J.R. Monterose is remembered mostly for playing tenor sax on Mingus' Pithecantropus Erectus. His solo career was never really successful commercially, but his works were very highly rated by critics. Monterose debuted for Blue Note Records, AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it was "in the vein of Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins" and gave it 4.5 stars. In the session participated Ira Sullivan, Horace Silver, Wilbur Ware (yay) and Philly Joe Jones. It's a really swinging date, check out "Ka-Link", it's even on YouTube. This self-titled debut album makes a great pair with Introducing Johnny Griffin LP from the same year, try to mix them!
Later J.R. Monterose recorded obscure disks with Tommy Flanagan, Pete La Roca and Jimmy Garriosn (Straight Ahead, 1959) and others which for now I'm trying to get to. Great stuff!
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