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Palo Alto: Live at Palo Alto High School Image
Metascore
92

Universal acclaim - based on 5 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: In 1968, Danny Scher, a 16-year-old student at Palo Alto High School, invited the jazz legend to perform and the 47-minute set was recorded by the janitor.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. 100
    On this album he is in especially playful and inventive form, perhaps because at a high school gig with no critics around he could afford to take risks. The numbers are nearly all those Monk standards familiar from numerous well-known recordings and endlessly replayed by later pianists, but they are reimagined in ways that make them seem utterly fresh.
  2. Oct 1, 2020
    91
    It seems unlikely that Monk and his quartet would have known about what was happening in East Palo Alto, but they’ve clearly been buoyed by the crowd’s youthful energy, and they deliver some of the fiercest, most spirited versions of their core repertoire in response.
  3. Oct 1, 2020
    90
    For what's essentially a bootleg recording, the sound quality of the 47-minute set from 27 October 1968 is surprisingly strong. ... It sits comfortably amongst Monk's finest recorded works.
  4. Oct 1, 2020
    80
    It’s refreshing to hear from the icon directly, especially with his quartet in such fine form.
  5. Oct 1, 2020
    65
    The recording has a dry, boxed-in character that, for better or worse, defines the listening experience. In strictly psychoacoustic terms, the band feels disembodied from the audience, from the room, and from itself.