Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music Volume 1
Released - March 1956
Recording and Session Information
WOR Studios, NYC, October 15, 1947
Idrees Suliman, trumpet; Danny Quebec West, alto sax; Billy Smith, tenor sax; Thelonious Monk, piano; Eugene Ramey, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
BN308-2 Humph
BN311-0 Thelonious
WOR Studios, NYC, October 24, 1947
Thelonious Monk, piano; Eugene Ramey, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
BN313-1 Ruby My Dear
BN314-0 Well You Needn't
BN315-1 April In Paris
BN317-1 Off Minor
BN316-3 Introspection
WOR Studios, NYC, November 21, 1947
George Taitt, trumpet; Edmund Gregory, alto sax; Thelonious Monk, piano; Robert Paige, bass; Art Blakey, drums.
BN318-3 In Walked Bud
BN321-1 'Round About Midnight
Apex Studios, NYC, July 2, 1948
Milton Jackson, vibes; Thelonious Monk, piano; John Simmons, bass; Shadow Wilson, drums.
BN329-0 Misterioso (as Mysterioso)
BN330-0 Epistrophy
BN331-1 I Mean You
Session Photos
Photos: Francis Wolff
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| Round Midnight (as "Round About Midnight") | Thelonious Monk | 21/11/1947 |
| Off Minor | Thelonious Monk | 24/10/1947 |
| Ruby my Dear | Thelonious Monk | 24/10/1947 |
| I Mean You | Thelonious Monk | 02/07/1948 |
| April In Paris | Duke-Harburg | 24/10/1947 |
| In Walked Bud | Thelonious Monk | 21/11/1947 |
| Side Two | ||
| Thelonious | Thelonious Monk | 15/10/1947 |
| Epistrophy | Thelonious Monk | 02/07/1948 |
| Misterioso | Thelonious Monk | 02/07/1948 |
| Well You Needn't | Thelonious Monk | 24/10/1947 |
| Introspection | Thelonious Monk | 24/10/1947 |
| Humph | Thelonious Monk | 15/10/1947 |
Credits
| Cover Photo: | FRANCIS WOLFF | ||
| Cover Design: |
| ||
| Engineer: | RUDY VAN GELDER | ||
| Producer: | ALFRED LION | ||
| Liner Notes: | IRA GITLER |
Liner Notes
THE DICTIONARY tells us that genius is exceptional natural capacity for creative and original conceptions and a genius is a person having such capacity. When considering the attributes of Thelonious Monk in the light of this definition, the title Genius Of Modern Music fits logically in all its aspects.
Monks creativity is not limited to only the melodic or the harmonic or the rhythmic but embraces all three.
His harmonic innovations (new chord) patterns and reinterpretations of older ones) were some of the most important germinating factors at Mintons. In fact Monk is synonymous with the Mintons of the earliest Forties because of the major role he played there in the birth of the now music.
The melodic side of Monk is exemplified best by his original compositions such as ‘Round About Midnight. Well You Needn't, Ruby My Dear and Off Minor which have become permanent parts of the “Jazz library” through numerous in person performances and recordings by Monk and by people like Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Stan Getz and Jimmy Raney, George Wallington, Kenny Dorham and Barney Kessel.
Monks rhythmic subtleties are more a permanent personal part of him than his melodic and harmonic contributions which have been assumed and interpreted by many other musicians. Among the pianists only Randy Weston has been directly influenced by him although Bud Powell and other pianists of that idiom exhibit Monkish flavor at various times. The rhythmic nuances by this master of time seem to escape Monk’s detractors who give him little credit a o soloist but even if this side remains an enigma to them, the melodic and harmonic richness of performances like ‘Round About Midnight, Ruby My Dear, April In Paris, Introspection, Ask Me Now and Four in One is proof enough of his singular prowess and certainty more than enough food for thought. The wit and warmth are in abundance.
His direct antecedents are hard to discern but there is a tacit link with the Harlem pianists of an earlier era. Occasionally this comes out into the open as in the striding left hand on Thelonious and the “train blues” on Well You Needn’t, but it is the implied spirit which embodies more than one era of Jazz.
These two volumes represent the finest collection of Thelonious Monk to be found anywhere with lucid examples of his work from both the Fortes and the Fifties.
Volume 1 (BLP 1510) contains recordings culled from the mid and late Forties. There is the sombre beauty of the already immortalized ‘Round About Midnight, the percussive, provocative minority of Off Minor, the sentiment without sentimentality of Ruby My Dear, the unflagging freshness of Well You Needn’t, the Monk in Paris in April of April in Paris, the questioning beauty of the heretofore unreleased Introspection, the humor and ingenuity of the one-noted Thelonious and the marvelous harmonic and rhythmic interplay between Milt Jackson and Monk on Epistrophy (written by Monk and Kenny Clarke). I Mean You (a theme borrowed by Gerry Mulligan for his Motel) and Misterioso.
