Misterioso Monk

Thelonious Monk had a remarkable use of rubato on the piano. His style, which based on stride tradition, was full of angularity, intentional fractured, heavily into the beat, and way outside of bebop standards. Monk favored the flatted fifths and preferred his sound to be clotted with alter chords. A perfect example of his stylistic tick is on “Epistrophy,” a strange performance in which he demonstrated his downward-scale signature. “Blue Monk” is another brilliant piece showcases Monk’s idiosyncratic timbre and bizarre rhythmic structure. His solo performance on “Don’t Blame Me” illustrates his disruptive but exquisite cascading scale. I have an unrequited love for solo piano, and I can just listen to Thelonious Himself all day, especially “Round Midnight.”