A History Of Blue Note Records: 1951

The Thelonious Monk Quintet – July 23 1951

Michael Cuscuna – The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk – Mosiac MR4-101 Three years and three weeks separate this and the previous session. Blue Note’s backlog of material and growing sense of economic reality may have been the reasons for the long gap. The cast is made up entirely of familiar friends. Interestingly, Monk and Jackson would collaborate in the studio only one more time on a 1954 Miles Davis all star date. The quartet of Monk, Shihab, McKibbon and Blakey was actually a working band in 1947 and 1948, doing a relatively long engagement at Minton’s and a smattering of other gigs.

Bob Blumenthal – Genius of Modern Music Volume 2 RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes (CD 5-32139-2)

After recording three sessions over a mere five-week period in 1947 (see Genius of Modern Music Volume One in the RVG series), Thelonious Monk was no longer an unknown pianist/composer. Nor was he the instantly-embraced new darling of writers and fans. In The Thelonious Monk Reader(Oxford, 2001), editor Rob van der Bliek has collected the initial critical responses, and excepting early champion Paul Bacon they are generally confused. Blue Note remained supportive, and brought Monk into the studio for the fourth time in less than a year on July 2, 1948; the classic results are now found on the self-titled RVG CD of the date's featured sideman Milt Jackson. Then three years passed before the quintet session included here was produced. During that time, Monk only recorded twice — on the Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker reunion session for Norman Granz and a pair of tracks by the obscure vocalist Frankie Passions.

Monk's vision, inspiration and level of execution as pianist, composer, and bandleader had certainly not been inhibited, to judge by the results of the quintet and subsequent sextet performances that comprise the present program. They are the work of a still little-known veteran who turned 34 between the two sessions, and who found even less opportunity to work after a police incident led to the revocation of his New York City cabaret card. Together, and programmed in each case with master takes followed by any alternates, these recordings form a most fitting second volume of Monk's Blue Note period, with the growth in his overall individuality (and his arranging skills in particular) placed in bold relief.

Photo by Francis Wolff

The July 23, 1951 date is a much celebrated session that reunited Monk with former studio collaborators Milt Jackson, Sahib Shihab and Art Blakey. The vibraharpist received featured billing when "Willow Weep for Me" was initially released on 78, and the master takes of "Criss Cross" and "Eronel" also appeared on Jackson's Blue Note 10" LP Wizard Of The Vibes. Bassist Al McKibbon made his first appearance on record with Monk here, though he had previously worked in a quartet with Shihab, Monk and Blakey. McKibbon reunited with Monk and Blakey 20 years later on the Giants of Jazz tour that produced Monk's final recordings.

"Four In One" is a rare Monk melody that seems to leap right off the keyboard. It could only have been created by a confident if iconoclastic virtuoso, and it is brilliantly executed by musicians who in each instance have grown more settled into Monk's universe. Several commentators have voiced a preference for the alternate take, which was made after the master, though the existence of two such fine performances should caution us that we will miss much of value if we seek only the one "definitive" reading. My greater enthusiasm for the master, with its very Monkish hesitation in Shihab's solo and great Jackson, may stem from its presence on the 12" LP reissue of Genius of Modern Music Volume Two that I wore out as a young fan.

Milt Jackson in performance
Photo by Francis Wolff

"Criss Cross" has been called Monk's masterpiece and offers great insight into his compositional approach. It highlights how he makes rhythm work melodically, and how that ascending early pattern suggests a complementary descending response which in turn generates the bridge — all within a structure that produces a further rhythmic kick with its six-bar, 3/3/2 bridge. Gunther Schuller has written that "Criss Cross" is "a purely instrumental conception...an abstraction... it simply states and develops certain musical ideas, in much the way that an abstract painter will work with specific nonobjective patterns." The master was recorded first at a superior slower tempo, and has better solos by Jackson (a full chorus), Shihab and Monk.

The provenance of "Eronel" has been in dispute for decades. As Schuller and Ira Gitler have noted, its excellence implies that it could be Monk's exclusive creation, though co-composer Idrees Sulieman confirmed what is the now-accepted lineage in a March 2001 conversation: "l wrote the A section in the '40s, and tried different bridges that I didn't like. So I went to Sadik Hakim, who came up with the bridge. I showed the finished tune to Miles, who wanted me to change the bridge again; then I showed the tune to Monk. When Monk played it, he played the fourth note of the melody wrong — he played a major seventh instead of the sixth I had written. Monk kept playing it that way, and, together with a few harmonic things he did, that became the way 'Eronel' was played. " As Milt Jackson once remarked, Monk could make mistakes sound better than anyone. "Eronel" has a full chorus by the pianist, who makes a simple trill sound audacious, and finds Shihab returning to the Maurice Chevalier warhorse "Louise" that he previously cited during "Four In One."

