Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt.2

Thelonious Monk's Bemsha Swing
Friday, April 29, 2011

Given the relatively small size of Thelonious Monk's compositional output, the pianist frequently revisited his tunes to add fresh ideas and work out new angles for the staples of his songbook. Never entirely satisfied with some of his original creations, Monk constantly strove for reinvention and inspiration, keeping them fresh and vibrant --- living entities. While he may not have possessed a plethora of new ideas, those that he did own were utterly original, innovative, and extremely deep. Yet despite the intricacy of those ideas, it was oftentimes difficult getting the composer to actually explain his concepts. Thelonious Monk was a man of very few words. He felt no need to explain himself or his music to either the press, his audience, even the musicians who played along with him. He always believed that the music spoke for itself. Should one of his sidemen need direction, Monk's customary and rather frank response would often be something along the likes of "Well you're a musician, aren't you? Then you should know what you're doing." Although he could sometimes be brutally direct, Monk was not at all an unpleasant person. Rather, he was an extremely complicated man who simply marched to the beat of an entirely different drummer, often underestimating the ability of those around him to see, hear, and comprehend the things he understood in quite the same way that he himself did.

Always somewhat eccentric, Thelonious Monk's increasingly peculiar behavior over time has largely been attributed to an undisclosed mental illness which apparently grew more severe with age. Other sources believe that a medical misdiagnosis and its pursuant drug prescription may have accidentally resulted in unintended brain damage. But beneath his disorder was a wonderful, caring, intelligent, and humorous individual. Whichever theory is correct, the composer/pianist nevertheless did walk that very thin line that divides genius from idiot savant for most of his adult life. Given to bouts of heightened excitement, Monk reportedly could become quite animated, causing him to pace endlessly for days on end, only to then completely withdraw, refusing to talk altogether. But when he found himself in the 'zone,' particularly when performing his music, the accompanying musicians knew that Monk had transcended the temporal when he'd abruptly stop playing, rise to his feet and begin his whirling dervish dance --- a dance that indicated that the master was pleased. This occurred only when the band's playing was on the spot, having collectively managed to achieve his ideal. So spinning repeatedly on one foot and tugging on his goatee, T merged with the music, high on the sound and lost in the sweetness that comes with inspired improvisation and copious perspiration.

The 'genius' of Thelonious Monk obviously resides within his music. He played and composed by his own set of rules, principles that were not always entirely apparent to even his peers, save for Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. In fact, Monk was scorned early on by those unable to hear his music on its own terms. It wasn't until Coleman Hawkins, one of very few 'old school' players who understood and embraced the new be-bop gave him a steady gig which not only gave T a regular paycheck, but also fixed work, allowing him to finally begin garnering the respect he was duly owed. By the time he then became a 'star' in 1957, Monk had already written the vast majority of his songbook and spent the remainder of his career simply fine tuning his remarkable repertoire, feeling no need to apologize for either himself, or his unconventional style that continued to be classified as 'difficult' even until his death in 1982.

During his final decade, the iconoclastic pianist/composer quietly retired from the music business, believing that after 30 years of performing he had finally said everything there was to say with his compositions and simply dropped out. With nothing more to voice, he decamped to the sanctuary of his musical patron and close friend, Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter whose expansive New Jersey home overlooked the Hudson River. It was there that the great Thelonious Monk, jazz master and high priest of bop spent his last years in silence, gently stroking the soft coats of her numerous cats while contemplating the endless parade of vessels that gracefully glided up and down the busy waterway. It was a poetic, bittersweet ending that seemed almost appropriate for this complex genius of modern jazz.

That's The Way I Feel Now, Vols. 3&4

1) Four In One/Todd Rundgren & Gary Windo
2) Functional/Randy Weston
3) Evidence/Steve Lacy & Elvin Jones
4) Shuffle Boil/John Zorn
5) In Walked Bud/Terry Adams & Friends
6) Criss-Cross/Shockabilly
7) Jackie-ing/Mark Bingham, Brenden Harkein & John Scofield
8) 'Round Midnight/Joe Jackson
9) Friday The Thirteenth/Bob Dorough, Bobby McFerrin & Dave Samuels
10) Work/Chris Spedding & Peter Frampton
11) Gallop's Gallop/Steve Lacy
12) Bye-Ya/Steve Slagle, Dr. John, Steve Swallow & Ed Blackwell
13) Bemsha Swing/Steve Lacy & Gil Evans


Monk's Mood, Vol.2

1) Four In One *
2) Functional **
3) Evidence ***
4) Shuffle Boil ****
*5) In Walked Bud *****
5a) In Walked Bud (Alternate Version) ***
6) Criss-Cross ******
7) Jackie-ing ✝
8) 'Round Midnight ✝✝
9) Friday The Thirteenth ✝✝✝
10) Work ✝✝✝✝
11) Gallop's Gallop ✝✝✝✝✝
12) Bye-Ya ✝✝✝✝✝✝
13) Bemsha Swing ✝✝✝✝✝✝✝

*I'm divided yet again on which I consider to be the 'definitive' version of 'In Walked Bud.' Personally, I'm partial to the Blakey recording but for the sake of flow and variety, the live 'Five Spot' date wins primary placement within the mix. The Art Blakey version however is made available for comparative purposes.

Source material for 'Monk's Mood, Vol.2' comes from the following:
*Big Band And Quartet In Concert (1963)
**Thelonious Monk w/John Coltrane (1957)
***Art Blakey's Jazz Messenger's w/Thelonious Monk (1958)
****It's Monk's Time (1964)
*****Misterioso (1958)
******Criss-Cross (1962)
✝Five By Monk By Five (1958) 
✝✝Thelonious Himself (1957)
✝✝✝The Thelonious Monk Orchestra At Town Hall (1959)
✝✝✝✝Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins (1954)
✝✝✝✝✝Live At The It Club (1964)
✝✝✝✝✝✝Monk's Dream (1962)
✝✝✝✝✝✝✝Brilliant Corners (1956)