Blue Monk
Blue Monk is a classic jazz-blues song written by Thelonious Monk in 1954. It features a whole bunch of chromatic notes, which means using every half step on the piano, and is written in the 12 bar blues form. Jazz songs like this are typically played by starting with the "head", which is the melody of the song, and then repeating the form (the 12 bar blues) a bunch of times playing background chords while different musicians take turns doing improvised solos, ending with everyone playing the head once more.
Thelonious Monk was an incredible piano player and composer from the bebop era of jazz, known for his unique angular melodies, his love of notes that seemed to clash, and his tendency to attack the piano with a jarring percussive style. He was also well known for his sense of style, wearing suits, hats and sunglasses and dancing around stage. On an instrument that starts out looking the same for everyone, his piano playing was vibrant, creative, and unique. Imagine a Picasso painting played on piano.
Check out this YouTube video of the Thelonious Monk quartet playing Blue Monk, and especially the awesome piano solo starting around 3:00. He starts out standing up, just kind of dancing along to the sax solo and enjoying it, and then sits down for a classic bombastic solo.
Here are the play-along video references:
Blue Monk (1 hand, slow)
Blue Monk (2 hands)
Blue Monk (for upright bass)
Thelonious Monk was an incredible piano player and composer from the bebop era of jazz, known for his unique angular melodies, his love of notes that seemed to clash, and his tendency to attack the piano with a jarring percussive style. He was also well known for his sense of style, wearing suits, hats and sunglasses and dancing around stage. On an instrument that starts out looking the same for everyone, his piano playing was vibrant, creative, and unique. Imagine a Picasso painting played on piano.
Check out this YouTube video of the Thelonious Monk quartet playing Blue Monk, and especially the awesome piano solo starting around 3:00. He starts out standing up, just kind of dancing along to the sax solo and enjoying it, and then sits down for a classic bombastic solo.
Here are the play-along video references:
Blue Monk (1 hand, slow)
Blue Monk (2 hands)
Blue Monk (for upright bass)
