Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Al McKibbon, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Kai Winding - The Giants Of Jazz at Discogs Allen's Alley (Be Bop Tune) 8:23 Thelonious Monk Bebop One of the main styles of jazz It was first developed in the early and mid-1940s by such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, and Max Roach. During the 1950s and 1960s the term "bop" was used more generally to encompass also the various substyles that grew out of the original genre: cool jazz, West Coast jazz, hard bop, soul jazz, and funk. The word "bop" is a shortened form of the vocables (nonsense syllables) "bebop" or "rebop," which were commonly used in scat singing. Although bop was solidly grounded in earlier jazz styles ( New Orleans jazz and swing), it represented a marked increase in complexity, and was considered revolutionary at the time of its development.

Perhaps its most significant characteristic was the highly diversified texture created by the rhythm section - a considerable contrast to the insistent four-beat approach that was taken by swing musicians. In the newer style, the basic beat was stated by the double bass player and elaborated by the drummer on ride cymbal and hi-hat while a variety of on- and off-beat punctuations were added on the piano, bass drum (see Bomb), and snare drum. These punctuations sometimes reinforced and sometimes complemented the melody, causing much rhythmic interplay during improvised solos; spurred on by an active rhythm section, the best bop soloists were adept at extemporizing rapid melodies filled with asymmetrical phrases and accent patterns. The bop style used an enriched harmonic vocabulary, which made far more frequent use of altered 9th, 11th, and 13th chords than earlier jazz. Moreover, since many bop themes and improvisations were based largely on such chords, the melodies of bop were also more complex (i.e., more chromatic) than those of swing.

Many early bop themes, such as Ornithology (Parker and Little Benny Harris), Anthropology (Parker and Gillespie), Groovin' High (Gillespie), Donna Lee (Parker), and Hot House (Gillespie), were intricate melodies based on the harmonic structures of earlier popular songs. However, by the late 1940s the most common themes had become simpler, and some were even based on the overworked swing-era device known as the riff (e.g., Milt Jackson's Bag's Groove and Clifford Brown's Blues Walk). The shift from complex to simple themes had no effect on the procedures followed by the rhythm section or the style of the improvised solos. Other developments did cause slight alterations in the character of the music. In the late 1940s and 1950s, for example, a number of bop musicians (Miles Davis, Lee Konitz, Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Milt Jackson, and John Lewis, among others) began playing in a soft, subtle manner later called Cool jazz.

From the mid-1950s other bop players (including Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, and Art Blakey) began incorporating folk elements from the blues and black gospel traditions into their playing, attracting such labels as Hard bop, Soul jazz, and funk. In most cases the differences between the parent style and these subspecies were too minor to warrant reference to distinct styles. Bop players generally rejected the elaborate written arrangements of swing music for a straightforward pattern: a unison statement of the theme followed by a string of improvised solos, then a concluding unison statement (see Forms, Bop). They also preferred to work in small groups, a typical instrumentation being that of the quintet led by Charlie Parker (trumpet, saxophone, piano, double bass, and drums). (For further discussion of bop ensembles see Bands, Bop bands.) Nonetheless, some big bands that were formed in the 1940s (notably those led by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie), played in the bop style, but these were short lived.

Permanent inroads into the big-band style were made in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when swing bandleaders such as Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, and Count Basie began employing younger bop musicians. Arrangers and players, finding that bop rhythm sections could support large brass and reed sections, and that the harmonies of swing-style riffs could be modernized, developed ways of fusing the two styles. Later bop bands, among others those led by Gil Evans, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Louie Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, and Rob McConnell, gained widespread acceptance in the jazz world. In addition to the aforementioned musicians, other important American bop players include Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, J. J.

Johnson, Bob Brookmeyer, Sonny Stitt, Jackie McLean, Art Pepper, Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Serge Chaloff, Pepper Adams, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, George Benson, Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, Percy Heath, Charles Mingus, Philly Joe Jones, Shelly Manne, and Elvin Jones. From the late 1940s musicians outside the USA began to perform in the bop style. Some emigrated to America and competed successfully with the native-born players: George Shearing and Victor Feldman from England, Joe Zawinul from Austria, Toshiko Akiyoshi from Japan, Bobby Jaspar and Toots Thielemans from Belgium, Valery Ponomarev from the USSR, and George Mraz from Czechoslovakia.

Others earned a position of respect while working principally outside the USA: the British players Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, and John Dankworth, the Swedes Lars Gullin and Arne Domnï¿½rus the Dane Niels-Henningï¿½rsted Pedersen, the Germans Joki Freund and Albert Mangelsdorff, the Spaniard Tete Montoliu, the Algerian Martial Solal, the Canadian Rob McConnell, and the Japanese Sleepy Matsumoto and Sadao Watanabe, among others. The Canadian Oscar Peterson, who has performed internationally throughout his career, has become one of the best known of all jazz musicians. Bop was overshadowed from around the late 1950s to the mid-1970s by other new styles: modal jazz, free jazz, jazz-rock Latin jazz, and fusions of jazz and soul music.

