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> "Thelonious Monk who just played everything in the hardest keys to prove how great he was on piano..." Can't find where I read that. I believe it was a Miles

> "Thelonious Monk who just played everything in the hardest keys to prove how great he was on piano..." Can't find where I read that. I believe it was a Miles Davis biography I read years ago. I know many Jazz greats thought the same of Monk. When you listen to "Monk meets John Coltrain" you can just see the two of them just making the hardest possible way to resolve what each other was doing. It is almost like they played musical dare for the last 9 months and finally gotten to a place where we got that album. As a saxophonist I really enjoyed playing to his work, but my keyboard friends would get so worked up. Just look at 'round midnight. The key signature and the accidentals make it almost unreadable. Plus sure we can play in any key but certain one's are easier than others and it seem like it was always the key that couldn't make it harder if one tried. It was always known if you shown any weakness in playing keys that everyone else would keep modulating to try and mess you up.

brooklyn_ashey 9y ago
One-upping is definitely a solo strategy that has a long history, and the tradition continues today. I just don't see Monk's key choice as some kind of proof of his skill. He wrote tunes that often sat awkwardly and offered a lot of space, like "We See" or "Coming on The Hudson" or even "Blue Monk" of all pieces. I feel those as offering freedom of direction and color- offering lots of rhythmic, motivic, and harmonic interpretational options. I guess that's why I love playing Monk tunes. And also his unique accent in the way he played- accent-inflection that was so of himself and so personal. It was confident and simple. I'm personally not a fan of the one-upsman approach to soloing, but it definitely exists.
- baldfat 9y ago
  Thank I never get to geek out on Jazz anymore. I moved to a different city and never got to crack into the scene that is here. To me Monk = craziest and most intellectually stimulating harmonies of all time. No one has ever played his music and fooled you into thinking it was by Thelonious.

brooklyn_ashey 9y ago

One-upping is definitely a solo strategy that has a long history, and the tradition continues today. I just don't see Monk's key choice as some kind of proof of his skill. He wrote tunes that often sat awkwardly and offered a lot of space, like "We See" or "Coming on The Hudson" or even "Blue Monk" of all pieces. I feel those as offering freedom of direction and color- offering lots of rhythmic, motivic, and harmonic interpretational options. I guess that's why I love playing Monk tunes. And also his unique accent in the way he played- accent-inflection that was so of himself and so personal. It was confident and simple. I'm personally not a fan of the one-upsman approach to soloing, but it definitely exists.

baldfat 9y ago
Thank I never get to geek out on Jazz anymore. I moved to a different city and never got to crack into the scene that is here. To me Monk = craziest and most intellectually stimulating harmonies of all time. No one has ever played his music and fooled you into thinking it was by Thelonious.