Sphere was an American jazz band which began as a tribute to pianist

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

, whose middle name was "Sphere". The band, which was formed in 1977, consisted of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Buster Williams, and two members who had been Monk's bandmates, drummer Ben Riley and saxophonist

Charlie Rouse Charlie Rouse (April 6, 1924 – November 30, 1988) was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by his collaboration with Thelonious Monk, which lasted for more than ten years. Biography Rouse was born in Was ...

. After Rouse died in 1988, Sphere disbanded but reunited ten years later with

Gary Bartz Gary Bartz (born September 26, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. He has won two Grammy Awards. Biography Bartz studied at the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Wor ...

taking Rouse's place. Sphere recorded its first album, consisting of Monk tunes, on the day that Monk died, February 17, 1982. The band recorded several more albums which included jazz standards and original compositions. According to Riley, an interesting group dynamic resulted from the fact that the band included two musicians who had played with Monk and two musicians who hadn't. He reflected: "It was good for the other guys... to hear the music in a way Monk would have written it and orchestrated it. It made them think of the music in a different way. It was also good for us to hear their interpretations of Monk's music. The music was always fresh."

Discography

* 1982: ''

Four in One ''Four in One'' is the umbrella title for a wheel series broadcast in the United States on the NBC television network as part of its 1970-71 schedule in the Wednesday 10 PM Eastern time slot. ''Four in One'' consisted of six episodes of each of ...

'' (

Elektra Musician Elektra/Musician was a jazz record label founded as a subsidiary of Elektra Records in 1982. The label was headed by Bruce Lundvall and released its first batch of albums on February 12, 1982. The label ceased when Lundvall left Elektra to start ...

) * 1983: ''

Flight Path In the United States, airways or air routes are defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in two ways: "VOR Federal airways and Low/Medium Frequency (L/MF) (Colored) Federal airways" These are designated routes which aeroplanes f ...

'' (Elektra) * 1985: '' Sphere On Tour'' (

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

) * 1986: '' Pumpkin's Delight'' (Red) contains all tracks released on ''Live at Umbria Jazz'' (Red) * 1987: '' Four for All'' ( Verve) * 1988: '' Bird Songs'' (Verve) * 1997: ''

Sphere A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is th ...

'' (Verve)

References

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles Verve Records artists Elektra Records artists Tribute bands Hard bop ensembles Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups disestablished in 2002 Thelonious Monk 1977 establishments in the United States 2002 disestablishments in the United States