While some players, including Gillespie, Monk, the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Silver, Smith, Mulligan, Griffin, Gordon, and, most fervently, Blakey, remained faithful to bop, other major figures turned to the new genres, among them Davis, Coltrane, Pepper, Woods, Rollins, Benson, Mingus, and Elvin Jones. A new generation of innovative musicians, many of whom were not skilled at playing bop, had also appeared. From the late 1970s, however, there has been frequent mention in jazz literature of a bop revival. It has been marked by specific events: for example, the expatriates Gordon and Griffin returned to the USA and took part in performances that were highly acclaimed; Woods formed a quartet (later a quintet) that proved long lived; free-jazz musicians such as Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders began to perform and record bop; a formidable new player, Wynton Marsalis, became an articulate spokesman for the style.

More generally, the bop revival is distinguished by the perception that the once revolutionary bop style has become - together with New Orleans jazz and swing, and in contrast to the newer styles - a "classic" jazz genre.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Thomas Owens The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, ï¿½ Macmillan Reference Ltd 1988 The History of Jazz Music.

Thelonious Monk: biography, discography, review, links Links to other sites Thelonious Monk (1917) was not only the most cerebral pianist to enter the history of jazz music but also the greatest composer of the bebop era. Epistrophy (1942) and the immortal Round about Midnight (1944) were composed for the orchestra of Cootie Williams, I Mean You (1946) for Coleman Hawkins' band. 52nd Street Theme (june 1945) became a classic of bebop when it was recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. At the same time that his compositions were leaving a mark on the transition from swing to bebop, his piano style (in Coleman Hawkins' band that he had joined in 1944) was confusing the audience. It was a style that sounded outside the jazz tradition, not only eccentric but also laconic, almost counterproductive in the way it emphasized the pauses instead of the rhythm, and clustered chords instead of linear development.

His recordings of his own compositions established a higher musical standard than jazz music was used to: 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); 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); the ballad Monk's Mood (november 1947) for a trumpet-sax-piano quintet; Evidence (july 1948) and the bluesy Misterioso (july 1948) for a piano quartet with Milt Jackson on vibraphone. Monk's art was a calibrated balance of deconstruction and estrangement techniques.

On one hand, one could still hear elements of stride jazz, boogie-woogie, blues, even nursery rhymes, although they were diluted in an anarchic patchwork of overtones. On the other hand, the listener was disoriented by the fragile, naked ambiguity of the music. That ambiguity would disappear if one could only appreciate the hidden orchestral quality of Monk's piano playing. A piano quintet with Jackson on vibraphone, Sahib Shihab on alto sax, Blakey on drums, yielded 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). A quintet with French horn player Julius Watkins, Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, Percy Heath on bass, was immortalized on the album Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (november 1953) with Friday the 13th (1953) and Think of One (1953), based on an ostinato trick similar to Thelonious.

Hackensack (may 1954) and Locomotive (may 1954), with a 20-bar chorus, were due to a quintet of trumpet, tenor sax, piano, drums and bass. In the piano-trio format favored by his friend Bud Powell, Monk sculpted Bemsha Swing (december 1952), the Caribbean-sounding Monk's Dream (october 1952), Nutty (september 1954), Blue Monk (september 1954) and the dissonant Work (september 1954). Max Roach drummed on the first one, Blakey on all the others. In the meantime, jazz music had entered the age of the album. his first solo album, Thelonious Monk (june 1954) offered solo-piano versions of his early classics, including Eronel (1951) and Reflections (1953).

After two albums of covers, Monk was allowed to make the album that he was capable of, Brilliant Corners (october 1956), a set of complex chamber pieces for tenor saxophone (Sonny Rollins), alto saxophone (Ernie Henry), bass (Oscar Pettiford), drums (Max Roach) and piano, notably Brilliant Corners and Pannonica, in which Monk played both piano and celeste. This was to remain his masterpiece. Jazz Connection (may 1957) with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers revisited several of his classics, as did Monk's Music (june 1957), featuring Ray Copeland on trumpet, Coleman Hawkins and Gigi Gryce on saxes, Blakey on drums and Wilbur Ware on bass. Thelonious Himself (april 1957) was mostly solo interpretations.

