Recorded 23 July 1951 Composer(s) Thelonious Monk | Genre Jazz | |
"Straight, No Chaser" is a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk. It was first recorded on Monk's Blue Note Sessions in 1951. It has been recorded numerous times by Monk and others and is one of Monk's most covered songs. It is a 12-bar blues in B♭ which, like one of his other B♭ blues, "Blue Monk", makes creative use of chromatics in the melody. Miles Davis recorded a famous version on his Milestones album, in which the tune is played in F rather than B♭.
Contents
Music educator Mark C. Gridley wrote about Monk's composition style: "Monk employed simple compositional devices with very original results. His 'Straight, No Chaser' involves basically only one idea played again and again, each time in a different part of the measure and with a different ending."
Carmen McRae recorded a vocal version of the tune in 1988, with words by Sally Swisher. The McRae version was titled "Get It Straight".
Personnel
The lineup of the original 1951 recording was: