Round Midnight" is a 1944 jazz standard

Jazz standard

Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...

 by pianist Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

. Jazz artists Cootie Williams

Cootie Williams

Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.-Biography:...

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

, Art Pepper

Art Pepper

Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...

, and Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 have further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen

Bernie Hanighen

Bernard D. Hanighen was an American songwriter best known for co-writing "'Round Midnight" and "When a Woman Loves a Man"...

 adding lyrics. Both Williams and Hanighen have received co-credits for their contributions.

History

It is thought that Monk originally composed the song sometime in 1940 or 1941. However, Harry Colomby claims that Monk may have written an early version around 1936 (at the age of 19) with the title "Grand Finale". "Round Midnight" is the most-recorded jazz standard composed by a jazz musician. In allmusic.com it appears in over 1000 albums. The song is also called "Round About Midnight", as Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 used this title for his Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 album Round About Midnight (1957) that included a cover of the song based on Dizzy Gillespie's interpretation.

Monk recorded the song on the following albums: Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1

Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1

Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 is the name given to at least four different compilation albums by jazz pianist, Thelonious Monk. Each version comprises some of Monk's first recordings as band leader for Blue Note, recorded in 1947 . The original LP with this title was compiled in 1951.Two...

 (first recording of the song by Monk); Thelonious Himself

Thelonious Himself

Thelonious Himself is a 1957 album by Thelonious Monk and his first to consist of exclusively solo material including "'Round Midnight", Monk's most famous composition. The original CD reissue includes a revelatory 22 minutes of "'Round Midnight" outtakes, ideas, and development. The Keepnews...

; Mulligan Meets Monk

Mulligan Meets Monk

Mulligan Meets Monk is a jazz album by saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and pianist Thelonious Monk, originally released in 1957. It has been reissued numerous times on CD...

; Misterioso; Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk

Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk

Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk is an album by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. It was originally issued on the Riverside label as RLP 12-323 /1171 and Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 305-2 in 1987.-Track listing:...

; Monk's Blues

Monk's Blues

Monk's Blues is an album by Thelonious Monk, originally released in 1968. It was re-released on CD in 1994. One of Monk's last recordings, it was produced with a large group of musicians...

 (bonus track).

Tribute

Round Midnight Variations is a collection of variations on Round Midnight", composed by Roberto Andreoni, Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...

, Alberto Barbero, Carlo Boccadoro, William Bolcom

William Bolcom

William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...

, David Crumb

David Crumb

David Crumb, born May 21, 1962, is a contemporary composer born into a musical family. His father is composer George Crumb, and his sister is singer Ann Crumb...

. George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, Michael Daugherty

Michael Daugherty

Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...

, Filippo Del Corno, John Harbison

John Harbison

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...

, Joel Hoffman

Joel Hoffman (composer)

Joel Hoffman is an Canadian composer of contemporary classical music and pianist living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a professor of composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the founder and director of the MusicX festival of new music which is held each summer at...

, Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...

, Gerald Levinson

Gerald Levinson

Gerald Levinson is an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:At university, he studied with George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and George Rochberg. After college, Levinson went to study composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory...

, Tobias Picker

Tobias Picker

Tobias Picker is an American composer. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt...

, Matthew Quayle, Frederic Rzewski

Frederic Rzewski

Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...

, Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer.Augusta Read Thomas was born in Glen Cove, New York. She attended The Green Vale School and later moved on to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and then studied composition with Jacob Druckman at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of...

 and Michael Torke

Michael Torke

Michael Torke is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works...

.