Another historical collaboration, with the young John Coltrane, documented on Live at the Five Spot (may 1957), only released in 1993, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (july 1957), only released in 1991, and At Carnegie Hall (november 1957), only released in 2005, that paired two completely opposite souls (the reclusive philosopher and the cosmic virtuoso), yielded a spectacular version of Monk's Trinkle Tinkle and his moving ballad Crepuscule With Nellie. After Mulligan Meets Monk (august 1957) with Gerry Mulligan and other minor collaborations, Monk joined in a quartet with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin that recorded Thelonious in Action (july 1958) and especially Misterioso (august 1958). The repertory was now fossilized: Monk kept repeating his themes of the golden years. Monk died in 1982 at 65.

(Translation by/ Tradotto da Martino Valbusa) Thelonious Monk (1917) � stato non solo il pianista pi� cerebrale ad entrare nella storia della musica jazz, ma anche il maggiore compositore del periodo bebop. Epistrophy (1942) e l�immortale Round about Midnight (1944) furono composte per l'orchestra di Cootie Williams, I Mean You (1946) per la band di Coleman Hawkins. 52nd Street Theme (giugno 1945) divenne un classico del bebop quando fu registrato da Dizzy Gillespie e Charlie Parker. Nello stesso periodo in cui le composizioni di Monk stavano lasciando un segno sulla transizione dallo swing al bebop, il suo stile pianistico (nella band di Coleman Hawkins a cui si era unito nel 1944) confondeva il pubblico.

Era uno stile che sembrava al di fuori della tradizione jazz, non solo eccentrico ma anche laconico, quasi controproducente nel modo in cui sottolineava le pause anzich� il ritmo e preferiva grappoli di accordi allo sviluppo lineare.

Con le proprie composizioni Monk elev� lo standard a cui la musica jazz era abituata: Humph (ottobre 1947) e Thelonious (ottobre 1947), con la sua geometria quasi classica mentre impiega sia silenzio sia dissonanza, per un sestetto con piano (Idrees Sulieman alla tromba, Danny Quebec West al sax alto, Billy Smith al sax tenore, Gene Ramey al basso, Art Blakey alla batteria); Well You Needn�t (ottobre 1947), Off Minor (ottobre 1947) e la tenera ballad Ruby My Dear (ottobre 1947) per un trio (con Art Blakey alla batteria); la ballad Monk�s Mood (novembre 1947) per quintetto con tromba-sax-pianoforte; Evidence (luglio 1948) e il bluesy Misterioso (luglio 1948) per un quartetto con pianoforte (con Milt Jackson al vibrafono).

L'arte di Monk era un calibrato equilibrio di tecniche di decostruzione e di straniamento. Da un lato si potevano ancora sentire gli elementi di stride jazz, boogie-woogie, blues, persino filastrocche, anche se diluite in un miscuglio anarchico di armonie secondarie. Dall�altro lato l'ascoltatore restava disorientato dalla fragile, nuda ambiguit� della musica, un�ambiguit� che svaniva solo riuscendo ad apprezzare la nascosta qualit� orchestrale del modo in cui Monk suonava il pianoforte. Il piano quintet con Jackson al vibrafono, Sahib Shihab al sax alto e Blakey alla batteria suon� la romantica ballad Ask Me Now (luglio 1951), il blues Straight No Chaser (luglio 1951), Four in One (luglio 1951) e Criss Cross (luglio 1951).

Un quintetto con Julius Watkins al corno francese, Sonny Rollins al sax tenore, Percy Heath al basso fu immortalato nell'album Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (novembre 1953) con Friday the 13th (1953) e Think of One (1953), basato su un�ostinata trovata simile a Thelonious. Hackensack (maggio 1954) e Locomotive (maggio 1954), con un ritornello di 20 battute, si devono ad un quintetto di tromba, sax tenore, pianoforte, batteria e basso. Nel formato piano-trio caro al suo amico Bud Powell, Monk scolp� Bemsha Swing (dicembre 1952), la �caraibica� Monk�s Dream (ottobre 1952), Nutty (settembre 1954), Blue Monk (settembre 1954) e il dissonante Work (settembre 1954).

Max Roach suon� la batteria sul primo brano, Blakey sugli altri. Nel frattempo la musica jazz era entrata nell'era dell'album. Il suo primo album da solista, Thelonious Monk (giugno 1954) offriva versioni pianistiche dei suoi primi classici, tra cui Eronel (1951) e Reflections (1953). Dopo due album di cover, a Monk fu permesso di fare l'album di cui era capace, Brilliant Corners (ottobre 1956), una serie di complessi pezzi cameristici per sassofono tenore (Sonny Rollins), sax alto (Ernie Henry), basso (Oscar Pettiford), batteria (Max Roach) e pianoforte, in particolare Brilliant Corners e Pannonica, in cui Monk suonava sia il pianoforte sia la celesta. Brilliant Corners sarebbe diventato il capolavoro di Monk.

