Monk in Solo

 

I've been a fan of Thelonious Monk since I was in my teen years.  I loved the jaggedness and angularity of his lines; both rhythmically and melodically.  I certainly liked, and was drawn to, his composing.  I was completely taken with his use of major and minor seconds in his lines, and that element of his playing impacted me then, and up to and including the present day.  

At that time, upon stating that I loved Monk, one of my undergrad college professors exclaimed, "You're not old enough to love Monk!"  I'm not sure what he meant by that; maybe that Monk was an acquired taste, or that you have to evolve into understanding Monk.  No idea, but I remained a Monk devotee undeterred.

Some of my favorite Monk records are his solo recordings:

• Thelonious Himself:  Recorded in New York City; April 12 and 16, 1957.
• Alone in San Francisco:  Recorded in San Francisco in Fugazi Hall; October 21-22, 1959.
• Solo Monk: Recorded at various times in New York City and Los Angeles in 1964 and 1965. 

The track Monk's Mood on Thelonious Alone has a special guest: John Coltrane on tenor saxophone.

When originally issued on vinyl LP, the album Solo Monk contained twelve pieces.  The CD release contains 21 pieces with nine additional tracks that were never released until the CD in 2003.  

A couple of factors in Monk's solo playing are evident in his solo recordings.  There's a thoughtful sense of real-time composition contained within them; whether he's playing standards or his own compositions.  He takes great liberties with the time, playing in something beyond rubato.  In some places, time all but stops; his is a very fluid and elastic approach to and concept of time in a solo setting.  I like that.  You can almost hear the thoughts forming in his mind.  It's as if his approach to or interpretation of the piece is evolving before your eyes; instead of a solo performance, we're looking over his shoulder as he writes a new composition.  In some instances, it seems as if he's composing a piece instead of performing it.  It's deeply fascinating to me.  My impression is that he's never played a solo piece twice in the same way.

On the CD release of the album Thelonious Himself, there's a longer track (~22 minutes) entitled Round Midnight (in progress).  This track includes multiple retakes and restarts of his composition, Round Midnight, captured in a single long take, uninterrupted, complete with studio chatter between Monk and the recording engineers.  Here's an example.

Monk: "I'm gonna start that again."  

Recording engineer: "You gonna make a fresh start now?  Let's start another take; we can make sense out of it later.  Any time you want to start, you're on; I want to have it noted here so I won't go crazy with the takes.  Selection 3; take 6.  You're on."  

You can hear Monk going off in new directions in each version, and again his very fluid concept of rhythm and time in solo work is in evidence here.  It's a fascinating track, and a glimpse into what I suspect is Monk's creative and evolutionary process.  The in-progress take is followed by the selected release of Round Midnight that originally appeared on the album.

Photo of Thelonious Monk solo recording session; 1965.

 

The recorded evolutionary process aside: I enjoy hearing, and have learned some things, from Monk's solo recordings.  They always sound fresh and creatively new to me.  And continue to leave their mark on me.

I wish that Monk had recorded more solo works, but I'm deeply grateful to have these few examples of that facet of his artistry.

-kk