You wait ages for a decent Thelonious Monk covers album and then two come along in the space of a year.

Monk Con Clave, devised and arranged by bassist Carlos Henriquez alongside a lot of his contemporaries from NYC’s Jazz At The Lincoln Center Orchestra, is a really exciting collection which engages both brain and body.

A big band including alto saxists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash, pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Bobby Allende on bongos gather to play music either written by or inspired by Monk.

A Latin take on Monk’s music might initially seem an odd concept but then of course the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band showed how driving rhythms, minor seconds and flatted fifths could work fine during the 1940s.

No liberties are taken with Monk’s melodies on Con Clave, thank goodness – they are sacrosanct. But many interesting things are happening rhythmically, which may make the music a little too complex for dancing.

‘Round Midnight’ flits cleverly between 6/8 and 4/4 time and puts some of Monk’s passing chords in places you’ve never heard them.

‘I Mean You’ is just wonderful, with new harmony underpinning the melody at times, various false endings and rhythmic trapdoors, but always foregrounding the groove. Paul Nedzela features strongly on baritone.

‘Evidence Of Four And One’ mashes up ‘Evidence’ and ‘Four In One’ to amusing and delightful effect, while Rubalcaba’s solo takes us on quite a journey.

The lesser-known Monk material offers sundry treats too: ‘Who Knows’ superbly updates one of the pianist’s first recorded compositions, while ‘Green Chimneys’ features an uncredited flautist providing Monk’s catchy little top melody and Henriquez himself laying down a considered, melodic solo.

There are only a few bum notes: the vocal tracks, two written by the bassist/bandleader, are heartfelt though superfluous, and the closing take on ‘Blue Monk’ is also somewhat of a misfire.

Monk Con Clave is nicely recorded and mastered, with a lot of top-end but still fairly easy on the ear. Highly recommended, it’s one of the unexpected treats of 2026 so far.