Jazz Connection (maggio 1957) coi Jazz Messengers di Art Blakey rivisit� molti dei suoi classici, cos� come fece Monk�s Music (giugno 1957), con Ray Copeland alla tromba, Coleman Hawkins e Gigi Gryce ai sax, Blakey alla batteria e Wilbur Ware al basso. Thelonious Himself (aprile 1957) fu per lo pi� una collezione di interpretazioni da solista.

Un�altra storica collaborazione con un giovane John Coltrane, documentata su Live at the Five Spot (maggio 1957) pubblicato solo nel 1993, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (luglio 1957) pubblicato solo nel 1991, e At Carnegie Hall (novembre 1957) pubblicato solo nel 2005, collaborazione che mise insieme due anime completamente opposte (il filosofo eremita e il virtuoso cosmico), produsse una versione spettacolare di Monk Trinkle Tinkle e la commovente ballad Crepuscule With Nellie. Dopo Mulligan Meets Monk (agosto 1957) con Gerry Mulligan e altre collaborazioni minori, Monk si un� in quartetto col sassofonista Johnny Griffin e registr� Thelonious in Action (luglio 1958) e soprattutto Misterioso (agosto 1958).

Il repertorio era ormai fossilizzato: Monk continu� a ripetere i suoi temi degli anni d'oro. Monk mor� nel 1982 a 65 anni. Jazz trumpet virtuoso Dizzy Gillespie started bebop Dizzy Gillespie took trumpet playing to a new level and co-founded Be-Bop - the next jazz language after Swing Dizzy Gillespie is a major player in jazz history. He helped found Be-Bop. His big band produced the first successful fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz. He was perhaps the greatest virtuoso on jazz trumpet. Dizzy Gillespie was born John Birks Gillespie on October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was the youngest child of nine children and his father was a bricklayer, musician and band leader. The elder Birks encouraged all of his children to learn to play music and the instruments for his bands were kept in the home. However, his first eight children did not show any great talent for music. His youngest child eventually made up for the older eight in musical talent.

When young Dizzy tried to learn to play trombone, his arms were too short to reach all of the slide positions. So, he taught himself trumpet instead. In 1930, when he was learning to play trumpet, Gillespie heard The Teddy Hill Orchestra broadcasting live from the Savoy Ballroom in New York. He fell in love with the band and especially with the playing of trumpeter, Roy Eldridge. Young Dizzy Gillespie decided he wanted to be a jazz trumpet player like his idol, Roy Eldridge. After graduating from his local school in 1933, Gillespie was awarded a scholarship to a tiny black prep school - Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. He attended Laurinburg and played music there for two years until his family moved to Philadelphia in 1935. Dizzy left school and moved to Philadelphia getting his first fulltime musician's job with Frankie Fairfax's band in Philadelphia. While gigging in Philadelphia he learned all of his idol Roy Eldridge's solos from records and broadcasts. In 1937 Dizzy Gillespie moved to New York and took Roy Eldridge's place in the Teddy Hill Orchestra.

His first recording was made that year with Hill : "King Porter Stomp". He also met a chorus girl from the Apollo Theatre named Lorraine whom he married in 1940 and with whom he stayed married until his death in 1993. Gillespie left Teddy Hill's band after about a year and free-lanced for a year. Cuban trumpet player, Mario Bauza, then helped Dizzy join Cab Calloway's big band in 1939. He stayed in this popular band until 1941 and one can hear the development of his playing in the short solos he took in his recordings with Calloway. Cab Calloway did not like his style of playing nor his love of humor and practical jokes. In a famous incident in 1941, Calloway was hit in the back of the head by a spitball thrown by another musician and blamed Gillespie for throwing it. They argued strongly about it and that argument ended with with Cab receiving a knife cut that require stitches and with Dizzy being fired. During his tenure with Calloway, he began writing big-band arrangements for Woody Herman, Jimmy Dorsey and others.

He became friends with alto saxophonist, Charlie "Bird" Parker . He began sitting in at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's in Harlem with emerging bebop stars Bird, pianist Thelonius Monk, drummer Kenney Clarke, Guitarist Charlie Christian , and with swing stars Roy Eldridge , Coleman Hawkins , Lester Young , Benny Goodman, Ben Webster and others. Dizzy Gillespie was not highly regarded by most established trumpet stars at this time. The established swing trumpet players focused on good tone and intonation. He was focusing on harmonic evolution and had a rather thin tone. His tone got better later on. From 1941 to 1943 Gillespie played in several big bands, including Benny Carter, Lucky Millander, Charlie Barnet and Earl Hines. Gillespie and Bird Parker were together in the Earl Hines big band and also in the Billy Eckstine big band of 1944. In 1945 Dizzy left the collapsing Billy Eckstine big band to return to small combo playing.

