A new Thelonious Monk album—not just a hotchpotch of outtakes or a concert recording but an entire lost studio album? Les Liaisons Dangereuses was recorded for the 1960 French film of that name and somehow slipped through the cracks of history. Monk was at a peak during the session, glancing across the keys at sharp angles, teasing at fragments of melody, conjuring memories of the blues and turning jazz into Cubist abstraction. He played alongside a pair of saxophonists, Barney Wilen and Charlie Rouse, over the supple rhythms of bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor.
