THELONIOUS MONK: A playlist of must-listen tracks.

Stride

Dissonance

Angular

Percussive

Clusters of notes

Quirky rhythms Blues

Arpeggios

Whole tone scales

Beautiful ‘off’ endings

These are descriptors that could apply to the piano playing of Thelonious Monk, whose prolific career spanned from the early 1940s to the mid 1970s. Bill Evans called him “…an exceptionally uncorrupted creative talent.”

Monk’s playing often defies description, but his sound is immediately recognizable. His unique style is most pure in his solo piano works. He recorded many tunes multiple times in different settings: solo, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, and larger bands. It is an enlightening exercise to go deeper, to compare and contrast each rendition. So, enough words. Let’s get to a playlist of some of his best tracks.

Solitude, off THELONIOUS MONK PLAYS DUKE ELLINGTON (1955): An early piano solo on a trio album designed to introduce Monk to the public through covers of Ellington’s tunes. Somewhat hesitatingly cautious, Solitude has much of the stylistic character that becomes refined during Monk’s career. A beautiful, tender, rendition.

I’m Getting Sentimental Over You. (MONK HIMSELF (1957)). An interpretive experiment, played with caution but in Monk’s inimitable style. The album MONK HIMSELF is one of his earliest solo albums.

‘Round Midnight: Probably Monk’s all-time most famous composition, co-composed by Cootie Williams and recorded many times in many settings. I suggest comparing two solo versions. First, the 6’40” experimental 1957 version, beautiful and contemplative, from MONK HIMSELF, and next, the shorter, tighter version on MONK’S GREATEST HITS album. For an extra treat, listen to Miles Davis’s recording from ‘ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT (with exceptionally sweet solos by Miles and John Coltrane).

ALONE IN SAN FRANCISCO (1959). The rich, clear, resonant sound of the piano in this recording rivals the best of modern digital recordings:

            Ruby, My Dear  A magnificent track. Uneven rhythm. Possibly the best ending of any of his solo recordings. Compare with the track on SOLO MONK (1965).

            Everything Happens To Me. This is one of Monk’s favorite tunes, recorded many times. Compare this track with the must-listen version on SOLO MONK.

            You Took The Words Right Out Of My Heart. Polytonality and cluster chords the likes of which no jazz ears had heard before. A gorgeous piece.

SOLO MONK (1965). This entire album is Monk at the height of his solo playing.

            Dinah. Monk’s stride left hand at its best. The liner notes call it a ‘spoof’. I don’t buy it, since Monk uses stride extensively throughout his career, in both his compositions and standards. I wonder if Monk got to read and approve the liner notes…

            I Surrender, Dear. What he does with his left hand—single notes that suggest entire chords—is so Monk. The little trill at the end…wonderful!

            Ruby, My Dear. An absolute must-listen track of one of his most famous compositions.

            I’m Confessin (That I Love You). Medium stride to state the melody, then solos over the form. I would nominate it for ‘best bridge in a jazz standard’.

            I Hadn’t Anyone Till You. Great Intro, beautiful stride, rich cluster chords, and a totally unique two-chord ending.

            Everything Happens To Me. A must-listen track of one of Monk’s favorite standards.

            Ask Me Now. Classic Monk composition. Cluster chords, stride, crazy wonderful arpeggios.

THE UNIQUE THELONIOUS MONK (1956). This is a trio album with Art Blakey on drums and Oscar Pettiford on bass. The trio adds a dimension to Monk’s playing without obscuring his style.

            Liza (All The Clouds’ll Roll Away). Simply delightful. Tasteful drumming by Blakey, including an excellent solo.

            Darn That Dream. Tender rendition with a short bass solo and great ending.

STRAIGHT, NO CHASER (1967) This is the quartet Monk used through much of his career, with Charlie Rouse on tenor, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drums.

            I Didn’t Know About You: Splendid Charlie Rouse tenor playing and Monk piano in this must-listen Duke Ellington tune. Interestingly, this tune has similarities in chord structure to another of Monk’s favorites, Everything Happens To Me.

