Thelonious Monk · New to them

New to Monk

Thelonious Monk wrote some of the best-loved tunes in jazz and played piano like nobody before or since: spare, angular, full of surprise and humour. This path starts with his friendliest record, then goes back to the beginning and walks forward through trio, solo, septet, sideman, live and big band settings.

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Start with the working band
Monk's Dream The Thelonious Monk Quartet · Columbia CL 1965 · 1963
Monk's Dream was Monk's first record for Columbia, made at the label's 30th Street Studio in New York over four days in late 1962 and released in January 1963. Teo Macero produced it. By then Monk's quartet, with Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Ore on bass and Frankie Dunlop on drums, had been on the road together for years, and you can hear how easily they move through his music. It became the best-selling record of his lifetime. That ease is why it comes first: these are tunes Monk knew inside out, played by a band that knew him, with his piano clear at the centre.
Start with
- Bye-Ya
- Bright Mississippi
- Body And Soul
Most of these tunes Monk had recorded before. "Bright Mississippi" is the one he had never put on record, and it is the place to hear the quartet stretch out. "Bye-Ya" has a light Latin feel. "Body and Soul" is the old ballad Coleman Hawkins made famous in 1939; listen to how Monk keeps its melody in view while the chords underneath go their own way.
In the band
Charlie Rouse · tenor sax
Charlie Rouse, from Washington, D.C., had played in the big bands of Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie and briefly with Duke Ellington before he joined Monk in 1959. He stayed until 1970, longer than any other horn player Monk had. His dry, slightly smoky tenor sat inside Monk's tunes as if he had written them. In the 1980s he was a founding member of Sphere, a band that began as a tribute to Monk.
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Back to the beginning, 1947
Genius of Modern Music Volume 1 Thelonious Monk · Blue Note BLP 1510 · 1956
Now go back 15 years. In 1947 Monk was 30, known to musicians from the after-hours sessions at Minton's in Harlem and almost unknown to anyone else. The saxophonist Ike Quebec brought him to Alfred Lion at Blue Note, and Lion recorded him as a leader for the first time that autumn, at WOR Studios in New York, with Art Blakey on drums. This 12-inch LP from 1956 gathers those first dates and one from 1948 with Milt Jackson on vibes. Many of the tunes you just heard the 1962 quartet play were born here, along with the most famous one of all.
Start with
- 'Round About Midnight
- Ruby My Dear
- Thelonious
"'Round About Midnight" is the Monk tune everyone knows; this is his first recording of it as a leader. "Ruby My Dear", from the trio date, is tender without turning sweet. "Thelonious" is built on one note played over and over while the chords move underneath, and Monk's left hand strides like the older Harlem pianists he grew up hearing.
In the band
Art Blakey · drums
Art Blakey, from Pittsburgh, drummed on every one of Monk's three 1947 Blue Note dates. The two were close friends, and Blakey would turn up on Monk's records again and again over the next decade. In the mid-1950s he started the Jazz Messengers, the band that, for more than 30 years, trained one young player after another. His press rolls and big, driving beat are already here.
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Monk alone with bass and drums
Thelonious Monk Thelonious Monk Trio · Prestige PRLP 7027 · 1956
From 1952 Monk recorded for Prestige. Those were hard years: in 1951 he lost the cabaret card he needed to play New York clubs, after refusing to testify in a drugs case, and he could not work in the city's clubs for several years. Records were one of the few ways to be heard. This 12-inch LP collects his 1952 trio sessions, with Gary Mapp on bass and Art Blakey or Max Roach on drums, plus two tracks from 1954. The critic Robert Christgau valued it for a rare reason: Monk is the only soloist, start to finish.
Start with
- Little Rootie Tootie
- Bemsha Swing
- Blue Monk
With no horns, every choice is Monk's. "Little Rootie Tootie" and "Bye-Ya" are from the October 1952 date with Blakey; "Bemsha Swing", written with the drummer Denzil Best, is from December with Max Roach. "Blue Monk" comes from 1954, with Percy Heath and Blakey. It is a simple blues that became one of his most played tunes.
