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

From Solo Monk (1964)
Sweet and Lovely

From Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1959)
The Man I Love
The story of this recording is famous : Miles and Monk didn't got along that well. Some even say they fought, but I don't believe skinny 59' Miles would ever fight Thelonious « the mountain » Monk – nobody would. Anyway, in this tune, Monk plays a strange solo, fooling around the theme melody, with a lot of silence. And then, he stops playing, for an eternity (mes. 29 to 40). Miles enters (mes. 39), as if he were saying « what the hell are you doing, are you lost ? ». Then Monk swings like hell, saying « I'm not lost at all, damn you ». A fun moment, also fun to transcribe :)

From Underground (1968)
Thelonius