From the early jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse as the 1930s were closing until 1944 a new form of jazz was being developed by Gillespie, Parker, Monk and others. A small combo would consist of typically five musicians - trumpet, sax, piano, bass and drums. New melodies were superimposed over the chord structures of classic jazz songs. The trumpet and sax would begin a number by playing in unison at breakneck speed. Melodies and improvisations were often harmonically based on the upper intervals of the chord changes. Dizzy and Bird were playing 9ths, 11ths, 13ths and creating a new kind of jazz harmony and rhythm. It was called be-bop. In 1944 the first acknowledged be-bop recording featured Coleman Hawkins and Gillespie. In May, 1945 Gillespie led a combo with Chalie Parker (alto sax), Al Haig (piano), Curly Russell (bass) and Sid Catlett (drums). This All Star Combo recorded highly influential bebop tracks including "Shaw 'Nuff", "Salt Peanuts" and "HotHouse". The history and development of jazz is organic and evolutionary.

However a ban on recording in the early 1940s, instigated by the Musician's Union, prevented most other musicians and the public from hearing the development of bebop from swing. The 1945 recordings seemed revolutionary and bebop was decried by many leading musicians and critics and it received a mixed reaction from audiences. No longer dance music, jazz became a more intellectual music for listeners. Mario Bauza got Gillespie into Cab Calloway's big band and showed Gillespie how to really blow his horn. He also sparked a growing interest in Afro-Cuban rhythms by Dizzy. In 1946 he re-formed a big band and added Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo. Gillespie created the first successful synthesis of jazz and Afro-Cuban music. "Manteca" and "Cuban Be - Cubana Bop" are two of the best known recordings of this start of Latin jazz. In the 1940s Dizzy Gillespie created a new standard in trumpet virtuosity with his range and dramatic command of the instrument and his suppleness of rhythm, unevenly spaced phrases and complex, chromatically augmented runs played at breathtaking speed.

Many consider him the greatest trumpeter of them all. He and others also established bebop as a style of jazz for both small combos and big bands. He taught and influenced many other musicians including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro , Clifford Brown , Lee Morgan and John Faddis. After his tremendous creative output of the 1940s, Dizzy Gillespie continued to play and lead at an extremely high level. He played mostly in small combos but sometimes resurrected a big band and performed until shortly before his death in 1992. Like Louis Armstrong before him, Dizzy Gillespie influenced players on all instruments. Like Armstrong he created a new trumpet style. Armstrong largely created swing which became the musical language of small groups and big bands. Gillespie and others created bebop which became the next language of small groups and big bands. All of jazz is richer because of John Birks Gillespie.

Recommended Listening: Bird and Diz (1950) - Early Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie quintet with relatively good sound production The Complete RCA Victor Recordings: 1947-1949 - Includes Dizzy's big band with Chano Pozo - both a bop big band and the start of Latin jazz Thelonious Monk | Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Contact Us About Us - Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982) is recognized as one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz. He was one of the architects of bebop and his impact as a composer and pianist has had a profound influence on every genre of music. Monk was born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, but his parents, Barbara Batts and Thelonious Monk, soon moved the family to New York City. Monk began piano lessons as a young child and by the age of 13 he had won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was barred from entering.

At the age of 19, Monk joined the house band at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where along with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and a handful of other players, he developed the style of jazz that came to be known as bebop. Monk’s compositions, among them “Round Midnight,” were the canvasses upon which these legendary soloists expressed their musical ideas. In 1947, Monk made his first recordings as a leader for Blue Note. These albums are some of the earliest documents of his unique compositional and improvisational style, both of which employed unusual repetition of phrases, an offbeat use of space, and joyfully dissonant sounds. That same year, he married his longtime love Nellie Smith and they later had two children, Thelonious, Jr. and Barbara (1954-1984). In the decade that followed, Monk played on recordings with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins and recorded as a leader for Prestige Records and later for Riverside Records. Brilliant Corners and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane were two of the albums from this period that brought Monk international attention as a pianist and composer.

In 1957, the Thelonious Monk Quartet, which included John Coltrane, began a regular gig at the Five Spot. The group’s performances were hugely successful and received the highest critical praise. Over the next few years, Monk toured the United States and Europe and made some of his most influential recordings. In 1964, Monk appeared on the cover of Time magazine, an honor that has been bestowed on only three other jazz musicians. By this time, Monk was a favorite at jazz festivals around the world, where he performed with his quartet, which included longtime associate Charlie Rouse. In the early ’70s, he discontinued touring and recording and appeared only on rare occasions at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival. Thelonious Sphere Monk passed away on February 17, 1982. His more than 70 compositions are classics that continue to inspire artists in all genres of music. During his lifetime, Monk received numerous awards and he continues to be honored posthumously. The Smithsonian Institution has immortalized Monk’s work with an archive of his music. In addition, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor.