"Straight No Chaser" has become one of Monk's most popular compositions. The opening Blakey chorus, full of the drummer's wonderful rim shots, -sets a tempo where the darting accents of the melody can be heard and felt to best effect. The rhythm section plays the theme initially, then it is repeated by the full quintet. Shihab, who responds to the "Misterioso" quote at the end of Monk's solo with "The Kerry Dancers," gets a chorus between supreme blues statements of two choruses each by Monk and Jackson.

This most productive session ends with a pair of ballads, including two trio takes of "Ask Me Now," one of Monk's stark gems in which the left-hand commentary is as telling as the right-hand melody. The master, cut after the alternate, is more forthright and a half-chorus shorter, a concession no doubt to the 78-rpm format in which it originally appeared.

Jackson returns for "Willow Weep For Me," and holds the spotlight throughout after Monk's introduction. Anne Ronnell's blues ballad is an ideal forum for the vibraharpist's two defining traits, soul and romanticism, and it inspires one of the earliest recorded examples of Jackson's mature ballad style.

Leonard Feather – Milt Jackson and the Thelonious Monk Quintet - BLP 1509 Liner Notes

The scene changes on Willow Weep For Me as Monk provides, with a couple of second-intervals, a reminder of his personality before Bags takes over for a medium-slow-swinging solo. The departure from the melody is never more than slight, yet the stamp of the Jackson personality is never less than complete; here is one of his definitive ballad performances.

The music on Criss Cross and Eronel takes on a new mask, that of Monk the composer, writing unison lines for Shihab’s alto and Bags’ vibes to lend the quintet its own sound, and adding a double-augmented here and there to mind you that this, after all, was Monk’s date.

Art Blakey and Milt Jackson
Photo by Francis Wolff

Ira Gitler – Thelonious Monk – The Complete Genius – BNLA-579-H2 Compilation Liner Notes

The set closer is the 1951 reunion of Monk with Bags — Milt Jackson — as well as with Shihab and Blakey. Ask Me Now is a trio performance (Jackson and Shihab lay out) in the same class as the October 1947 classics.

The blues, Straight No Chaser, is a strong example of how masterful Monk is at manipulating phraseology into a motif that generates its own swing. At the end of his solo he quotes Mysterioso. When Straight No Chaser was first issued most musicians slept on it. Then later in the 50's — coincidental with the "rediscovery" of Monk — it became an oft played and recorded line.

Four In One, heard in two versions (the differences are an edifying bonus) has a harmonic base that in places reminds one of Yardbird Suite changes but it is not and the bridge is not the same either. Shihab had become more lyrical since 1947 and Jackson had added polish without slickness to his already substantial talents.

Gunther Schuller, talking about Criss Cross once compared it to work of abstract painters in that it didn't set out to create a "mood" or depict something specific. But so much of music is "abstract" that I think he was stretching things a bit. However, I would agree with his companion observation; "It is not a 'song,' a term so many musicians apply to the music they work with, it is not a 'tune' — it is a composition for instruments."

Eronel is another typically Monkian theme in that even if you have never heard it before, something inside tells you that you might have known it — a musical deja vu of sorts. I think this is because his pieces are crafted so finely — no waste — and have an overall feeling of rightness about them.

Monk is cast strictly in an accompanist's role for Jackson's feature on Ann Ronell's Willow Weep For Me. His is a presence which helps Bags to achieve a continuously affecting performance. And as far as setting moods...

Martin Williams once pointed out something in Monk's playing that is equally applicable to his entire oeuvre. "One of the most immediately striking things...is that everything he says he says musically — if he has no music to make he doesn't fill out a single bar with faked blowing or rambling. All is given in terms of a musical sensibility or it isn't given at all."

And Monk has given us so much.

Michael Cuscuna – Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson – BNJ-61012 Liner Notes

From these sides, we jump back in time to Monk's fifth date with Jackson, Sahib Shihab on alto, Art Blakey on drums and bassist Al McKibbon, who was close to the vibist, Lewis and Clarke in the Gillespie band. While this alternate take of "Cross Cross", which must be considered Monk's first true masterpiece, does not have the spirit and drive of the master, it is extraordinary for Monk's remarkable piano solo. From the start, he makes real use of the composition in his improvisations. The first full chorus belongs entirely to Jackson, while the piano and alto sax split the second.

Jackson's relationship with Monk was a very special one as has been noted elsewhere. Dan Morgenstern once wrote: "Jackson's ear is attuned to Monk's harmonic universe. He does not mind being guided by Monk's manner of accompanying". Andre Hodeir accurately observed that "they managed to achieve a profound understanding."

Also from this session is an alternate take of the trio performance of "Ask Me Now". This take was probably not used because it is a full two choruses, making it too long for a 78. But the composition comes alive here as Monk gets to solo for 16 bars before coming back to the theme. On the master, he solos for 8 bars and closes with 8 bars of theme, making the total performance one chorus and a half.