However, thanks to our old friend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we cannot play more than four tracks credited to any one artist in the time allotted for the webcast, so, as with our Ornette Coleman tribute a couple of years back, we necessarily focus on Monk the composer.
We also spotlight one of the "extravagant, cross-genre" tribute albums produced by Hal Willner, whom I cited as a hero and influence in a blog post a few weeks back. The second such album, That's the way I feel, now, was a tribute to Monk conceived and compiled in the wake of the master's death in 1982. While featuring reverent tributes from friends and associates like Steve Lacy and Randy Weston, it also had more experimental offerings from people like John Zorn and Eugene Chadbourne. But more importantly, it was designed to allow pop artists like Joe Jackson, Donald Fagen and Todd Rundgren to display their influence by Monk and other artists and genre than might otherwise be expected. (And, of course, I ended up choosing none of those tracks. Stay tuned, I guess.)
I want to highlight one idea from Orin Keepnews' liner note essay from "That's the way..." - "Thelonious never wanted to frighten anyone away, but he did want to scare people enough to make them do their very best - to work their hardest and not settle for careless and non-creative effort." That to me is a fundamental idea for any artist, what ever his or her field.
Some additional notes
52nd Street theme - Sonny Rollins was only 19 when this recording was made.
'Round Midnight - Listening again, Randolph definitely sings "I'm out your marms." Also, for some reason the word "suppertime" always clarifies my image of the guy in this song. The lyrics are part of the reason I chose this performance to represent 'Round Midnight, aside from its relative unpopularity. There are far too many maudlin and archly dramatic performances of this tune. It's really a buck-yourself-up, smile-through-your-tears kind of song, best played with a little bounce to it, as Monk himself would perform it.
Brilliant Corners - The start of Ernie Henry's alto solo kind of reminds me of Eric Dolphy, would that he had been on this session.
Well, You Needn't - Robin D. G. Kelley's fantastic Monk biography definitively dispels the notion that Monk shouts out Coltrane's name because the saxophonist needed to be roused from a heroin-induced stupor, but rather because the take was started before the order of solos was determined. A close listen bears this out as no one starts his solo at the top of the form. Wilbur Ware seems to be playing as accompanist, until deciding that if no one else is soloing, he might as well take his.
The Man I Love - The motif for Criss Cross seems to be present in Monk's solo. I wished I'd placed them closer together.
Little Rootie Tootie - This of course calls back to Hall Overton's arrangement featured on the Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall album where Overton orchestrated Monk's solo from his 1952 recording (The Thelonious Monk Trio album on Prestige.)
artist |
song |
album |
comment |
label / date |
| Bud Powell | 52nd Street Theme | The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 |
special guest 1st part of
theme
Bud Powell (p) Fats Navarro (trp) Sonny Rollins (ts) Tommy
Potter (b) Roy Haynes (d) |
Blue Note
1949 |
| Naked City | Inside Straight | Naked City | 2nd part of theme |
Nonesuch
1989 |
| Terry Adams and Friends | In walked Bud | That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk |
Terry Adams (p) Roswell Rudd (tbn)
Pat Patrick (as) John Ore (b) Frankie Dunlop (d)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
A&M
1984 |
| Hattye Randolph with Sun Ra & His Astro Infinity Arkestra | Round Midnight (Take 3) |
Singles |
Hattye Randolph (voc) Sun Ra (p,
