Composer: Thelonious Monk

Publisher: Thelonious Music Corp.

CD: Thelonious In Action

Label: Riverside / Fantasy Records

 1989 Fantasy Records. All Rights Reserved.

Recording Date: August 7, 1958

Personnel: Thelonious Monk, piano; Johnny Griffin, tenor sax; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass; Roy Haynes, drums

  

  

  

Title: Blue Monk
Artist: Thelonious Monk
Type of Tune: bebop
Tempo: 116 BPM
Key: Bb Major
Form: 12 bar blues
Devices: standard jazz blues progression with melody that features repeated patterns occuring on different beats in the measure
Scale(s): chromatic, blues, pentatonic, melodic minor
Recurring Patterns: the melody employs two main themes, one that develops and one that repeats in a displaced fashion

General Comments:

Thelonious Monk, a brilliant jazz composer and pianist, was one of the originators of bebop. “Blue Monk” is one of Monk’s best-known compositions partly due to the simple and memorable melody. The element of the tune which is most considered “Monkish" is the use of repeated patterns in the melody in an unusual way: the first melodic phrase is used as a basis for the other phrases which occur on different beats in the measure, phrasing across the bar line (giving that “where am I” quality).