More Monk... with Blakey... in Paris...

Monk recorded the first version of 'Rhythm a ning' I've put up below in 1958 with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers who at that time had the front line of the fiery tenor player Johnny Griffin and the underrated trumpeter Bill Hardman. The second comes from a concert in Paris in 1965. With the other version (with Gerry Mulligan) that I posted previously, it's fascinating to compare these interpretations. The Blakey one, of course, has Art booting along on the drums which makes it sound faster although they are all in the same time frame roughly – speedy. Three different horn players and a trumpeter mark the differences as well, although Monk's piano solos all have similar checkpoints – that quasi-stride or Tatumesque run down the chords, one particular figure he plays with in all three and hammered-out chords used rhythmically. Actually, I prefer the solo on the Paris recording... just... there again, it's taken at a lick but he's playing with Charlie Rouse(another underrated player). Rouse had become well-established by this time, after various other tenors (and rhythm sections) passed through – among them Johnny Griffin (see above with the Jazz Messengers) and of course that brief few months in 1957 when Coltrane held down the sax chair for the Five Spot residency. Also,they are on (relatively)safe ground – great audience and familiarity with the tune – he must have played it many, many times by now. But it sounds fresh – Monk was still on top of his game in the mid-sixties. Strange how these versions of the same song at almost the same tempo display - different feelings of relaxation, I suppose. The Paris version ticks along easily - probably due to the factors I mentioned - steady band, familiarity with material etc. The track with Mulligan sounds like an after-hours session, almost laid back. Blakey is always going to be frenetic – I saw him when he was an old man at a weird gig in a place called Stanford Hall near Loughborough which is... in the middle of... the UK, ok, let's not get too petty – sometimes I love my home town and sometimes... must have been about twenty years ago. Another story for another day – but what struck me was his fire – you saw this old white haired guy come on stage – but when he struck the first press roll – it sounded as if God him/her(got to be cool about the holy gender these days)self had summoned up thunder. Amazing energy.

Live in Paris... Rouse plays a fluent solo. Monk starts his solo in the bass, going eventually into that descending chordal run then into a hammering section where he bangs out a repeated riff that he alters harmonically slightly then into sparse, sharp chords. An exercise in the piano as rhythm instrument... Larry Gales plays well, getting out the usual walking patterns that still too often passed for 'the bass solo' round that time, leads into Ben Riley – slick drums and the crowd always loves the drummer. Different to Blakey – but Art was in a different drum world – those punishing rolls and relentless prompting of soloists – check him out behind Bill Hardman's solo - but Riley is assured and swinging. This is the longest version of the three, more spaced out because of the live recording, probably...

The Blakey session is a bit of a forgotten masterpiece, along with that date with Mulligan. Hardman seems hesitant at first but is swept along by Monk and Blakey's promptings – he rises to them well. Griffin never essayed forth a bad solo and was a supersonic player in most incarnations (and a very good ballad player in later years) – he also knew Monk's material as he had been in the group at some point. Interestingly, Blakey holds back behind him, until he goes into a wild, thumping solo at the end – archetypal Art.

See what you make of the differences – and similarities between these recordings- especially Monk's solos. Monk's segment in the film 'Jazz on a Summer's Day' was instrumental in jolting me at an early age into an awareness and subsequent obsession with modern jazz – and way beyond. A sonic visonary...

And to close on one of those obscure points so beloved of jazz obsessives – Johnny Griffin and his tough tenor sax soul brother, Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, with whom he recorded some raucous free-blowing albums, did a tribute to Monk session in 1961 – 'Looking at Monk' - and the bass and drummer are the rhythm section on the Monk Paris concert a few years later – Larry Gales and Ben Riley (who played with Monk regularly. The music goes round and round etc...




Download – Rhythm-a-ning - Monk with the Blakey JazzMessengers. Buy it
Download – Rhythm-a-ning - Monk in Paris. Buy it