Editing Thelonious Monk (section)

===1955–1961: Riverside Records===
{{see also|Misterioso (Thelonious Monk album)}}
[[File:Nachtconcert van Thelonious Monk in het Concertgebouw, Bestanddeelnr 912-3529.jpg|thumb|Thelonious Monk <br>(Amsterdam, 1961)]]
By the time of his signing to [[Riverside Records|Riverside]], Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records remained poor sellers and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for more mainstream acceptance. Indeed, with Monk's consent, Riverside had managed to buy out his previous Prestige contract for a mere $108.24 ($1,273.44 in 2024). He willingly recorded two albums of jazz standards as a means of increasing his profile: ''[[Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington]]'' (1955) and ''[[The Unique Thelonious Monk]]'' (1956).

On ''[[Brilliant Corners]]'', recorded in late 1956, Monk mainly performed his own music. The complex title track, which featured Rollins, was so difficult to play that the final version had to be edited together from multiple takes. The album, however, was largely regarded as the first commercial success for Monk.

After having his [[New York City Cabaret Card|cabaret card]] restored, Monk relaunched his New York career with a landmark six-month residency at the [[Five Spot]] Cafe in the East Village neighborhood of New York beginning in June 1957,<ref name=":2" /> leading a quartet with [[John Coltrane]] on tenor saxophone, [[Wilbur Ware]] on bass, and [[Shadow Wilson]] on drums. Little of this group's music was documented owing to contractual problems: Coltrane was signed to Prestige at the time, but Monk refused to return to his former label. One studio session by the quartet was made for Riverside, three tunes which [[Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane|were not released until 1961]] by the subsidiary label [[Jazzland Records (1960)|Jazzland]] along with outtakes from a larger group recording with Coltrane and Hawkins, those results appearing in 1957 as the album ''[[Monk's Music]]''. An amateur recording from the Five Spot (a later September 1958 reunion with Coltrane sitting in for [[Johnny Griffin]]) was issued on Blue Note in 1993; and a recording of the quartet performing at a [[Carnegie Hall]] concert on November 29 was recorded in high fidelity by [[Voice of America]] engineers, unearthed in the collection of the Library of Congress [[Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall|and released by Blue Note]] in 2005.

"Crepuscule with Nellie", recorded in 1957, was referred to by biographer [[Robin D. G. Kelley]] as Monk's "only through-composed composition, meaning that there is no improvising. It is Monk's concerto, if you will, and in some ways it speaks for itself. But he wrote it very, very carefully and very deliberately and really struggled to make it sound the way it sounds. ... it was his love song for Nellie".<ref name="FA">[https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=132133171 "Looking At The Life And Times Of Thelonious Monk"], transcript of interview with Robin D. G. Kelley by [[Terry Gross]] on ''[[Fresh Air]]'', [[NPR]]; conducted in 2009, replayed December 17, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.</ref>

The Five Spot residency ended Christmas 1957; Coltrane left to rejoin Davis's group, and the band was effectively disbanded. Monk did not form another long-term band until June 1958 when he began a second residency at the Five Spot, again with a quartet, this time with Griffin ([[Charlie Rouse]] later) on tenor, [[Ahmed Abdul-Malik]] on bass, and [[Roy Haynes]] on drums.

On October 15, 1958, en route to a week-long engagement for the quartet at the Comedy Club in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], Monk and de Koenigswarter were detained by police in [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. When Monk refused to answer questions or cooperate with the policemen, they beat him with a [[blackjack (weapon)|blackjack]]. Although they had authorization to search the vehicle and found narcotics in suitcases held in the trunk of the Baroness's car, Judge Christie of the [[Delaware Superior Court]] ruled that the unlawful detention of the pair, and the beating of Monk, rendered the consent to the search void as it was given under duress.<ref>''State v. De Koenigswarter'', 177 A.2d 344 (Del. Super. 1962).</ref>