but were you granted a receipt?

i totally appreciate Metheny for the way he constructs songs,
the rhythm, pace, technique, and weaving complexity of each instrument with the rest.
i just don't care for his synthetic sound as the over-arcing tone of a song.
it seems so impersonal and it's hard for me to relate to that
my preference is to hear some sort of personal connection to the song, in any genre

speaking of which, let's play three degrees of separation between Carlos Santana and Pat Metheny

first clue: this entire album

Early Monk



Bud Powell

both so good

Sunday morning jazz.



Inspired by Suitedjustice's blog, I am trying to work my way through Monk's catalog. I may go through the recordings then try to come back through all the live videos. Watching him play is too mesmerizing. I'd never make it if I started with them.

fantastic idea.
so, are you just running with this list? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelon...nk_discography

just him as the leader, or are you blending in the recordings with Miles, Blakey, Sonny, etc. in chronological order?
the density of music (two or three albums a year), makes for a deep dive in to what he was exploring at the time.

Yes. It was what I found and I assume it is good enough for my purposes. At first I thought I would go by release date, but now I think going by recording date makes more sense.


I hope to do *all* the recordings unless I find a reason to reject one after I dive in. I assume there will be surprises.


Yeah, it should be pretty interesting. I'm in no hurry whatsoever, and that is a good thing. I intend to set up a little spreadsheet with room for some brief notes and track it all that way. I'm in the middle of an immense writing project that I started during the plague, and this will be a nice relief from it. I can listen to Monk and my mind will stop worrying about other things.

My only reservation is that I feel I understand Monk better when I can watch him in videos. It may just be my imagination, though. At any rate I'm going to start with the LPs.

fantastic. looking forward to seeing which tidbits you elect to share.

Jazz is illegal.

You should have thought about that before you started this thread and condemned yourself to a life on the run from the authorities.

1937



1947(?)



1952

you could do a deep dive on live Monk versions of this song alone
lost in translation is perfectly fine sometimes

a different early version of the Gershwin classic,
which i currently believe came out the same year as Astaire

I'm really loving my Monk project, but it could very easily spiral out of control. Here (I believe) is the first thing he ever recorded with his own group.



His early Blue Note stuff is just a delight.

it really is
makes your teeth vibrate while you hum
the epitome of swing

Sunday Morning Jazz from Guess Who...

I love this one from 1952. I'm beginning to hear some Monk Beta in the intro...



And from the same recording, a highly regarded interpretation of a classic pop:



See also:



And especially:

please keep posting the gems you find along the way.
i may not be able to listen to them now but i know where to find them.

I'm the same way. I'll get way behind on my listening, and then an afternoon will open up out of nowhere I will get a chance to do some serious listening. Usually I listen to the 2+2 music on earbuds, but if i am busy, a lot of good stuff gets reduced to ambient elevator music and it deserves better than that.

I think my next project will be to find a jazz appreciation course similar to that Winton at Harvard you linked to.

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.

Monk is playing and recording with both Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane by the mid 50s. I'll probably wait until later in the year before I try to write anything about these pairings. But here is something he did with Saint John that I particularly liked. I *believe* it was released posthumously.

Probably someone who hasn't been mentioned here .



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