Versions of the tune appear on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, and Monk's Blues. The melody is partly borrowed from Charlie Shavers' "Pastel Blue". Blue Monk Ī blues in B ♭ written in the studio and first recorded on September 22, 1954, for the album Thelonious Monk Trio, and is by far the tune Monk recorded the most. The title is a tribute to Monk's friend Coleman Hawkins, and the Black Hawk club in San Francisco. Monk wrote the tune after a visit from Guy Warren in 1958, the melody is borrowed from Warren's "The Talking Drum Looks Ahead" from the album Themes for African Drums. Live versions appear on the albums recorded in Italy, Tokyo, It Club, Jazz Workshop, and the album Misterioso (Recorded on Tour).Ī blues in B ♭ first recorded on October 21, 1959, for Thelonious Alone in San Francisco. This inspired Monk's son "Toot" Monk to play the drums. The tune also appears on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants and Brilliant Corners, featuring Max Roach with a timpani drum added to his set.
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The 4-bar A-section is essentially in C major but borrows tones from the parallel C minor scale, and is transposed up a fourth to create the B section of the form. The tune is also known as "Bimsha Swing", because the word Bemsha is a re-spelling of "Bimshire" – a colloquial nickname for Barbados, where Denzil Best's parents were born. Live versions also appear from the albums recorded in 1964 at the It Club and the Jazz Workshop.Ī tune Monk wrote with Denzil Best and was first recorded on December 18, 1952, for the album Thelonious Monk Trio. It also appears on Les Liaisons dangereuses 1960, and on Monk's Dream on the latter release, it was retitled "Bolivar Blues" or "Blue Bolivar Blues". The title references Pannonica de Koenigswarter's troubles with her stay at the Bolivar Hotel, where her parties would disturb the management of the hotel. Mark Murphy sings a version (the lyric is credited to Ben Sidran) on his album Kerouac, Then and Now.ī Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are Ī riff-based blues in B ♭ first recorded on October 9, 1956, for Brilliant Corners. Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics to the tune and called it ”How I Wish” it was first recorded by Carmen McRae on Carmen Sings Monk. It also appears on 5 by Monk by 5, and Solo Monk. A Ask Me Now Ī tonally ambiguous ballad in D ♭ first recorded on July 23, 1951, for the Genius of Modern Music sessions. Leonard Feather claims he gave the latter title. It was first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie's sextet on February 22, 1946, under the title "52nd Street Theme".
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It quickly became popular as an opening and closing tune on the clubs on 52nd Street on Manhattan where Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker played. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" by Monk, and he claims that the tune's latter title was the origin of the genre-defining name bebop.
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The next batch of recordings Monk produced for Prestige saw him beginning to take advantage of the longer LP format.A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. 45-162 Thelonious Monk Trio - Blue Monk / Bye-Ya (re-released 1959).PREP 1329 Thelonious Monk Trio (EP with same contents as Side A of the 10" LP).PR 850 Thelonious Monk Trio - Little Rootie Tootie / Monk's Dream.PR 838 Thelonious Monk Trio - Trinkle, Tinkle / These Foolish Things.PR 795 Thelonious Monk Trio - Sweet And Lovely / Bye-Ya.And, in fact, most of these selections were released in that format at the time, as well: Like the Blue Note recordings before them, it appears these performances were kept short such that they could be simultaneously released on 45 and 78 rpm singles and EPs. Recording engineer: unknown, Beltone Studios, New York CityĪ notable feature of these eight recordings is their brevity.
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" Bemsha Swing" ( Thelonious Monk, Denzil Best) - 3:10." These Foolish Things" ( Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) - 2:46." Sweet and Lovely" ( Gus Arnheim, Jules LeMare, Harry Tobias) - 3:33.All compositions by Thelonious Monk, except where noted.