Jazz Immortal - After Hours Monroe's Harlem Mintons

In 1941 the room where the new rhythm was being assembled was not being documented by any record company — the discs were cut by a customer who carried his own portable recorder into Minton's. That is the only reason we can hear Kenny Clarke, the house drummer, as he played then: the amateur recordings surfaced sixteen years later as Jazz Immortal - After Hours Monroe's Harlem Mintons (1957).

The earliest surviving Monk is not a studio date but a set of discs cut by an amateur with portable equipment in a Harlem club in 1941. They reached the public only in 1957, under Charlie Christian's name — Christian had died in 1942 — with the house pianist left in the small print.