Volume 2 (BLP1511) has five tracks from the Forties. Suburban Eyes, written by tenorman Ike Quebec, and Evonce, a Quebec-Idresse Suliman collaboration, feature Quebec's cousin Danny Quebec West on alto, the Dexter Gordonish (of that time) tenor of Billy Smith and the pungent trumpet of Idresse Sulman in addition to Monk. Suliman has only started to be appreciated recently. This group can be heard on Humph and Thelonious in Volume 1.
Two of the remaining Forties-recorded tracks are Monk’s Mood, a piano solo integrated with the theme, as carried by George Taitt and Sahib Shihab, which expresses a melancholia with one cent worth of hope, and the up tempo Who Knows. These are done by the quintet which appears on ‘Round About Midnight and In Walked Bud in Volume 1. Nice Work, a trio exploration of the Gershwin classic, stems from a 1947 trio session.
The majority of the tracks in Volume 2 were recorded in the Fifties. Four In One and Straight No Chaser reunite Monk with Milt Jackson, Sahib Shihab and Art Blakey. It is interesting and rewording to hear the maturation of the four colleagues. Ask Me Now, done at the same session with just the trio. is worthy of the earlier great trio performances.
As composer-arranger for the sextet, Monk shows another facet of his skill. The 6/4 waltz that he makes of Carolina Moon is an example of how to get away from the usual jazz beat and still swing. Donaldson, Kenny Dorham and Lucky Thompson help considerably in the realization of this attempt (to say nothing of Max Roach) and make their solo power felt in the other numbers, Hornin' In, Skippy and Lei’s Cool One. Contrast these sextet tracks with the exact instrumentation of the Suburban Eyes group and you’ll see where Monk has continued to grow while still remaining tho individual personality who leads and influences modern music and its makers.
— IRA GITLER
RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes
GENIUS OF MODERN MUSIC VOLUME ONE
The music on this CD, all of which was recorded during a period of five weeks in the fall of 1947, marked the emergence of a musician who was already legendary in modern jazz circles. Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on October 10, 1917, which made him five days past his thirtieth birthday when he cut the first of these three sessions; yet he was no late bloomer. Several of his compositions had been recorded over the previous five years by the likes of Coleman Hawkins (who was responsible for Monk’s only previous appearance in a recording studio), Cootie Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke and Bud Powell; and his notoriety had been established even earlier as a member of the house rhythm section at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where he participated in the development of the music that came to be known as bebop. The rapid tempos and arpeggiated melodies generally identified with bebop were far removed from Monk’s aesthetic, however, and he quickly distanced himself from the center of bop activity. While Gillespie, Powell and Charlie Parker began drawing attention as messiahs of a new music, Monk, displaying what his wife Nellie once described as “a marvellous sense of withdrawal,” directed most of his energies to organizing his own groups and rehearsing his own music in his family’s Manhattan apartment.
Saxophonist Ike Quebec, a Blue Note leader and adviser to Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, was instrumental in bringing the elusive Monk to the label’s attention. Quebec had a hand in two of the four compositions recorded at the initial session of October 15, 1947, and his 17-year-old cousin Danny Quebec West is heard on alto sax. West and tenor saxophonist Billy Smith are remembered only for their participation in these performances, while trumpeter Idrees Sulieman, bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Art Blakey are more significant contributors to jazz history. (The drummer would begin his own career as a Blue Note leader before the year was out.) The music created at this and the following sessions is programmed with master takes first, in the order of their recording, followed by any alternate takes.
“Humph,” erroneously credited to Ike Quebec as co-composer on its initial release, is a thoroughly Monkish reworking of the familiar “I Got Rhythm” chord sequence. The line seems to poke fun at the typically skittish bebop themes of the time, though in a thematically extension of the main melodic phrase into the bridge that would become a Monk signature. Blakey gets a couple of drum breaks, with full solo choruses by West, a confident and Gillespie inspired Sulieman, Smith (showing allegiance to Dexter Gordon) and Monk. The ideas in the piano solo would reappear years later in several versions of the more famous “Rhythm-a-ning”
“Evonce,” by Quebec and Sulieman, is a good line on an interesting harmonic scheme that borrows from “‘S’wondertul” for its main phrase and “Just You, Just Me” (a Monk favorite) on the bridge. The slower alternate take was recorded first, and features a full 48 bars of Sulieman after West’s half-chorus. Alto and trumpet each take a full chorus on the master, with Smith and Monk splitting the final improvised chorus on both performances. All except Smith turn in better work on the master.
“All God’s Children Got Rhythm” provides the harmonic foundation for Quebec’s “Suburban Eyes.” The master, which in this instance was recorded first, was one side of Monk’s first 78. A piano introduction sets up the theme quite differently on each take, while the strength of Monk’s comping (which did not sit well with Miles Davis and some other musicians) can be heard to particularly good advantage behind Sulieman on the master and Ramey’s half-chorus of walking on both takes. West and Monk also get solos, with bolder ideas from the saxophonist on the alternate and a prototypical less-is-more invention by Monk on the master.
“Thelonious” was the flip side of Monk’s first 78, and one of the surprisingly few instances in Monk’s compositions where he deviates from symmetrical chorus structure. With its ten-bar bridge and two-bar tag, the piece establishes a 36-bar form that is maintained during Monk’s solo. The theme, more rhythmic than melodic, is set against descending horn parts that create a funhouse-mirror effect, while Monk’s solo boldly applies silence and dissonance, makes a stride piano reference that recalls his fondness for James P. Johnson, and quotes the three-note figure shared by “Salt Peanuts” and “Epistrophy.”
Monk, Ramey and Blakey returned to the studio nine days later. Due to the absence of horns and the predominance of Monk’s own compositions, this session offers a more complete portrait of the artist that was only enhanced when the four alternate takes (all save “Well, You Needn’t” recorded prior to the master) were first released in 1983.
George Gershwin’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It” had also been recorded by Bud Powell’s trio earlier in 1947. Both takes here feature Monk solos filled with ping-ponging phrases, hanging modulations and startling two-handed conjunctions. While the alternate has more wide-ranging piano invention. the rhythm section is more involved on the master — hear Ramey on the ingeniously suspended ending and Blakey throughout “Manhattan Moods” is the alternate title of “Ruby, My Dear,” the stunning ballad that Monk composed during his Minton’s days. Both takes contain 1 1/2 choruses that explore a melody that is ingeniously modulated and reordered from a haunting four-note phrase. The “composition.” however, is much more than that melody; it includes the introductory whole-tone scale, stark left-hand patterns (including a surprising touch of boogie-woogie at bars 19 and 20), and an indelible coda.
The chord changes of “Well You Needn’t,” which proved to be one of Monk’s most popular compositions, had already been borrowed for “Dameronia,” which composer Tadd Dameron had recorded for Blue Note a month earlier. The alternate here is notable for the different way in which Monk phrases the melody in the first chorus, but both versions give the lie to the notion that Monk was technically limited. He simply heard things differently, like the percussive ideas in the riff that begins the third chorus on each take and evokes such inspired responses from Blakey.
“April ln Paris” would become one of Monk’s favorite solo piano vehicles. He was ‘dearly drawn to the repetitive, open-ended aspects of Vernon Duke’s melody, which could pass for one of Monk’s own. The master take is played at a significantly slower tempo, which inspires double-timing from Blakey at the start of the second chorus.
“Off Minor,” which Monk also called “What Now,” had been introduced on the aforementioned Bud Powell trio session. The coda heard here would also be employed by Monk as an introduction in later versions. This piano solo is indicative of how Monk molded strong thematic material and an inspired use of space into timeless improvisations.
As “Playhouse", "Introspection" was arranged for (but unfortunately not recorded by) Dizzy Gillespie’s 1946 big band, which briefly included Monk. There is a four-bar tag on the 32-bar chorus; but what really makes the composition so labyrinthine is its daring melody. The three piano choruses that follow Monk’s long introduction allow us to savor that melody, which is brilliantly extended through the use of triplets and other devices during the bridge.
Before any of the above performances were released, Monk returned to the studios for Blue Note with a quintet. In addition to Blakey, the band included Sahib Shihab, Monk’s favorite alto saxophonist of the time; trumpeter George “Flip” Taitt, who often subbed for Sulieman in Monk’s early combos; and otherwise-unknown bassist Bob Paige. The two-horn instrumentation drives home British critic Jack Cooke’s point regarding how Monk’s ideas presaged the hard bop movement ¡n terms of their probing harmonic and rhythmic notions.
“In Walked Bud,” Monk’s tribute to Powell, is a startling reworking of the Irving Berlin standard “Blue Skies.” After the glorious piano chorus, Taitt and Shihab take 16 bars each, with the trumpeter displaying a fatter sound than most modern brass players and Shihab getting off a couple of choice quotes in his distinctively tart tone.
“Monk’s Mood,” originally titled “Feeling This Way Now” and possibly also known at one time as “Why Do You Evade The Facts?,” is such a perfect creation that many soloists on later versions were at a loss for what to add in their improvisations. While Shihab has been criticized for his sound on this performance, the wide alto sax vibrato was probably adopted at Monk’s request to enhance the melancholy mood.
“Who Knows” appears to have caused problems. Several unsuccessful retakes were attempted after the master was cut, and then the issued alternate was taped at the end of the session. Taitt, who fluffs the bridge badly on the master, swaps solo spots with Shihab on the alternate, where the saxophonist is particularly inspired. He finds space in both versions for a quote from “52nd Street Theme,” a composition credited to yet never recorded by Monk.
“Round Midnight” (or “‘Round About Midnight” as it was called on the original Blue Note 78) had been recorded by Cootie Williams in 1944 (he took a co-composer credit for his effort). DizzY Gillespie cut it two years later, with an introduction and coda that ultimately became as familiar as Monk’s melody. The introduction here is close to Gillespie’s, with Blakey stroking the patented off-beat accents gently in the background, but the coda is one of Monk’s grand descending arpeggios. The astringent horns are used sparingly to color Monk’s haunting Initial interpretation of his (and modern jazz’s) most famous ballad.
— Bob Blumenthal, 2001
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