Thelonious Monk
Today we’re listening to Thelonious Monk, an American jazz pianist and composer. He was born in North Carolina in 1917 and moved to Harlem, NY, as a child. By the 1940s he was playing with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, using harmonic complexity, novel tempo, and blue notes to create bebop.1 Monk went on to play regularly with John Coltrane in Greenwich Village and tour the world, developing specific techniques such as “clustering” adjacent notes in single phrasings.2 We’re first playing Monk in Tokyo, a 1963 live recording of his quartet featuring originals like “Straight, No Chaser” and “Blue Monk.” We’re also playing Brilliant Corners from 1957, a collaboration with saxophonist Sonny Rollins. Monk’s clustering technique is audible on the opening of the brilliant title track; “Pannonica” is a sleeper.
Monk in Tokyo - Thelonious Monk (80m, occasional crowd vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Brilliant Corners - Thelonious Monk (43m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Have a great Thursday.
