You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Monk Tunes You Should Know - #55

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

Tune in to this episode of You'll Hear It and find out from Peter and Adam 7 Thelonious Monk tunes you should know. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Adam. What's up, Peter? You like Monk? I do like Monk's tunes. I do like Monk's tunes. What's your favorite? There's one called, I think it's called Kiri. How's it go?

Well, it's on a lot of recordings. It's been recorded a lot. It goes like, I'm Adam Menace. And I'm Peter Barton. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz, advice, and medieval vocal tones coming at you. Man, you know what's so funny?

I've listened, this year, like I got really into early music. I was in New Orleans, places. Yeah, early jazz, like Dixieland, right? No, but for some reason, I was like, oh, you know what it was? I found a great book in New Orleans about, like, the history of Western music, and I got really into these, like, you know, Palestrina and all these folks. They all have a Kiri. They all work for the church and they all have a curie. Yeah. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right. I don't think you are, but I know I have a curing, which is a little bit controversial as well right now.

We have a lot of European folks, a lot of classical music officiados that listen to the You'll here a podcast. Let me know how I'm messing that up. Okay. I sure I am. Yep. All right. So, but today we're talking about monk. That's right. And I was actually asking you about the other monk, the jazz monk, the Thelonious monk. Does he have a kitty? I don't think, he has creptu school with Nelly, which

did not make our list, which could have. Today, what we call them the seven monk tunes you should know. We're getting a little aggressive. Oh, yeah. You should know these. I like it when we get hyperbolic. And our thing is like, look, monk had, he's one of the most prolific jazz composers, actually. So this could have been 107 probably. And I don't know if he wrote that many tunes. But, you know, there's a lot of different tunes.

So what we tried to do is to have a mix of really almost like Monk tunes that you better had known, you know. And then also a few maybe that you hadn't heard of that I think are really jams and that you do. A couple of little wild cards thrown in there. But with Monk stuff, his quality is pretty high across the board. So you're not going to, it might be lesser known, but the quality is still there. Everything's so good. Yeah. Learning Monk tunes is a really great way to solidify your jazz drops, I feel.

Yeah. I mean, it really, it teaches you a side of jazz that you need to have, I feel. I mean, you can just tell when people are working on it, that I, you know what I mean? It's just like, yeah. When you get funkier. And I think it's one of those things that when you learn the tunes, you develop several parts you're playing. Certainly you develop your, if you, you know, keep your ears open, your compositional skills. Because his tunes are very, very well-cranky.

just from a compositional standpoint, not even from the stylistic thing. And then in terms of improvisation and shaping lines and logic and, you know, development of your harmonic knowledge and how that relates to your melodic improvisation, there's a lot of built-in stuff to the tunes that helps your improv, actually. That's so true, man. A lot of, like, you know, dominant chords that kind of go nowhere or perceived to go nowhere that you have to figure out. That's great. And so, yeah, when we say these are tunes you should know,

it's as much to know them so that when you get on a gig you can play them as you should know them because it's going to help you develop. Absolutely true. That's the secret. So true. Yeah. Man, you're insightful. Come on, man. That's how we do it. All right. So number one, we have a blues. Yes. And Monk wrote several blueses. It's probably. Right. And they're all pretty interesting for big blueses, you know. This is Straight No Chaser. Yeah. And this is one of his. Here it is. There it is. I can shut up. No, go ahead. No, that's good. Jam session favorite. Yeah. Now, what do we notice first? about this. We all know this too. What key is it in? This is B flat. So Munk, as far as I know, always played it in B flat, but Miles adapted it, I believe it was Miles to F because that was a

better key for the trumpet. And so a lot of people play it, and I can tell by the look on your face, you may be one of those. Like, if you were to call, I'm delighted right now to learn that. So that's A, A, A, B, L. Always. Listing? Always be listening? Oh, I thought it was always be learning. Always be learning. They'll be either one. So, but yeah, so I always play this in B-flak because I kind of like to be that guy that's like, eh, gotcha, see? No, but I actually first heard Miles play it. And then I think when I heard Monk, I was like, whoa, that's in another key.

And then, I don't know. I always felt like you could do either one. But, I mean, it's Monk's tune, and he wrote it there. And I love the sound of it there, you know. Oh, man. Yeah. Game Changer? My head is blown off my shoulders right now.

I just always assumed it was an F, and I feel so dumb. Now, this is going to be a recurring theme of Miles changing Monk's music. Miles love to change Monk. I mean, it's weird. Like, Miles really liked Monk and his music and stuff, but he had a certain amount of disdain. I can't quite figure it out, man. It's like the real East St. Louis came out because he, you know, there was like a recording session where he didn't want Monk comping behind him, the bags groove session. The East St. Louis comes out.

