''Thelonious'' is a 10" LP by American
jazz pianist and composer
Thelonious Monk, performed by the Thelonious Monk Trio. It was originally released in 1953 as the first of five 10" LP
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s by Monk for
Prestige (PrLP 142), and was later expanded into the 12-inch album ''
Thelonious Monk Trio
''Thelonious Monk Trio'' is an album by American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The album features his earliest recordings for Prestige Records, performing as a soloist with a rhythm section of bassist Gary Mapp (originally credited as ...
'' with the addition of two non-chronological later tracks. It has rarely been re-released in its original format, although it was included in a boxed set by Craft Records in a limited edition in 2017.
The album features his earliest recordings for the
Prestige label, performed with bassist Gary Mapp, and alternately
Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s.
Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...
and
Max Roach on drums.
[Thelonious Monk discography](_blank)
accessed 9 October 2009
Track listing
All compositions by
Thelonious Monk, except where noted.
Side A:
# "
Little Rootie Tootie" – 3:06
# "
Sweet and Lovely
"Sweet and Lovely" is an American popular song of 1931, composed by Gus Arnheim, Charles N. Daniels, and Harry Tobias.
Recordings of the song which charted in 1931 are:
* Gus Arnheim & His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra with a vocal refrain by Dona ...
" (
Gus Arnheim Gus Arnheim (September 4, 1897 – January 19, 1955) was an American pianist and an early popular band leader. He is noted for writing several songs with his first hit being "I Cried for You" from 1923. He was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He ...
,
Jules LeMare,
Harry Tobias
Harry Tobias (September 11, 1895 – December 15, 1994) was an American lyricist. Like his younger brother Charles, he is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Born in New York City, United States, but raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, ...
) – 3:33
# "
Bye–Ya" – 2:46
# "
Monk's Dream" – 3:07
Side B:
#
" Trinkle, Tinkle" – 2:49
# " These Foolish Things" (Harry Link
Harry Link (born John Harry Linkey, January 25, 1896, Philadelphia – July 5, 1956, New York City) was an American vaudeville actor and songwriter. He wrote and co-wrote several well-known jazz standards.
Career
Link studied at the Wharton Sc ...
, Holt Marvell
Albert Eric Maschwitz OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.
Life and work
Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, and desc ...
, Jack Strachey
Jack Strachey (25 September 1894 – 27 May 1972) was an English composer and songwriter
Born John Francis Strachey in London on 25 September 1894, he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success ...
) – 2:46
# "Bemsha Swing
This is a list of compositions by jazz musician Thelonious Monk.
0-9 52nd Street Theme
A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" b ...
" ( Thelonious Monk, Denzil Best
Denzil DaCosta Best (April 27, 1917 – May 24, 1965) was an American jazz percussionist and composer born in New York City. He was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Biography
Best was born in New York City, into a musi ...
) – 3:10
# " Reflections" – 2:48
;Notes
*Tracks 1–4 recorded on October 15, 1952
Singles and EPs
A notable feature of these eight recordings is their brevity. Like the Blue Note recordings before them, it appears these performances were kept short such that they could be simultaneously released on 45 and 78 rpm singles and EPs. And, in fact, most of these selections were released in that format at the time, as well:
*PR 795 Thelonious Monk Trio – Sweet And Lovely / Bye–Ya
*PR 838 Thelonious Monk Trio – Trinkle, Tinkle / These Foolish Things
*PR 850 Thelonious Monk Trio – Little Rootie Tootie / Monk's Dream
*PREP 1329 Thelonious Monk Trio (EP with same contents as Side A of the 10" LP)
*45–162 Thelonious Monk Trio – Blue Monk / Bye–Ya (re–released 1959)
The next batch of recordings Monk produced for Prestige saw him beginning to take advantage of the longer LP format.
Personnel
* Thelonious Monk – piano
*Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s.
Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...
– drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
(tracks 1–4)
*Gary Mapp – bass
* Max Roach – drums (tracks 5–8)
* an uncredited person plays a shaker (in son clave rhythm) on "Bye–Ya"
References
{{Authority control
Thelonious Monk albums
1953 albums
Prestige Records albums