SKF NOTE: Drummer Ben Riley is in excellent form on this never before released Thelonious Monk concert, Palo Alto, slated for release in July 2020. From the reviews I’m reading, and based on this advance release of Epistrophy from the album, the entire Monk Quartet is in great form.

From Jazzwise get the backstory to this date. And it’s a great story:

In the autumn of 1968, a sixteen-year-old boy named Danny Scher had a dream. He wanted to bring Thelonious Monk and his quartet to play a benefit concert at his high school in Palo Alto, California, in order to raise funds for his school and to help bring about racial unity in his community.

Armed with little more than a telephone, a persuasive pitch, an impressive knowledge of jazz and an iron-willed determination, Scher made the concert happen on Sunday, 27 October 1968. The concert was also recorded and lay, forgotten, in the vaults – until now.

Just when you think an artist’s or a group’s well has run dry — presto! — new music appears.