A feature documentary on Monk’s life, Straight, No Chaser, was released to critical acclaim. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was founded to honor Monk by preserving the music to which he dedicated his life. Monk’s integrity, originality, and unique approach set a standard that is a shining example for all who strive for musical excellence. Thelonious Monk | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by Scott Yanow The most important jazz musicians are the ones who are successful in creating their own original world of music with its own rules, logic, and surprises. Thelonious Monk , who was criticized by observers who failed to listen to his music on its own terms, suffered through a decade of neglect before he was suddenly acclaimed as a genius; his music had not changed one bit in the interim. In fact, one of the more remarkable aspects of Monk 's music was that it was fully formed by 1947 and he saw no need to alter his playing or compositional style in the slightest during the next 25 years. Thelonious Monk grew up in New York, started playing piano when he was around five, and had his first job touring as an accompanist to an evangelist.

He was inspired by the Harlem stride pianists ( James P. Johnson was a neighbor) and vestiges of that idiom can be heard in his later unaccompanied solos. However, when he was playing in the house band of Minton's Playhouse during 1940-1943, Monk was searching for his own individual style. Private recordings from the period find him sometimes resembling Teddy Wilson but starting to use more advanced rhythms and harmonies. He worked with Lucky Millinder a bit in 1942 and was with the Cootie Williams Orchestra briefly in 1944 ( Williams recorded Monk 's "Epistrophy" in 1942 and in 1944 was the first to record "'Round Midnight"), but it was when he became Coleman Hawkins ' regular pianist that Monk was initially noticed. He cut a few titles with Hawkins (his recording debut) and, although some of Hawkins ' fans complained about the eccentric pianist, the veteran tenor could sense the pianist's greatness. The 1945-1954 period was very difficult for Thelonious Monk .

Because he left a lot of space in his rhythmic solos and had an unusual technique, many people thought that he was an inferior pianist. His compositions were so advanced that the lazier bebop players (although not Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker ) assumed that he was crazy. And Thelonious Monk 's name, appearance (he liked funny hats), and personality (an occasionally uncommunicative introvert) helped to brand him as some kind of nut. Fortunately, Alfred Lion of Blue Note believed in him and recorded Monk extensively during 1947-1948 and 1951-1952. He also recorded for Prestige during 1952-1954, had a solo set for Vogue in 1954 during a visit to Paris, and appeared on a Verve date with Bird and Diz . But work was very sporadic during this era and Monk had to struggle to make ends meet. His fortunes slowly began to improve. In 1955, he signed with Riverside and producer Orrin Keepnews persuaded him to record an album of Duke Ellington tunes and one of standards so his music would appear to be more accessible to the average jazz fan.

In 1956 came the classic Brilliant Corners album, but it was the following year when the situation permanently changed. Monk was booked into the Five Spot for a long engagement and he used a quartet that featured tenor saxophonist John Coltrane . Finally, the critics and then the jazz public recognized Thelonious Monk 's greatness during this important gig. The fact that he was unique was a disadvantage a few years earlier when all modern jazz pianists were expected to sound like Bud Powell (who was ironically a close friend), but by 1957 the jazz public was looking for a new approach. Suddenly, Monk was a celebrity and his status would not change for the remainder of his career. In 1958, his quartet featured the tenor of Johnny Griffin (who was even more compatible than Coltrane ), in 1959 he appeared with an orchestra at Town Hall (with arrangements by Hall Overton ), in 1962 he signed with Columbia and two years later was on the cover of Time.

A second orchestra concert in 1963 was even better than the first and Monk toured constantly throughout the 1960s with his quartet which featured the reliable tenor of Charlie Rouse . He played with the Giants of Jazz during 1971-1972, but then in 1973 suddenly retired. Monk was suffering from mental illness and, other than a few special appearances during the mid-'70s, he lived the rest of his life in seclusion. After his death it seemed as if everyone was doing Thelonious Monk tributes. There were so many versions of "'Round Midnight" that it was practically a pop hit! But despite the posthumous acclaim and attempts by pianists ranging from Marcus Roberts to Tommy Flanagan to recreate his style, there was no replacement for the original.

