This live date, recorded in the summer of `57, features pianist and composer

Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane on tenor sax, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass,
and Roy Haynes on drums. Since it was captured on a portable tape recorder by
Juanita (Naima) Coltrane, the total immersion of being in a live session
pervades, with audience conversations and other background noises popping up
at unexpected intervals. Unfortunately, the single microphone was positioned
too far away from John Coltrane, so that there's an imbalance in the volume
level of the artists. Other than that, the sound quality is something that you get
used to, and the material is plentiful at forty-three minutes, with lengthy solos
from each member of the quartet.
Both Trane and Monk stretch out on "Trinkle Tinkle" with long solo outings that
reinforce their known styles. Trane was into his "sheets of sound" phase then
and his muscular, confident tone supports the lengthy phrases. Monk is showing
distinctive dissonances and quoting from his other tunes as he bounces and
romps through a loose solo encounter. Monk starts "In Walked Bud" with the
familiar melody and hands off to Trane, who takes his time to think the earlier
phrases through carefully. Staying with the chord changes, Trane advances
slowly at first and continues to add more and more motion to his stream of
notes, causing the overall effect to become quite interesting. Almost all of
Trane's work on this set is in the middle or lower register; once considered
avant-garde, it's quite accessible by today's standards. "I Mean You" is the
highlight of the set, over thirteen minutes long and with carefully constructed
solos by each artist. During his piano solo Monk finds a few of the keyboard
notes that are out of tune and returns to one of them repeatedly as if to
experiment with this unusual sound. Abdul-Malik tends to take solos in stride
with just the walking pattern. Haynes, on the other hand, shows excellent
technique and selection of all available textures during his share of the
spotlight. On "Epistrophy" part of Monk's solo turns into an abrupt fade before
the quartet is heard finishing because a part of the original tape was recorded
over by accident. It's sheer coincidence that "Crepuscule With Nellie" contains
more audience conversation than the other numbers, because the effect of this
graceful ballad, with people noticeably enjoying each other's company, fulfills
the title's meaning of a twilight dinner date for this proud composer and his
lovely wife.