In the band
Max Roach · drums
Max Roach was already one of the great bebop drummers, from Charlie Parker's quintet of the late 1940s, when he played on the December 1952 trio date. He treated the drums as a melodic instrument, which suited Monk. Two years later he formed a quintet with the trumpeter Clifford Brown, and later still he made records about civil rights such as We Insist!. He and Monk recorded together several more times.
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Christmas Eve with Miles Davis
Bags Groove Miles Davis · Prestige PRLP 7109 · 1957
On December 24, 1954, Monk went to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, as a sideman on a Miles Davis date, with Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. Bags' Groove, released in 1957, puts two takes of Jackson's blues from that day on side one; side two is a different Davis session with Sonny Rollins. Davis asked Monk to stay out from behind his solos, and the two clashed over it. Davis later called the stories of a fight rumours. What survives is two takes of the same tune, and a good lesson in how Monk plays when he is not the leader.
Start with
- Bags' Groove (take 1)
- Bags' Groove (take 2)
Play the two takes back to back: same tune, same band, a few minutes apart. Listen for where the piano is and isn't behind the horns, given the argument over comping. When Monk's own solo comes, notice how few notes he uses and how much space he leaves, compared with Jackson's flowing lines.
In the band
Miles Davis · trumpet
Miles Davis was 28 and climbing back after a few lost years. Earlier in 1954 he had made the records that put him on top again, and within two years he would form his great quintet with John Coltrane. He admired Monk's tunes and recorded "'Round Midnight" more than once. In his autobiography he said his request on this date was about the music, not the friendship.
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A new label plays Ellington
Thelonious Monk Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington Thelonious Monk Trio · Riverside RLP 12-201 · 1956
In 1955 Riverside bought out Monk's Prestige contract for a little over $100. His Prestige records had sold poorly, and critics kept calling his music too difficult. The producer Orrin Keepnews had an idea: let Monk play Duke Ellington, music listeners already loved. Monk recorded it at Van Gelder's in July 1955 with Oscar Pettiford on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. It is a friendly door into how Monk hears other people's songs, and it set up the trust between pianist and label that the next records rest on.
Start with
- Caravan
- Mood Indigo
- Black And Tan Fantasy
Ellington's melodies stay in plain view; what changes is the space around them. Listen for the pauses Monk leaves, the clashing notes he lets ring, and the way he plays with time rather than over it. "Caravan" is the loosest and most playful. "Mood Indigo" and "Black and Tan Fantasy" are slower and let you hear each choice.
In the band
Kenny Clarke · drums
Kenny Clarke was the house drummer at Minton's in the early 1940s, when Monk was the house pianist, and the two of them helped work out the new music there. Clarke moved the beat from the bass drum to the ride cymbal, which changed jazz drumming. He co-wrote "Epistrophy" with Monk and was the first drummer of the Modern Jazz Quartet. In 1956 he moved to Paris.
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Brilliant Corners, the hard one
Brilliant Corners Thelonious Monk · Riverside RLP 12-226 · 1957
Late in 1956, after two records of other people's tunes, Monk made his first Riverside album of his own music. Sonny Rollins and Ernie Henry played the horns, with Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach. The title tune was so hard that after 25 tries nobody had played a complete take; Keepnews edited the record version together from several. A December date added Clark Terry and Paul Chambers. DownBeat called it the most acclaimed jazz record of 1957, and it is now in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. This is where Monk the composer comes fully into view.
Start with
- Brilliant Corners
- Pannonica
- Bemsha Swing
"Brilliant Corners" has an odd shape: an eight-bar part, then two seven-bar parts, and every second time through the band plays the theme twice as fast. "Pannonica", for his friend Pannonica de Koenigswarter, has Monk on celeste, a little keyboard that sounds like bells. "Bemsha Swing" returns from the trio years, with Roach adding timpani.
In the band
Sonny Rollins · tenor sax
Sonny Rollins had known Monk since his teens in Harlem and called him a mentor. By 1956 he was one of the leading tenor players in jazz, fresh from Saxophone Colossus. He brings a big sound and a sense of humour that matches Monk's, and he takes the rough edges of these tunes as a challenge. He went on to record and tour for another 50 years and more.
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Thelonious Himself, solo
Thelonious Himself Solo Piano By Thelonious Monk · Riverside RLP 12-235 · 1957
In April 1957 Monk sat alone at the piano at Reeves Sound Studios in New York for Keepnews. It was his second solo album, and the first by an American label. Most of it is Monk on his own, playing standards and his own tunes; the critic Robert Christgau thought it was probably his best solo record. One track adds John Coltrane on tenor and Wilbur Ware on bass. After the band records, this is the place to hear Monk think out loud, with nobody to keep time but himself.
Start with
- 'Round Midnight (take 7)
- Functional (take 2)
- Monk's Mood
Hear "'Round Midnight" again, now slower and freer than on the 1947 version, with the beat stretching and pausing. "Functional" is a blues where Monk's stride left hand carries the time. "Monk's Mood" brings in Coltrane and Ware for a slow, quiet trio, the first time you hear Monk and Coltrane together.
In the band
John Coltrane · tenor sax
John Coltrane was at a turning point. Miles Davis had let him go that spring, partly over his heroin use, and that year he got clean. Monk took him on. Over 1957 Coltrane learned Monk's tunes in long sessions at the pianist's apartment, and he later said that working with Monk taught him a great deal. Within a few years he would be leading his own groups and changing the music again.
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Two tenors and a hymn
Monk's Music Thelonious Monk Septet · Riverside RLP 12-242 · 1957
In June 1957 Monk led a septet at Reeves: Ray Copeland on trumpet, Gigi Gryce on alto, two tenors in Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane, Wilbur Ware on bass and Art Blakey on drums. Hawkins had given Monk his first record date in 1944, and here the old master and the rising young player share a front line. All but one tune are Monk's, and only "Crepuscule with Nellie", for his wife, was new to record. It is the fullest picture yet of how Monk's music sounds with a band around it.
Start with
- Well, You Needn't
- Ruby, My Dear
- Crepescule With Nellie (re-take 6)
The record opens with the horns alone playing the hymn "Abide with Me". On "Well, You Needn't" you can hear Monk call out "Coltrane! Coltrane!" to bring him in for the first solo. "Ruby, My Dear" is a quartet with Hawkins as the only horn. "Crepuscule with Nellie" is played as written, no solos.
In the band
Coleman Hawkins · tenor sax
Coleman Hawkins made the tenor saxophone a solo instrument in the 1920s and 1930s, and his 1939 "Body and Soul" was a hit. Unlike many older players, he welcomed the beboppers: in 1944 he hired Monk for his quartet, which gave Monk his first records. "I Mean You" is credited to both of them. Here, at 52, he is the elder in the room and plays with full warmth.
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Sitting in with the Messengers
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk · Atlantic LP 1278 · 1958
Two days in May 1957, Monk joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for Atlantic, with Bill Hardman on trumpet, Johnny Griffin on tenor and Spanky DeBrest on bass. Five of the six tunes are Monk's, so this is a partnership more than a guest spot: Blakey's band plays Monk's book with Monk at the piano. The record did not come out until May 1958. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave it its highest honour. After the polish of the septet, it is a hard-swinging, rougher kind of Monk band.
Start with
- Evidence
- Rhythm-a-ning
- In Walked Bud
Listen to Blakey pushing the band from underneath and Monk's chords cutting through. "Evidence" is built on "Just You, Just Me" with the melody broken into stabs. "Rhythm-a-ning" runs on the chords of "I Got Rhythm". "In Walked Bud", for Bud Powell, swings hard. Dom Cerulli in DownBeat called the record "angular, often quite brittle".
