Underground (Thelonious Monk album)
Encyclopedia
Underground is a 1968 album
by Thelonious Monk
. It features Monk on piano, Larry Gales
on bass, Charlie Rouse
on tenor sax, and Ben Riley
on drums.
Although this album is most widely-known for its provocative cover image, which depicts Monk as a fictitious French Resistance fighter in the Second World War, it contains a number of new Monk compositions, some of which only appear in recorded form on this album. This is the last Monk album featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet, and the last featuring Charlie Rouse
(who only appears on half the tracks).
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by 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"...
. It features Monk on piano, Larry Gales
Larry Gales
Lawrence Bernard "Larry" Gales was an American jazz double-bassist.Gales began playing bass at age 11, and attended the Manhattan School of Music in the late 1950s. In that decade and the beginning of the next he worked with J.C. Heard, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Johnny Griffin, Herbie Mann, Junior...
on bass, Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by the collaboration for more than ten years with Thelonious Monk.- Biography :...
on tenor sax, and Ben Riley
Ben Riley
Ben Riley is an American hard bop drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Barron, and as member of the group Sphere...
on drums.
Although this album is most widely-known for its provocative cover image, which depicts Monk as a fictitious French Resistance fighter in the Second World War, it contains a number of new Monk compositions, some of which only appear in recorded form on this album. This is the last Monk album featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet, and the last featuring Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by the collaboration for more than ten years with Thelonious Monk.- Biography :...
(who only appears on half the tracks).
Comments on Tracks
- "Ugly Beauty" is the only waltz among Thelonious Monk's recorded compositions.
- "Raise Four" is a blues with an extraordinarily simple but dissonant melody.
- "Boo Boo's Birthday" and "Green Chimneys" are named after Monk's daughter Barbara, Boo Boo being her nickname, and "Green Chimneys" being the name of the school she attended. "Boo Boo's Birthday" has an unorthodox structure among even Monk's tunes, being 21 bars in length and having an unusual harmonic structure.
- "In Walked BudIn Walked Bud"In Walked Bud" is a 1947 jazz composition by Thelonious Monk. It was based on the chord progression of an earlier standard, Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" . The song was a tribute to jazz pianist Bud Powell....
", first recorded in 1947, is based on the chord progression of "Blue SkiesBlue Skies (song)-History:The song was composed in 1926 as a last minute addition to the Rodgers and Hart musical, Betsy. Although the show only ran for 39 performances, "Blue Skies" was an instant success, with audiences on opening night demanding 24 encores of the piece from star, Belle Baker. During the final...
" and is dedicated to Monk's friend and fellow jazz pianist, Bud PowellBud PowellEarl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
. Jazz vocaleseVocaleseVocalese is a style or genre of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation. Whereas scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables, such as "bap ba dee dot bwee dee" in solos, vocalese uses lyrics, either...
artist Jon HendricksJon HendricksJon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...
appears on this track, adding lyrics to the song's melody.
Track listing
- "Thelonious" – 3:13
- "Ugly Beauty" – 3:17
- "Raise Four" – 5:47
- "Boo Boo's Birthday" – 5:56
- "Easy Street" – 5:53
- "Green Chimneys" – 9:00
- "In Walked BudIn Walked Bud"In Walked Bud" is a 1947 jazz composition by Thelonious Monk. It was based on the chord progression of an earlier standard, Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" . The song was a tribute to jazz pianist Bud Powell....
" – 4:17