Sunday, May 11, 2014

Thelonius Monk
Straight No Chaser


"Locomotive" (Thelonious Monk) -
"I Didn't Know About You" (Duke Ellington) -
"Straight, No Chaser" (Th. Monk) -
"Japanese Folk Song (Kōjō no Tsuki)" (entarō Taki) -
"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (Harold Arlen) -
"We See" (Th. Monk) -
"This Is My Story, This Is My Song" (Phoebe Knapp) -
"I Didn't Know About You" (D. Ellington) -
"Green Chimneys" (Th. Monk) -

1 comment:

Pastorius said...

I really like Rouse's playing on this first track. He sounds more fluid than usual.

Often, to me, it seemed he got really angular in his style as a way of working with Monk.

But on this track, he does the Charlie Parker thing, flitting and flying around Monk's lines, like a Blackbird. It works really well as a mood counterpoint.

Though Monk was a real genius, and a humorous one in his way, there was always something ponderous and heavy about his style. The surreality seemed born of odd, hideous nightmares, and music was his way of working them out.

The Charlie Parker style really works with this.

Love it.

By the way, I don't think Coltrane worked very well with Monk either, though it's always interesting to hear.

Few people ever, in the history of Jazz, could have worked with Monk. He was from another planet.