In the meantime, jazz music had entered the age of the album. Max Roach drummed on the first one, Blakey on all the others. Nutty (september 1954), Blue Monk (september 1954) and the dissonant Work (september 1954).
The Caribbean-sounding Monk's Dream (october 1952), In the piano-trio format favored by his friend Bud Powell, Monk sculpted Were due to a quintet of trumpet, tenor sax, piano, drums and bass. Hackensack (may 1954) and Locomotive (may 1954), with a 20-bar chorus, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (november 1953)įriday the 13th (1953) and Think of One (1953), based on an ostinato trick similar to Thelonious. The romantic ballad Ask Me Now (july 1951), the blues Straight No Chaser (july 1951), Four in One (july 1951) and Criss Cross (july 1951).Ī quintet with French horn player Julius Watkins, Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, Percy Heath on bass, was immortalized on the album Orchestral quality of Monk's piano playing.Ī piano quintet with Jackson on vibraphone, Sahib Shihab on alto sax, Blakey on drums, yielded That ambiguity would disappear if one could only appreciate the hidden On the other hand, the listener wasĭisoriented by the fragile, naked ambiguity of the music. On one hand, one could still hear elements of stride jazz,īoogie-woogie, blues, even nursery rhymes, although they were diluted inĪn anarchic patchwork of overtones. Monk's art was a calibrated balance of deconstruction and estrangement The ballad Monk's Mood (november 1947) for a trumpet-sax-piano quintet Įvidence (july 1948) and the bluesy Misterioso (july 1948) for a piano quartet with Milt Jackson on vibraphone. Well You Needn't (october 1947), Off Minor (october 1947) and the tender ballad Ruby My Dear (october 1947) for a trio (with Art Blakey on drums)
Humph (october 1947) and Thelonious (october 1947), that exhibits an almost classical geometry while employing both silence and dissonance, for a piano sextet (Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, Danny Quebec West on alto sax, Billy Smith on tenor sax, Gene Ramey on bass, Art Blakey on drums)
His recordings of his own compositions established a higher musical standard than jazz music was used to: It was a style that sounded outside the jazz tradition, not onlyĮccentric but also laconic, almost counterproductive in the way it emphasizedĪnd clustered chords instead of linear development. (in Coleman Hawkins' band that he had joined in 1944) I Mean You (1946) for Coleman Hawkins' band.ĥ2nd Street Theme (june 1945) became a classic of bebop when it was recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.Īt the same time that his compositions were leaving a mark on the transition from swing to bebop, his piano style Were composed for the orchestra of Cootie Williams, Of jazz music but also the greatest composer of the bebop era.Įpistrophy (1942) and the immortal Round about Midnight (1944) Thelonious Monk (1917) was not only the most cerebral pianist to enter the history (Sorry, no ratings for compositions before 1953) Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane (1957), 5/10 Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (1953), 6/10 ( Copyright © 1999-2019 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use) Thelonious Monk: biography, discography, review, ratings