･ LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS
･ NEWLY REMASTERED
･ OUTSTANDING NEW COVERS
･ DIRECT METAL MASTERING
･ 180g LP - AUDIOPHILE PRESSING

THELONIOUS MONK， piano; JOHNNY GRIFFIN， tenor sax; AHMED-ABDUL MALIK， bass; ROY HAYNES， drums. Live at the Five Spot， New York， August 7， 1958.
*Bonus tracks: Same personnel and location， July 9， 1958.
Note: “Just a Gigolo” and “Sweet Stranger” are unaccompanied piano performances.
Original recordings produced by ORRIN KEEPNEWS.

LP1: In Action
Side A:
1. LIGHT BLUE
2. COMING ON THE HUDSON
3. RHYTHM-A-NING
4. EPISTROPHY [Theme] (Thelonious Monk-Kenny Clarke)
5. SWEET STRANGER (Milton Ager-Jerry Livingston-Ned Wever-Jack Yellen) *
Side B:
1. BLUE MONK
2. EVIDENCE
3. EPISTROPHY [Theme] (Thelonious Monk-Kenny Clarke)
4. ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT *

LP2: Misterioso
Side A:
1. NUTTY
2. BLUES FIVE SPOT
3. LET’S COOL ONE
Side B:
1. IN WALKED BUD
2. JUST A GIGOLO (Julius Brammer-Irving Caesar-Leonello Casucci)
3. MISTERIOSO
All compositions by Thelonious Monk unless otherwise indicated.

Just after John Coltrane left him and before the arrival of Charlie Rouse， Thelonious Monk formed a quartet with Johnny Griffin， which played at the Five Spot Café， in New York， during 1958. There they were recorded and the results were issued on two albums: In Action (Riverside RLP12-262) and Misterioso (Riverside RLP12-279). This 2-LP set contains the complete contents of these albums plus two bonus tracks from an earlier， rejected date by the same group. Producer Orrin Keepnews stated that Monk hadn’t been working a lot prior to these performances. There was by that time a law that prohibited a musician convicted for drugs in New York to work in any of the city’s clubs for a specific duration of time due to the loss of his “cabaret card”. Monk， like Charlie Parker and many others， had been a victim of the system， and thus he was unable to play New York clubs for a while (although he could play theatres such as Carnegie Hall and other places that didn’t sell alcohol). These were Monk’s first issued live recordings (that is， taped live， but recorded with professional equipment). However， many other previous live recordings made under nonprofessional conditions have surfaced since. The most important of them are， first， the 1941 jam sessions at Minton’s， which present a young Monk jamming with Roy Eldridge， Hot Lips Page， Charlie Christian， Don Byas， Dizzy Gillespie and others. Second， the two more recently discovered sets displaying Monk’s original Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall in 1957 (a set at the Five Spot with Coltrane replacing Johnny Griffin was taped by Naima Coltrane on September 11， 1958). Other privately recorded radio and TV broadcasts have also surfaced， including three 1948 quartet performances with Idrees Sulieman， Curly Russell and Art Blakey; two 1955 sextet tunes played at the Steve Allen Show with Art Farmer and Hank Mobley among others， and the three interesting tunes from the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival， featuring Monk in performance with Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan.
In fact， Keepnews had recorded Monk live at the Five Spot on July 9， 1958， which was a month prior to the originally issued sets. Apparently Thelonious didn’t like the music when he heard it in the control booth， and a new recording was planned. The music from the earlier date was later issued on different anthologies and includes Johnny Griffin’s only known version of “’Round Midnight” (added here as a bonus). Keepnews’ liner notes mention that the Five Spot version of “Coming on the Hudson” was the first recording of that song. In fact， it was the second. The first had been taped at the studio on February 25， 1958， but Monk considered it unfit to be released. Monk’s July 9， 1957 solo piano feature at the Five Spot， “Sweet Stranger”， also added here as a bonus， is an obscure old ballad which the original issues failed to name. This tune was recorded by Benny Goodman in the studio on December 3， 1937 (an earlier broadcast exists from New York’s Manhattan Room on November 20， 1937). Other jazz recordings of this elusive tune were made by Isham Jones for the Associated Transcriptions on November 2， 1937， and by Glenn Miller on December 13， 1937. No other versions are listed by the Tom Lord discography apart from these and Monk’s solo reading.