Yeah, yeah. Wow. They love you, but they hate you. Okay, so next we're going kind of high level. Yeah. We're going away from the jam session tunes. Jam session tunes playing in the wrong key. We're going to Trinkle Tinkle.

Let's have a listen. John Coltrane. And. Yeah, so this is a good one I would say for everybody. I was kind of thinking, we were thinking, you know, challenging folks a little bit. I mean, it's not the most, no, but it's certainly been heard. It's hard, though. If you are bored with playing Autumn Leaves, check out some Trinkle Tinkle.

That is a whole new world of jazz right there, and that is so hip. There's some great stuff to learn here about kind of like double time playing and going back in four, 16th notes, triplets, all that kind of stuff. And just kind of a quirky monk sounding tune, but with that inner logic there with the harmony, he's got the nice little 2-4 bar and stuff, a lot of fun. All right, let's go back to some jam session-y stuff here. And we're going to go back.

We played the original, not the original, but one of Monk's versions of Straight No Chaser before, acknowledged that Miles might have changed the key. Let's do a Miles version of a monk tune. Okay. And he changed a lot. Yeah, it changed the harmonic structure. This is around midnight.

So this is great that he kept the intro. I mean, he's not playing the melody, the intro, but he's, you know, kept the harmony there. Because I think that's such a big part of the tune. The intro and the outro as well, people should learn those. But, I mean, yeah, this is another one that going back and learning monks' version, I think it could be really good. Am I talking over Miles Davis right now?

Yeah, but for good reason. No, no. But I love this version. I mean, I love the way. Miles played. That's incredible. That's super heavy. But you're right.

So this is a version that a lot of people know. Yeah. But go learn the monk version too. The chords are different and actually make a lot of sense. Yeah. Like, and you get, I mean,

you could see why Miles changed it, made it a little easier to play. Yeah. I used to be really dogmatic about this. Like once I learned the monk version, which was fairly early on, I would just start playing it like with any of what the singer and they called it.

And they were looking at me. I'm like, no, this is the right way. But now I, like, if I hear the bass play, or doing the miles. I'm like, okay, I'm cool with that.

I'm not a dogmatic, man. I've loosened up my standards a little bit. Good for you. Good for you. But yeah, it's best to know both. Okay, so next we have on our list, we're going to go some piano solo version of one of a monk's tunes. Some of my favorite monk hearing his compositions is his solo piano version.

Because you really get the essence of what he was trying to say. This is a tune that, I mean, it's really effective within the concepts of confines, concepts, confines of a rhythm section, evidence, super rhythmic, but you hear a monk to it. Let's check it out. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I've never heard this. I've never heard this either.

What is that from? That looks like a repackaged thing. I think it is a repackaged thing. Yeah, I just saw the solo piano because I have another one here. So here's a different version. This is with Art Blaking the Jazz Messengers Monk on piano. Oh, yeah. Chop's.

See, even this is not the version I know. Yeah, this is the early one. Yeah, this is one of those monk tunes that when you learn it, you've got to learn a couple of the versions because it evolved, not really the melody notes, but the rhythmic, the way it's syncopated versus off the quarter notes

and versus off the eighth notes. All right, let's check out a monk version from Ruby, my dear. Early version. Never heard this one either. Never heard this one either. This is great. Thank you Spotify.

Shout out to Spotify. But here's the thing, man. Oh, look, that's actually Meredith's monk. That's not the lonious. No wonder we had heard it. But here's the thing, man. And this is so typical of monk tunes there's a million different versions.

There's all these repackages. He recorded everything about a dozen times. Here's from the Five Spot. I think there's the playfulness of it. Oh, this is the Johnny Griffin. 1966, live at the Five Spot. That's Raoul. That's Johnny Griffin.

This is closer to how I play it. Yeah. Yeah, this is the way he evolved and he'd doing it later. And I mean, like the Charlie Raoul's version as well. But it showed the playfulness, like a lot of his tunes, especially around these medium-tempo ones,

like monk would play around with the rhythms of the melody. And I think that's a great way for us to do it. Like, we don't have to get dogmatic about it. We're doing the 1966 version, you know. Do we overdo evidence a little bit possible? No, that's fun, man. All right, the next one we have is definitely not a jam session tune. This is Reflections.

I don't, I mean, I know the tune, but I don't, I've never played this tune. Oh, this is a great tune, man. This is one of my favorite, especially solo piano. It's in your repertoire. You do it a lot? Absolutely. I was here. Yeah, this is the version I learned off alone in San Francisco.