            Straight, No Chaser. Anyone who has even a small interest in jazz needs to know this tune, one of Monk’s most famous, and played by every aspiring jazz player at every jam session around the world. Also listen to the track by Miles Davis at Newport: see http://whatwouldmilesdo.blogspot.com/2011/03/miles-davis.html.

UNDERGROUND (recorded 1967, released 1968). Same group as STRAIGHT, NO CHASER. I'd nominate UNDERGROUND as best album cover in a jazz record.

            Easy Street. This tune by A.R. Jones, played in trio format, embodies the sentiment of its title, with Monk’s playful embellishments. It moves along smoothly in a rhythm that makes you want to drop what you’re doing, hold your partner close, and dance in the kitchen.

            In Walked Bud. You absolutely have to listen to this track to hear Jon Hendricks’ vocals and scat solo that swings as hard as any jazz vocalist has ever swung.

There it is. A mere nineteen tunes, played or written by Thelonious Monk. They represent only a microscopic glimpse at his work, but some of the best playing and best recordings of his career. Explore more about Monk at http://www.monkinstitute.org/.

CHARLES LLOYD Forest Flower

 

          If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to choose my favorite jazz recording of all time, it would have to be Forest Flower by Charles Lloyd, the 1966 live recording at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

          The landmark performance took place out of doors, as so many of Charles Lloyd’s performances did in the 1960s at rock festivals around the world. The quartet included Charles Lloyd on tenor saxophone and flutes, Keith Jarrett on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Cecil McBee on string bass.

          The two-part piece starts with Sunrise, a somewhat lilting melody that weaves back and forth between a Latin-tinged beat and a straight-ahead jazz walking tempo. Charles Lloyd’s tenor work is exceptional throughout the first section, and DeJohnette’s drum solo is nothing short of sublime, but early on, Charles Lloyd hands the reins over to Keith Jarrett who delivers arguably the best jazz piano solo ever performed by anybody, before or after.

          In the second part, Sunset, Lloyd and Jarrett get into some serious, yet fanciful improvising over a gentle, slightly Latin vamp. Their tenor and piano solos each rise to intense highs that recede back to softer touches—Lloyd finishes with wispy double tones and Jarrett ends by plucking (beautifully) the piano strings. The tune gradually fades into the sunset to the approving applause of the audience.

          Sadly, being only fifteen years old at the time, I did not attend the Monterey Jazz Festival. I did see the quartet once in the late sixties at Eagles Auditorium in Seattle and remember being perplexed by the complicated sounds they were making and the guy with curly hair standing over the piano. Charles Lloyd found his way into the hippie rock scene during the sixties and I had the chance to hear him several times at rock festivals. His music was way too sophisticated for rock audiences at the time (myself included), but spoke to us nonetheless.

          I didn’t take jazz seriously until 1969; didn’t even hear Forest Flower until 1970. When I did, I immediately loved Charles Lloyd’s delicate attack, the way he could precede a note with a fairy-like arpeggio way up and back down to the melody note, and the way he played off key, a bit flat, to create an emotional strength more powerful than if he played in tune.

          Charles Lloyd’s tenor playing, to my ear, was most influenced by John Coltrane, especially in the up-tempo works, but Lloyd went beyond Coltrane to his own unique sound. He is an absolute master of slow ballads, again with those floating glissando grace notes, plaintive, upward wisps of notes that fall back to the melody (listen to Song of Her, off the Forest Flower album). He also uses difficult-to-achieve sounds—double notes, false fingering, harmonics—throughout his playing. Charles Lloyd has continued in that inimitable style his entire career to this day.

          Whether or not you like all of Charles Lloyd’s work, the 1966 FOREST FLOWER album is seminal in the history of jazz. One more thing: in the middle of the Sunset section, while Jarrett is building momentum toward a waterfall of sound, you can hear a single engine Cessna fly by overhead. Sort of an inside joke. I wonder if the musicians thought so. And another thing: is there anyone out there who attended the concert who can tell me what someone yelled out from the audience toward the very end of Lloyd’s playing in Forest Flower, receiving a cluster of applause? I would love to know. 

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 Also: sample http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJQPvADWpsE
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