Midnight at Minton's

About Midnight at Minton's

Midnight at Minton's is a 1941 album by jazz musician Don Byas. It is a live recording of a jam session at Minton's Playhouse, the famous New York City nightclub at which the emerging style of bebop was being pioneered. It features one of the earliest known recordings of Thelonious Monk, who was then playing piano in Minton's house band. The album is taken from private recordings made by Columbia University student Jerry Newman on a portable acetate disc recorder. Newman made the recordings for "Delayed on Disc" broadcasts on college radio station WKCR — the discs were rushed back to the radio studio shortly after being cut and presented in the style of a live broadcast from the venue. In a review for Allmusic, Michael G. Nastos concludes that, "the music itself is priceless, the document of a transitional period from swing to bop, and some of the people that made it happen, especially the underappreciated genius Byas." more »