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Underground (Thelonious Monk album)

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Released
  
1968

Underground (1967)
  
Monk's Blues (1968)

Release date
  
1968

Genre
  
Jazz

Label
  
Columbia

Artist
  
Thelonious Monk

Producer
  
Teo Macero

Underground (Thelonious Monk album) httpslondonjazzcollectorfileswordpresscom20

Recorded
  
December 14 and 21, 1967; February 14, 1968

Length
  
37:23 (1:11:04 on Special Edition)

Awards
  
Grammy Award for Best Recording Package

Similar
  
Thelonious Monk albums, Jazz albums

Underground is a 1968 album by American jazz musician Thelonious Monk. It features Monk on piano, Larry Gales on bass, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, and Ben Riley on drums.

Contents

The album is widely known for its provocative cover image, which depicts Monk as a fictitious French Resistance fighter in the Second World War. It contains a number of new Monk compositions, some of which appear in recorded form only on this album. This is the last Monk album featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet, and the last featuring Charlie Rouse (who appears on only half the tracks, having missed a recording session to attend his father's funeral).

Thelonious monk thelonius


Music

"Ugly Beauty" is the only waltz among Thelonious Monk's recorded compositions.

"Boo Boo's Birthday" and "Green Chimneys" are named after Monk's daughter Barbara, Boo Boo being her nickname, and Green Chimneys being the name of the school she attended.

"In Walked Bud", first recorded in 1947, is based on the chord progression of "Blue Skies". Jazz vocalese artist Jon Hendricks appears on this track, adding lyrics to the song's melody.

Track listing (later CD issue)

All songs composed by Thelonious Monk unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Thelonious" – 3:13
  2. "Ugly Beauty" – 3:17
  3. "Raise Four" – 5:47
  4. "Boo Boo's Birthday" – 5:56
  5. "Easy Street" (Alan Rankin Jones) – 5:53
  6. "Green Chimneys" – 9:00
  7. "In Walked Bud" (Jon Hendricks, Monk) – 4:17

Track listing (Special Edition)

  1. "Thelonious" – 3:16
  2. "Ugly Beauty" – 10:45
  3. "Raise Four" – 7:00
  4. "Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 11)" – 5:55
  5. "Easy Street" – 7:50
  6. "Green Chimneys" – 13:09
  7. "In Walked Bud" – 6:48
  8. "Ugly Beauty (Take 4)" – 7:37
  9. "Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 2)" – 5:34
  10. "Thelonious (Take 3)" – 3:10

Musicians

  • Thelonious Monk – piano
  • Charlie Rouse – tenor saxophone
  • Larry Gales – bass
  • Ben Riley – drums
  • Jon Hendricks – vocals on "In Walked Bud"

    • Production

  • Teo Macero – production
  • Tim Geelan – engineering
  • Horn Grinner Studios – photography
  • John Berg, Richard Mantel – art direction

    • Songs

    1Thelonious3:17
    2Ugly Beauty7:21
    3Raise Four5:51

    References

    Underground (Thelonious Monk album) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA