Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk is a genius. And he's an interresting pianist, with some real interresting licks, and an amazing tempo. Good luck for playing this, it's really not that easy…

From the fabulous solo Paris 1954 recording
Well you needn't (Video)
I had some some trouble writing down the names of the chords. When Monk plays the theme, in the A sections the melody implies F - Gb, but the bass plays something else (a chromatic line over F). In the solos he clearly thinks F almost exclusively. Very different from the Real Book version!
Evidence (Video)
Eronel (Video)
Off Minor (Video)
On this last one, I love how simple most of his chords are (exept for the Bb7/D7 endings), and how swingy they sound. Notice measure 63, when he makes a lick in 12/8 over 4/4.

From Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins (1954)
Work (Video)
I love this song, with the call and response with the left hand.

From The Unique Thlonious Monk (1956)
Tea for Two (Video)
(You can also check Fats Waller's version here)

From Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1959)
The Man I Love (Video)
We know that this session did not go well, and that Miles and Monk had various arguments. This precise passage has been the subject of numerous glosses. Monk plays a weird solo, fooling around the melody, with a lot of silence. And then, he stops playing, and all is left is silence, for an eternity. Miles enters as if he were saying "what the hell are you doing?", and the pianist starts swinging again as if nothing had happened. A fun moment, also fun to transcribe :)

From Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (1959)
Everything Happens to Me (Video)

From Solo Monk (1964)
Sweet and Lovely

From Underground (1968)
Thelonius