There's some serious stuff on the first two reissues, especially the Monk Trio. Mostly consisting of the three relevant Prestige dates, it's supplemented by two trio tunes from his last Blue Note sessions plus the famous Newport set with Roy Haynes (in reasonably good sound). Apart from five standards, we get Monk tunes such as ‘Trinkle Tinkle’ and ‘Little Rootie Tootie’, nearly all in their debut versions except for ‘Round Midnight’ and ‘Blue Monk’ at Newport. The difference with the Ellington/Unique pairing, comprising his first Riverside albums, is that he was focussing exclusively on standards in often quirky renditions (e.g. ‘Tea For Two’ totally reharmonised with the sequence of Monk's ‘Skippy’). Key to all these performances is the pianist's rhythmic acuity, and his relationship to the four drummers involved. If your ears start to glaze over when Rouse enters the picture, that's partly down to subsequent drummers, but in both the later albums Monk's accompaniments and solos contain some fascinating moments – including, during the Geneva ‘Midnight’, references to the then unrecorded ‘Green Chimneys’. Monk's Dream was his first LP for Columbia, nearly all remakes of earlier tunes of which the reissuer has added the original versions, whereas the Geneva Concert is supplemented by a tantalising 11 minutes of the otherwise unrecorded 1956 quartet with Ernie Henry, with Monk name-checking the band at the close.