Some of Thelonious Monk 's songs became standards early on, most notably "'Round Midnight," "Straight No Chaser," "52nd Street Theme," and "Blue Monk." Many of his other compositions have by now been figured out by other jazz musicians and are occasionally performed including "Ruby My Dear," "Well You Needn't," "Off Minor," "In Walked Bud," "Misterioso," "Epistrophy," "I Mean You," "Four in One," "Criss Cross," "Ask Me Now," "Little Rootie Tootie," "Monk's Dream," "Bemsha Swing," "Think of One," "Friday the 13th," "Hackensack," "Nutty," "Brilliant Corners," "Crepuscule With Nellie" (written for his strong and supportive wife), "Evidence," and "Rhythm-a-Ning," Virtually all of Monk 's recordings (for Blue Note, Prestige, Vogue, Riverside, Columbia, and Black Lion) have been reissued and among his sidemen through the years were Idrees Sulieman , Art Blakey , Milt Jackson , Lou Donaldson , Lucky Thompson , Max Roach , Julius Watkins ,

 Sonny Rollins , Clark Terry , Gerry Mulligan , John Coltrane , Wilbur Ware , Shadow Wilson , Johnny Griffin , Donald Byrd , Phil Woods , Thad Jones , and Charlie Rouse .

His son Thelonious Monk, Jr. ( T.S. Monk ) has helped keep the hard bop tradition alive with his quintet and has headed the Thelonious Monk Institute, whose yearly competitions succeed in publicizing talented young players. Thelonious Monk: In His Own Style | | My Piano Riffs Thelonious Monk: In His Own Style October 29, 2009 admin Jazz For You 0 Thelonious Monk Quartetâ€™s 1963 album on Columbia Records. Playing and Performance Style Thelonious Monk is always mentioned with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie as a founder of modern jazz, but Monkâ€™s style is not at all like the other musicians of his time. Unusual approaches to harmony, melody, and rhythm give Monk a particular asymmetry that continues to be a heavy influence on the music scene. Many of Monkâ€™s harmonic ideas were influenced by Art Tatum, whose chords were strengthened by the use of varied voicings, added notes, passing chords and substitutions. While Parker and Gillespie liked to hear these types of chord sequences as background for their solos, Monk seems to have taken Tatumâ€™s approach to another level.

By using uncommon substitutions and displacing the harmonic rhythm, Monkâ€™s chords have a sense of deliberate conflict. Some people speculate that a reason for his sour harmonies are a result of early attempts at playing stride when his hands were still too small to hit a clean octave. Monkâ€™s artistic vision was very strong. He knew exactly what he wanted to play and how he wanted to play it. His playing was so unique and so self-contained that many jazz musicians and listeners didnâ€™tÂ know what to make of it. Many bebop players of Monkâ€™s time were playing fast, smooth rhythms, trying to fit in the maximum number of notes. Monk, in contrast, embraced space and simplicity in his playing and was able to outline his pieces with a minimal amount of notes. His playing sounded rough and angular in comparison to someone like his friend Bud Powell. It took nearly a generation for Monkâ€™s more obscure pieces to become a regular part of jazz repertoire. Monk was indeed eccentric, both in his playing and social habits. He made no distinction between seriousness and humor in his musical statements, and critics easily dismissed him. During interviews he seemed aloof and would often go for days without speaking to a soul.

He was criticized for dressing unusually, wearing strange hats, eyeglasses and topcoats (even when indoors). During gigs, Monk often got up and danced while the rest of the band was playing. â€œâ€¦he would rise from the piano to perform his Monkish dance. It is always the same. His feet stir in a soft shuffle, spinning him slowly in small circles. His head rolls back until hat brim meets collar, while with both hands he twists his goatee into a sharp black scabbard. His eyes are hooded with an abstract sleepiness, his lips are pursed in a meditative O,â€ describes Barry Farrell in his 1964 Time Magazine article. Some suggest that Monkâ€™s dancing was almost as great as his writing or playing. When asked about it, Monk replied, â€œI get tired of sitting at the piano. I can dig the rhythm better.â€ The media had a tendency to report on his bizarre habits more frequently than his musical endeavors. Each of Monkâ€™s compositions have a personality that can be difficult for a perfomer to bring out, despite their seemingly simple qualities. He was an absolute master of the AABA form.

Some of his contributions include : â€˜Ask Me Nowâ€™, â€˜Little Rootie Tootieâ€™, â€˜Evidenceâ€™, â€˜Rhythm-A-Ningâ€™, and â€˜Well You Neednâ€™tâ€™. Monk didnâ€™t give much instruction or direction to his band, and musicians sometimes had a hard time following. So complicated are some of Monkâ€™s space-filled, harmonically advanced compositions that very few musicians are able to truly represent them. Orrin Keepnews, from an interview on NPR explains, â€œâ€¦the problem that musicians had, right along with me, is that this was incredibly difficult music and Monk was a man who I believe sincerely did not understand that it was difficult music.â€ COMPOSITION ANALYSIS â€˜ROUND MIDNIGHT (1947) Monk composed this well-known jazz ballad when he was in his teens. The version I have included is based on his 1947 Blue Note recording, as transcribed by Lionel Grigson.

