.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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