Thelonious Monk – Unidentified Solo Piano

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  1. People may not like Monk’s playing because they don’t understand it and most musicians appreciate it. Especially jazz pianists. I like it, but not all of it!

  2. Sounds like the changes to Ruby my dear

  3. I was fortunate to see him live at the 5 Spot in NYC with his quartet. we stayed for every set, unforgettable, I love everything he’s done, still enjoy him almost daily.

  4. It is Monk’s “Dreamland”. My bad.

  5. I saw Monk at Winterland in the 70s. He is the most unique Jazz composer. He mentored Coltrane and Bud Powell. John said “ he taught me the value of silence. I have written lyrics to Epistrophy , my favorite Monk composition.

  6. Robin D. G. Kelley, ‘Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original’, 2010: states– “’Dreamland’ has been mislabelled and misrepresented many times. [Chris] Sheridan [the author of Monk biog. ‘Brilliant Corners’] confuses it with the E. Ray Goetz and John Ringling North composition of the same title, and when it was released on the Black Lion label in 1971, it was listed as ‘Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland’, the 1904 composition by Leo Friedman and Beth Slater Wilson. But I have reviewed both songs, along with dozens of other songs with the title ‘Dreamland’ (Harry L. Newman’s‘Take Me Back To Dreamland’, Harold Arlen’s ‘Hit The Road to Dreamland’, Francis Paul ‘Dreamland’, ad nauseum.) None of these songs bear any resemblance to what Monk is playing here on the LP Monk in Action (recorded live at the 5 Spot) . After ten years of searching, querying, and digging, I have come to the same conclusion that Jacques Ponzio and François Postif have come to: it is a Monk original. Perhaps it is a sketch of a song never quite finished.”