In the band
Johnny Griffin · tenor sax
Johnny Griffin, from Chicago, joined Lionel Hampton's band at 17 and moved to New York in the mid-1950s. He was known for playing very fast, and players called him the Little Giant for his size and his sound. He was with Blakey's Messengers in 1957. In 1963 he moved to Europe, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
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Live at the Five Spot
Thelonious In Action Thelonious Monk Quartet With Johnny Griffin · Riverside RLP 12-262 · 1958
In 1957 Monk got his cabaret card back and began a long run at the Five Spot Café on the Bowery. A second run started in June 1958, with Johnny Griffin on tenor, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Riverside recorded the band there on August 7, 1958. This is the first live record on the path: a club, a crowd, and long solos. It also has two newer tunes, "Light Blue" and "Coming on the Hudson". Monk was finally playing for crowds in New York, and his reputation was growing fast.
Start with
- Light Blue
- Coming On The Hudson
- Rhythm-a-ning
"Light Blue" and "Coming on the Hudson" are the newer tunes; hear how Griffin finds his way through them. "Rhythm-a-ning", which you heard with the Messengers, is a fast ride for Griffin here, with Haynes behind him. Listen too for the short "Epistrophy" theme the band used to close a set.
In the band
Roy Haynes · drums
Roy Haynes, from Boston, had played with Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan before he joined Monk at the Five Spot. His drumming is light, crisp and full of snap, and he answers Monk's accents like a conversation. He went on to play with Coltrane, Stan Getz and Chick Corea, and he was still playing in his 90s. He died in 2024, aged 99.
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Ten pieces at Town Hall
The Thelonious Monk Orchestra At Town Hall The Thelonious Monk Orchestra · Riverside RLP 300 · 1959
On February 28, 1959, Monk played his music with a ten-piece band at Town Hall in New York. The arranger was Hall Overton, a composer who taught at Juilliard. The two worked on the charts for weeks in Overton's loft on Sixth Avenue, where the photographer W. Eugene Smith taped them. The band had trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba, three saxes and rhythm. This is the big-band setting, and it shows how well Monk's tunes stand up when written out for many voices. It was also Charlie Rouse's first recording with Monk.
Start with
- Little Rootie Tootie
- Thelonious
- Off Minor
On "Little Rootie Tootie" Overton took Monk's own piano solo from the 1952 trio record and wrote it out for the whole band, so you hear his piano lines sung by the horns. Compare "Thelonious" and "Off Minor" with the 1947 versions: the same pieces, now with low brass and a fuller sound.
In the band
Hall Overton · piano
Hall Overton was born in Michigan in 1920 and learned jazz while serving in the army. He studied composition at Juilliard and then taught there, writing operas, symphonies and string quartets, while also playing jazz piano. He lived in the loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue, where musicians came to jam. Monk chose him to score his music for a larger band. He died in 1972, aged 52.
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Criss-Cross, the quartet at its best
Criss-Cross Thelonious Monk · Columbia CL 2038 · 1963
The last step comes back to the Columbia quartet. Criss-Cross was made from November 1962 to March 1963, during and just after the sessions for the record that opened this path, and released in August 1963. It is all older Monk tunes recorded again, plus two standards. Some critics have faulted the Columbia years for repeating familiar music; others hear a band that had played together for about four years and knew every corner of it. Now that you know where these tunes came from, you can judge for yourself.
Start with
- Hackensack
- Don't Blame Me
- Crepuscule With Nellie
"Hackensack" is named for the New Jersey town where Van Gelder recorded so much of the 1950s. "Don't Blame Me" is solo piano: asked whether he would play it alone, Monk said it depended on how he felt when he got there, then recorded it as soon as he arrived. Compare "Crepuscule with Nellie" with the septet version.
In the band
Frankie Dunlop · drums
Frankie Dunlop, from Buffalo, came from a musical family and was playing drums professionally at 16. Before Monk he worked with Sonny Stitt, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and Maynard Ferguson. He was Monk's drummer from 1960 to 1964, the time he is best remembered for, and his crisp, playful time suits this band. He later played with Earl Hines and Lionel Hampton.
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