Monk(ey) Shines

Thelonious Monk
Album: The Complete Blue Note Recordings
Song: Round Midnight

Thelonious Monk is my all-time favorite jazz artist.  I own half a dozen of his CDs and there isn't a bad song in the bunch.  He is credited with being one of the founders of bebop, but his style cannot easily be categorized -- his later recordings are vastly dissimilar to his earlier efforts.

He was also a crazy cat, even as jazz musicians go, known as much for his idiosyncratic behavior as for his compositions.  At times, Monk would get up from the piano while others were playing and dance in funky little circles.  His fashion sense was also much different from his peers, often including distinctive hats, sunglasses, and suits.

According to Wikipedia, "Round Midnight" is the most recorded jazz standard of all time.  Written in 1944, it has been covered by artists as diverse as Dizzy Gallespie, Miles Davis, and Ella Fitzgerald.  The melodic line

is one of the most famous in the genre, and features the angularity for which Monk was famous.  Our recording of the day is also entirely characteristic -- Monk's improvisational style is highly percussive and dramatic, with long pauses and abrupt stops and entrances, and his harmonic pallette is rich with chromaticism and dissonance.  He doesn't have the technique of an Ellington or a Tatum, but his playing is so musical and idiosyncratic that I never get tired of it.