Thelonious Monk – It's Monk's Time

Sounds absolutely great except for some pre-echo, which is probably from the tape.
I have a test pressing.

I have some noise on the intro of Lulu's back in town, I thought about returning it but when I read other reviews here I guess there is no point. I wish it was perfect...

My pressing is pretty good. Not much surface noise at all, but you can hear a little during quiet ages. The dynamics seem tame and not exposive - a polite sounding record. The volume level is a little on the low side, so you'll have to turn this one up from your usual volume level.

I have no trouble pointing out the locations of each of the instruments. The bass is unusually detailed and potent coming out of the left channel with the drums. You can hear the cymbals, and they sound like cymbals, not just some sort of hazey noise. Monk's in the right channel, and his piano sounds very good.

Everything sounds really good here. With Speakers Corner, you have to sort of gamble. Some of their stuff is top-notch, dead quiet, while others are noisy. This record is one of the good Speakers Corner issues.

Cartridge: AT150Sa

Amazing sounding analog pressing. I'm always really impressed by Speakers Corner releases.

Everyone purchase Speakers Corner they're a scam like the other company I forget the name and the US MOFI also ... You see this reissue it's going to be perfect in every way possible... Because it's from the US Wes Garland mastered the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPE NOT A COPY TAPE .... I EVEN WROTE TO SPEAKERS CORNER AND THEY WERE MAD WHEN I TOLD THEM THIS ...

https://discogs.descargarpelis.net/release/2351159-Thelonious-Monk-Its-Monks-Time

This wasn't a 1990's reissue more like 2003 when the CD's were remastered by Sony .... And cheap ...

guess i can count myself lucky, my copy is absolutely perfect: no pops nor clicks, flat and shiny, excellent sound

Speaker’s Corner always a gamble. Great sound, but often poor pressing. This one clicks and pops throughout, even with thorough cleaning.

Lots of surface noise on the first track (despite cleaned and washed two times). Maybe I have more luck with the second copy? Somebody similar experiences? Many thanks in advance

Well darn, I fell victim to seeing an outer sleeve in near mint condition and assuming the record inside would match. Not so, the record is all chewed up and crackly. This would not be a problem for death metal, but when most of these pieces consist of quiet-ish solo piano, and some quartet, that's a real bummer.

Let's talk about monk. He's really a genius. A bit hard to get into, then once you understand his style, listening to his pieces becomes extremely comfortable. Charlie Rouse, his long time companion on the tenor, is not musically athletic nor flashy, but provides just the right amount of motion to complement every tune.
Monk himself stretches out and explores chorus after chorus, banging out some creative motifs and angular whimsy.

My favorite track here is "Stuffy Turkey", a real swinger with every piston firing perfectly. Brake's Sake", similarly is a driving swinger. Tracks 1&5 hearken to his stride piano roots. Now, if you stuck around for "Shuffle Boil", you'll get a taste of his harmonic approach to come.

This is a reasonable starting point if you are interested in meeting Monk, as it predates his more challenging earbenders. In the end, Monk should be ed for his compositions, which exude brilliance, more so than just his piano playing, which is great too.