Thelonious Monk. -- Genius of Modern Music.

Volume 1 - Blue Note BLP 1510

Volume 2 - Blue Note BLP 1511

Sleeve notes by Ira Gitler

Humph; Evonce; Suburban Eyes; Thelonious; (October 15, 1947)

Idrees Sulieman - trumpet. Danny West - alto. Billy Smith - tenor. Thelonious Monk - piano. Gene Ramey - bass. Art Blakey - drums.

Nice Work; Ruby My Dear; Well You Needn't; April in Paris; Off Minor; Introspection; (October 24, 1947)

Thelonious Monk - piano. Gene Ramey - bass. Art Blakey - drums.

'Round About Midnight; In Walked Bud; Monks Mood; Who Knows; (November 21, 1947)

George Taitt - trumpet. Sahib Shihab - alto. Thelonious Monk - piano. Robert Paige - bass. Art Blakey - drums.

Four in One; Criss Cross; Eronel; Straight, No Chaser; Ask Me Now; Willow Weep For Me; (July 23, 1951)

Sahib Shihab - alto. Milt Jackson - vibes. Thelonious Monk - piano. Al McKibbon - bass. Art Blakey - drums.

Skippy; Hornin' In; Sixteen; Carolina Moon; Let's Cool One; I'll Follow You; (May 30, 1952)

Kenny Dorham - trumpet. Lou Donaldson - alto. Lucky Thompson - tenor. Thelonious Monk - piano. Nelson Boyd - bass. Max Roach - drums.

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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.

Monk's 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 Minton's. In fact Monk is synonymous with the Minton's of the early Forties because of the major role he played there in the birth of the new 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 amd Barney Kessel.

Monk's 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 as a 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 certainly 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 Forties 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 (BLP 1511) has five tracks from the Forties. Suburban Eyes, written by tenorman Ike Quebec, and Evonce, a Quebec-Idrees Sulieman 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 Idrees Sulieman in addition to Monk. 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 cents 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 rewarding 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. Lou 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 Let'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 the individual personality who leads and influences modern music and its makers.

- Ira Gitler