I love the cover on this aisle. I used to have the LP. He's on a street car. A street car with the lettering. How great is this, man? It doesn't sound like anything else. It's so good. And it's still kind of romantic and kind of deep.

I was actually always surprised that Ralph Bidnight, well, I think because of the movie at Miles's version, like this could have kind of been his big ballad hit. It's not really that well-known. I actually did a, Diane Ruse recorded this, but I'm trying to remember, did we, yeah, it's on a record called a Little Moonlight. Oh, yeah.

We recorded this, and I did move the key to really fit her. good and I did a little arrange I feel bad to even say I didn't arrange but I think it's like John Hendricks lyrics and I told Dinah about the tune she never heard it and she's like oh I love this and the lyrics are really fun and Grammy award winning record

I'm just saying it'll shout out to the Grammys is there keep on award keep on awarding is there a podcast Grammy? I hope so here we go this next one is jam session standard yes well you needn Oh yeah I love this version

One of my favorite Monk albums Yeah Monk's music Huh Tight horns Now what do you notice About the melody on this

Compared to the way Miles played the melody It might have another situation Well here's the bridge Yeah Different chords Different chords on the bridge Instead of jeez

I hate to say But this would be the correct version It's a great version Yeah I love what the drummer's doing Through the bridge too So on this You know the big

difference with the melody and I'm not like an expert on the student I don't even play that much but I'm remembering now Miles and I think this is what became in the real book is the monk version is it's going down to that third which is a big kind of difference you know trumpet can't get down there can't get down there for him you know so yeah I love that and then the bridge you know start I think it's on D flat 7 instead of the G oh man so good that's a great record that's a great record if I was going to tell somebody one, what is it called, Monks?

Monks music. Yeah, Monk's music. That, because it's like Coleman, isn't not the one with Coleman Hawkins and Coltrane, both on it? Yeah. And man, that's such a, I mean, I love the cover. Again, like these, I have these, LPs, yeah, he's like shoved in this little,

and if you're playing well you needn from the real book, learn it off this record. Exactly. Like, just like you said, the melody's different. The core changes are different. It's better. Yeah, you'll be OG style and you get a little ear training in. Yeah, then you can be dogmatic like Peter Martin

when he's on the gig. All right. For our last one, this is one of my favorites. This is one I learned a couple years ago, and I've been playing it semi-regular. I always forget that I know it. It's like when people call it, I'm like,

oh, yeah, I do know that. But a lot of really good monk moments in this tune. This is think of one. Sunny Rollins on this recording. I love Sunny Rollins with Mono. There's not a lot of recordings out of day. They work really well together. Ben, this is reinvigorating my love so much for Thelonis Monk.

I'm actually going to follow him right now on Instagram. Follow. I didn't know Monk. was that active on Instagram. I didn't know either. I just popped up. It's Thelonis Monk, musician band, official merchandise. So, yeah, Sunny, Sunny and Monk was a, I mean, Ben, what a great pianist for a tenor saxophoners that were already good to flow through that group, you know, and just get, I mean, you talk about Coltrane, Johnny Griffin.

They all bring something different to it. Sonny Rollins. Coleman Hawkins. Sonny Rollins has his, I mean, he's the most monk of all of them. to me, you know what I mean? I feel like he was influenced too, though. He had to have been, yeah. That's kind of the amazing thing about monks' work and career

was that he was an elder statesman, and he was one of the most modern of all of them. And a member of the monastery, apparently, according to his name, right? Yeah, I mean, until he does a whole religious CD using only three tones, we'll see how good he really is. But, man, this was fun. Yeah. It's kind of fun diving into.

Spotify and some of these rare recordings and repackaged stuff that you never really hear and fun hearing some of the classic ones too and I would challenge everybody You know including me. I was about to be like oh, I already know all 70s But I realized think of one I don't really know like because I learned it from the Winton Marsalis version Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is a little bit of a change Marsalis plays Monk. Yeah, my Winton A big shout out to Winton our friend of the podcast here, but he might have pulled a miles by doing a little change it up of the monk tune there buddy Man, you would sound, if you don't have this and you're like Trio Repetar, you would sound great on this. I'm going to jump on it.

It's a fun. It's super fun to play. Yeah, no, it sounds like it. I think the great thing about this list is for just about everybody. This can be something you don't know or you don't know correctly, the key or the whatever. So these are seven, but don't stop here. You know, if you're digging the monk thing, dive in because this is, this is like we said, this is the stuff that it teaches you the music from, without somebody telling you.

Just learn the music, listen closely, and it's like a private lesson with Polonius. And when you do that, you'll hear it.