Rocky Mount, North Carolina on October 10, 1917 Thelonious Monk was born but at the age of four he moved with his family to New York City and it was here he would spend much of his life. Monk showed great skill for the piano by age 11 and had actually learned to read music before ever taking lessons for it. His was so skilled that he had competed in and won the amateur competition at the Apollo Theater so many times is was eventually banned from entering again. And this was done before he was thirteen years old. He eventually became a high school drop out in order to fully pursue his musical career. Though playing in a big band was the thing to do at the time he preferred a closer work dynamic to experiment. By 1941 he was working at Minton’s …show more content…
And in 1964 he became one of four jazz musicians to be on the cover of time magazine. He had several overseas tours throughout these years but by 1970 he was ready to retreat from the limelight and settle down. He then lived a quiet life and passed away from a stroke in 1982. He has now been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was also featured on a US postage stamp. The song Thelonious has a mainstream jazz style that has a lot of the song revolving around the piano. This song has a very playful yet passionate sound to me. It has an excellent blend of his piano work with the other instruments like drums, and saxophone. Next we have Ruby My Dear. This jazz song has a slow and calm style with a romantic overtone. He has the steady drum beat blended into his thoughtful piano playing. Well, You Needn’t is a progressive jazz piece that is a confident, fun song that is upbeat. This bop style features the piano and drums and saxophone. April in Paris feature the piano, sax, and drums like most of his work and has a hard bop style to the song. Monk’s Mood seems to feature the saxophone much more than some of his other songs that are more about the piano pieces. …show more content…
This song also has some very excellent saxophone parts throughout. This is a superb piece of mainstream jazz. ‘Round Midnight goes back to a slower more laid back style that has a deep bass line with the slow piano and saxophone play. This bop style song is one of the main songs that come to mind when I think of late night jazz. Evidence seems to me as one of his “jarring” style improvisation songs. This is the first song on this album to feature the vibraphone. It has a good bass line with fantastic piano and a good drum snare sound to help tie it together. It starts off slow but quickly jumps right into it. Then end abruptly. Misterioso starts out with the piano and brings in the vibraphone for the second time on this album. This songs builds then slows down with the introduction the drums and sax with a heavy focus of the vibraphone for a while until going back to piano. It is overall a slower bop song with increased temp parts. Epistrophy is another one of his jarring bop style songs that features the piano, vibraphone, drums, and saxophone. This is a very creative song that seemed to have excellent improvisation. It also has a good tempo with slower