clst, gong) James Spaulding, Marshall Allen (as) John Gilmore (ts)
Charles Davis, Pat Patrick (bs) Bo Bailey (tbn) Hobart Dotson
(trp) Ronnie Boykins (b) William "Bugs" Cochran (d)
song by Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams, and Bennie Hanighen |
Strut
1959 |
| Thelonious Monk | Brilliant Corners | Brilliant Corners | Thelonious Monk (p) Sonny Rollins (ts) Ernie Henry (as) Oscar Pettiford (b) Max Roach (d) |
Riverside
1956 |
| Wayne Horvitz | This New Generation | This New Generation | music behind DJ |
Nonesuch
1985 |
| Steve Lacy and Elvin Jones | Evidence | That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk | Steve Lacy (ss) Elvin Jones (d) tune by Thelonious Monk |
A&M
1984 |
| Paul Bley / Charlie Haden / Paul Motian | Monk's Dream | Memoirs |
Paul Bley (p) Charlie Haden (b) Paul
Motian (d)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
Soul Note
1990 |
| Thelonious Monk | Ugly Beauty | Underground | Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Larry Gales (b) Ben Riley (d) |
Columbia
1967 |
| Kenny Kirkland | Criss Cross | Kenny Kirkland |
Kenny Kirkland (p) Branford Marsalis
(ts) Andy Gonzalez (b) Steve Berros (d) Jerry Gonzalez (prc)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
GRP
1991 |
| Naked City | The Sicilian Clan | Naked City | music behind DJ |
Nonesuch
1989 |
| Chick Corea Trio | Work | Trilogy |
Chick Corea (p) Christian McBride
(b) Brian Blade (d)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
Stretch Records
2012 |
| Casiokids | En Vill Hest (Prins Thomas Remix) [edit] | Topp stemning på lokal bar | music behind DJ |
Polyvinyl
2010 |
| Thelonious Monk | Well, You Needn't | Monk's Music | Thelonious Monk (p) Ray Copeland (trp) Gigi Gryce (as) Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (ts) Wilbur Ware (b) Art Blakey (d) |
Riverside
1957 |
| Paul Motian | Ruby, my dear | Monk in Motian |
Paul Motian (d) Joe Lovano (ts) Bill
Frisell (g) Geri Allen (p)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
JMT
1988 |
| Sharon Freeman | Monk's Mood | That's the way I feel now - A tribute to Thelonious Monk |
Sharon Freeman (hrn, clst) Willie Ruff (solo), Vincent Chancey, Bill Warnick, Gregory Williams (hrn) Kenneth Barron (p) Buster Williams (b) Victor Lewis (d)
tune by
Thelonious Monk |
A&M
1984 |
| Kronos Quartet | Misterioso | Monk Suite: Kronos Quartet plays music of Thelonious Monk |
David Harrington, John Sherba (vln)
Hank Dutt (vla) Jean Jeanrenaud (vc)
tune by Thelonious Monk, arranged and adapted by Tom Darter |
Landmark
1984 |
| Walter Davis, Jr. | Pannonica | In Walked Thelonious | tune by Thelonious Monk |
Mapleshade
1987 |
| Dollar Brand | Reflections | Reflections |
Dollar
Brand (aka Abdullah Ibrahim) (p)
tune by Thelonious Monk |
Black Lion
1965 |
| Thelonious Monk Quartet w/ John Coltrane | Crepuscule with Nellie | At Carnegie Hall |
Thelonious Monk (p) John Coltrane
(ts) Ahmed Abdul-Malik (b) Shadow Wilson (d)
November 29, 1957 |
Blue Note
1957 |
| The Max Roach Quintet | Bemsha Swing | The Many Sides of Max |
Max
Roach (d) Booker Little (trp) Julian Priester (tbn) George Coleman
(ts) Art Davis (b)
tune by
Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best
|
Emarcy
1959 |
| Coleman Hawkins' Swing Four | The Man I Love | Coleman Hawkins: 1943-1944 |
Coleman Hawkins (ts) Thelonious Monk
(p) Bass Robinson (b) Denzil Best (d)
tune by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin |
Classics
1943 |
| Herbie Hancock | Earth Beat | Future Shock | music behind DJ |
Columbia
1983
|
| The Zawinul Syndicate | Little Rootie Tootie | Black Water | Josef Zawinul (syn, accrd) Gerald Veasley (b) Lynne Fiddmont-Linsey (prc) Scott Henderson (g) Cornell Rochester (d) Munyungo Jackson (prc) |
Columbia
1989 |
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