Thelonious Monk and Gigi Gryce.

"Nica's Tempo"

Notes by Chris Whent

1. Shuffle Boil

2. Brake's Sake

3. Gallop's Gallop

4. Nica's Tempo

* Gigi Gryce - alto.

* Thelonious Monk - piano.

* Percy Heath - bass.

* Art Blakey - drums.

Quite inevitably this record is dominated by the presence of Thelonious Monk - especially since the titles featuring his work have never before been released in Britain. The days are fortunately long since past when the work of this jazz giant were considered esoteric, and any company issuing them was considered brave if not foolhardy. Monk waited longer for recognition than any other of the pioneers of modern jazz. His individualism has allowed no compromise of some of the most advanced jazz yet heard. It is unfortunate that his acceptance since the late 'fifties has been so rapid that we are today in danger of ignoring his importance as an innovator.

Monk's musical story is usually said to begin at Minton's Playhouse, around October 1940, when he was installed as part of a new house band by ex-bandleader Teddy Hill. It is often assumed that the experiments which led to bop were 'spontaneously generated' when this band was fertilised by the talents of sitting-in musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Christian.

But alone of all the pioneers Monk has already been noted as an experimenter. The observant Mary Lou Williams reported she met him in Kansas City in the mid-'thirties: "Thelonious, still in his teens, came into town with either an evangelist or a medicine show - I forget which. While he was in Kaycee he jammed every night, really used to blow on piano, employing a lot more technique than he does today. He felt that musicians should play something new and started doing it. He was one of the original modernists, all right, playing pretty much the same harmonies he's playing now."

Monk has far more awareness of the nature of the piano than most jazz pianists. His playing has always been highly rhythmic and percussive, with strong use of the ability of his instrument to strike and sustain chords. He was not, and still is not, a band player: but if Monk was happiest playing for hours by himself at Minton's his ideas fired other musicians. One of the first to see the possibility of adapting his complex progressions to improvisations on a horn was Dizzy Gillespie.

Already a highly competent instrumentalist Dizzy, together with Monk, "on afternoons, before a session . . . began to work out some complex variations on chords and the like and . . . used them at night to scare away the no-talent guys. After a while we got more and more interested in what we were doing as music, and, as we began to explore more and more, our music evolved."

Kenny Clarke has also confirmed that "we often talked in the afternoon. That's how we came to write different chord progressions and the like. Monk, Joe Guy, Dizzy, and I, would work them out. We often did it on the job, too."

That October 1940 house band at Minton's was a quartet - Monk, Joe Guy, Nick Fenton and Kenny Clarke - but the back room soon became a centre for all the young musicians in town.

"When Thelonious Monk first played at Minton's," recalled Mary Lou Williams,"there were few musicians who could run changes with him. Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Idrees Sulieman, and a couple more were the only ones who could play along with Monk then."

Jerry Newman, an enthusiastic jazz fan of the period, has recalled that "he was an exciting player and he was always working on new ideas. He would get an idea, and before he had a chance to try it out, he would have four or five others." Newman often recorded the happenings at Minton's on acetates, some of which have been released on LP. It is unfortunate that much of this material was selected to feature Charlie Christian's guitar. Newman has admitted that the released sides come nowhere near indicating how good Monk was in those days.

The golden days at Minton's came to an end in December 1941 with the entry of the U.S. into the war. The music continued off and on, but more and more musicians were drafted, joined big bands, or simply sought to work full-time with a group developing be-bop. Even Monk joined Lucky Millinder for a time, but apart from this his only other work under another musician was as part of a quartet led by Coleman Hawkins on 52nd Street. This group made four rare sides on October 19, 1944, which showed the pianist to be already a mature soloist, if not playing such magnificently understated music as today. Apart from these two engagements the pianist continued to work intermittently at Minton's until 1948.

Monk was neglected for so long during the 'forties, and is so misunderstood today, that one is tempted to proclaim his virtues too loudly. It has, however, become fashionable amongst those who were planning his records five years ago to declare patronisingly today that he has no technique to match his virtues as a composer. The charge seems to be founded on a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word technique.

It is equally fallacious to denigrate his work by claiming that his influence is negligible. To name a formidable example, Bud Powell - though employing a more conventional horn-like approach to the instrument and lacking Monk's ability to strip a musical line to its bare essentials - has often shown his influence. But searching for influences we may be missing the wood for the trees - as Art Blakey once said, "Monk is the guy who started it all; he came before both Parker and Gillespie."

As I said before, Monk dominates this record, as he dominates modern jazz.

CHRIS WHENT.

(Note : Other tracks on the CBS/Realm album are by the Gigi Gryce Orchestra.)