Thelonious Monk is the Jazz Pianist's Jazz Pianist. An aquired taste. If like me you have aquired it then this album isn't the worst place to start. If like my piano teacher you don't get him then head with my teacher for Bill Evans or Herbie Hancock. The "hight" of his career was probably his 3 month run at the five spot with John Coltrane on sax and this comes after that and is his first with Columbia with the "classic" quartet. From this album on he stuck to the formula. Everything tends to be at mid tempo, he isn't writing new tunes anymore but is rattling off things that have been in the set for years, and he wasn't cutting edge anymore, jazz had moved on past Thelonious by '62. That said these albums were recorded by his working band who were regular gigging tight and the interplay between them is much better than that on some of his earlier albums. His relationship with Charlie Rouse on sax is rather special. Anyway I do like this album a lot but please don't expect this to be an easy listen.