He notes the following alterations from the recording: â€œ1) The overlapping alto sax and trumpet phrases of the recorded intro have been replaced by a single top line, above the piano part as played. Bars 7 and 8 of the intro a double bass break. 2) The theme, taken by piano, is given as played, but th harmony parts played by trumpet and sax have been omitted. As played by Monk, the theme soon turn into a paraphrase/improvisation. An â€˜averageâ€™ version of the melody has been added as a top line above the piano part for comparison. 3) The recording finishes, oddly, with an 8-bar piano solo after the theme. Empty staves and chord symbols have been added to make up a full chorus. 4) This version is rounded off with the coda used in various non-Monk recordings ofÂ â€˜Round Midnight, e.g. those by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis.

(This coda may be by Gillespie rather than Monk).â€ Original Key: Eb minor Form: AABA 32 bars (8+8+8+8) plus intro Tonality: Primarily minor, with a parallel major tonic chord at the end of A2 and B. Movement: A mixture of arpeggiation, leaps, and chromatic movement in both direction Harmonic Analysis Intro: Gm-Fm-Ebm descending progression. There is a segment of the intro melody that bares a striking resemblance to Dizzy Gillespieâ€™s solo in â€˜I Canâ€™t Get Started.â€™ (Ken Burns Jazz Series, track 4, 2:38). Itâ€™s possible that the melody was a common riff of the period, or perhaps it was borrowed from an even older song. Also interesting to note are the overall similariteies in the melodic contour and pacing of these two compositions. See index. The initial harmonic progression is i â€“ vi â€“ ii7 â€“ V7. The next two measures are unique; the progression leads to a brief key change to Ab (subdominant). This modulation provides some nice descending guide-tones.

The progression is Bm7- E7 â€“ Bbm7 â€“ Eb7. The Bm7 and the E7 are upper embellishments of the V7 â€“ I7 (V7 of IV). The B-section sounds more confusing than it is. Itâ€™s based on a vi7(b5) â€“ II7 â€“ V7 progression. There is a tritone sub for the II7 so that the bass line can descend chromatically. This repeats twice then continues down. On the ending of A2, Monk has condensed the harmonic rhythm, most likely so that he has room to resolve to Eb in measure 16. This play on compression and expansion is a common trait in his compositional style. Itâ€™s also evident in the melody of â€˜Straight, No Chaser,â€™ and the rhythm in â€˜Blue Monk.â€™ The resolution at the end of the B-section is an Eb major chord, or a â€œPicardy thirdâ€ even though the previous theme has been minor. This is a common technique used in songwriting that dates back as far as the Renaissance.

We see the Eb major again in measure 21, beats 3 & 4. In addition to making the end of the B-section sound more significant, it blurs the relationship between major and minor. In measure 24, beats 3 & 4, the chords could be perceived as part of Eb major or Eb melodic minor, another example of Monk blurring major and minor. Melodic Analysis The melody in the first bar outlines a Bb-suspended chord. Measure 3 outlines an Ebm7 with an added 6. The melodic contour of these two bars is the same, which is characteristic of Monk. Measure 7, beats 1 & 2 make use of unstable tritones against the root note. In measure 8, things stabilize: the root and melody note are the same, emphasizing the resolution. This whole pattern occurs again at the beginning of the B-section. The melody dances around the diminished 5th interval in measures 17 and 19. Both approach the root by [m7-3-R], but the second one descends to the root instead of going up. Monk likes to recycle melodic material.

The last 2 bars of A2 are different than than A1. Measures 15 &16 seem like inserted bonus material, delaying the measures we were expecting. The B-section then uses the missing end scraps from A2 as the beginning of the bridge, except that the first two beats have shifted rhythm. The 32nd notes blooming in the accompaniment are most likely a result of Monkâ€™s style and skill. His playing experience developed into a compositional tool. Rhythmic Analysis The rhythm in this piece is more song-like than the majority of Monkâ€™s music. It utilizes repeated rhythmic fragments which gives the listener something predictable to grab onto. The rhythm seems to alternate between two contrasting feels: dreamy (due to the rolling triplets) and precise (because of the sixteenth notes on beat 2). Another recurring pattern used is the long, lilting 32nd note runs to punctuate the phrase endings. Monk plays incomplete triplets in measure 13, which makes it sound like the piano part is tripping over itself. The horn line, which doesnâ€™t have a strong sense of downbeat itself, is further affected by the accompaniment.

All this creates a floating, slightly disorienting feel, yet still maintains a consistent song structure. And then, as consistent with the pattern, the long descending runs slam into a heavy downbeat. (ex. measure 8). WELL YOU NEEDNâ€™T (1944) Original Key: F major

Question: What style of jazz was pioneered by 'Dizzie' Gillespie and Thelonius Monk?
Answer: BEBOP