NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/music/bluenote/9709

Text File | 1993-01-03 | 1.7 KB | 43 lines

Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnewsm!cbnewsl!wjh
From: [e-mail] (william.j.hery)
Subject: Re: Monk "book"
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 21:42:02 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Lines: 31

[e-mail] writes:
>In John Swenson's liners to Steve Lacy's RAPS (Adelphi) it says that
>at one time Lacy and his group were playing the *entire* Monk "book"
>of 53 compositions and nothing else.
>
>I've always wondered how many compositions Monk wrote. Somehow, 53
>seems like a small...

I thought a band' (or musicians's) "book" was the collection of music that
they might play on a gig, not all the compositions, but I'm not sure how
well defined the term is.

But Monk was not that prolific a composer; he tended to play and record
many of his early compositions over and over. His genius was not only in
the compostions, but the way he could keep reworking them for decades and
always make them sound fresh. Just look at what he played on his first 2
Blue Note sessions in 1947: Ruby My Dear, Well You Needn't, Off Minor,
In Walked Bud, Monk's Mood, Round Midnight--all of which remained in
his "book" and were recorded mainy times over the year--plus Introspection
and a few standards.

A quick look at the Monk discography included in the Mosaic Monk box
lists a little over 70 Monk compositions that he recorded; 53 were
recorded by some time in the mid-late 50s, which was when Lacy was
most seriously into Monk, so at the time Lacy learned the "book" that
might have been all than Monk had composed.

Bill Hery
AT&T Bell Labs
201-386-2362
[e-mail]