Analysis Of Thelonious Monk, Straight, No Chaser

Beautiful melody, unusually chords and a great sense of rhythmic patterns are only a few characteristics that describe Thelonious Monk’s music. Monk was one the few American jazz composers that gave a spiritual feeling in his music. During his lifetime he played melodies and used chord progressions that no one has ever played before. He epitomizes what a jazz musician is supposed to be, whether if it’s through his compositions, his piano playing or someone else playing his music, you know right away it is Thelonious’. Monk kept to his own style, which was a unique and difficult concept to maintain at the time and was vastly different from the other jazz pianist of his day. I’ve decided to create a mix tape based on recordings of other musicians playing Monk’s arrangements to honor his …show more content…
Miles Davis recorded this song in his album Milestones, and includes great artists such as Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
Miles Davis is one of the most influential trumpeters in all of jazz history and took multiple musical directions during his five-decade music career, which kept him ahead of his competitors. He takes this 12-bar blues tune and alters it slightly from Thelonious Monk’s original recording. The original is a bit slower compared to Davis’s rendition and he also changes the key from Bb to F. Monk also has a quartet in his recording while Davis has a sestet but in each recording each player gets their own time to improv and no one is left out. Overall Miles Davis created a terrific interpretation of Monk’s Straight, No Chaser.

Joe Henderson Trio - Ask Me