The story behind puzzle No. 39
Thelonious Monk · Thelonious Monk Trio · Prestige · 1954
Some of Thelonious Monk's tunes are famously tricky. This one is a blues you can learn in a single hearing, and Monk kept playing it for the rest of his career.
Monk recorded Blue Monk for Prestige on September 22, 1954, with Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakey on drums. It was the first recording of the tune.
The track later appeared on the album Thelonious Monk Trio, which collects some of Monk's earliest recordings for Prestige.
Blue Monk is a 12-bar blues, the most basic form in jazz. What makes it Monk is the melody: a short, lopsided phrase that climbs, stumbles on purpose and lands exactly where he wants it.
That mix of simple structure and strange detail is why it became a jam-session favorite. Anyone can play the changes, but it takes work to play them the way Monk heard them.
Listen to how much Monk leaves out. He drops single notes and crunchy chords into the spaces, and Blakey and Heath keep the groove steady underneath.
Notice how Monk's solo keeps returning to pieces of the melody instead of running up and down scales.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Try Bemsha Swing from the same album, or revisit Straight, No Chaser (puzzle No. 14), another Monk blues.
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