As if to disprove my comment in Jazzwise 186 about the relative infrequency of recordings from Monk's first European tour, here comes another one. The studio session described as a ‘bonus’ – but which constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the proceedings here – is actually from earlier in the same day as the April material reissued on Solar's Complete 1961 Amsterdam Concert and, apart for a brief appearance of some of this on the Moon label, is unfamiliar. The May concert, which was a return visit to Amsterdam (I realise this may be confusing), seems to be completely new and, according to annotator Bert Vuijsje, is superior to the April concert. At the very least, it confirms the positive reaction to the Solar CD, based on the invention in Monk's contributions and the vitality of Charlie Rouse's, and the sound quality is indeed superior. The programming contains nothing new, except that the 45-minute set ends with two piano solos, ‘Body And Soul’ and (by audience demand) ‘Just A Gigolo’. You may know roughly what to expect, but Monk was full of surprises.