'Round Midnight (song)

"'Round Midnight" is a 1944 composition by pianist Thelonious Monk that quickly became a jazz standard and has been recorded by a wide variety of artists. A version recorded by Monk's quintet was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993.^[1] It is one of the most recorded jazz standards composed by a jazz musician.^{[2] [3]}

Composition and Monk's first recording[]

It is thought that Monk composed the song sometime in 1940 or 1941. However, Harry Colomby claims that Monk may have written an early version around 1936 (at the age of 19). The song was copyrighted September 24, 1943 in C minor under the title "I Need You So", with lyrics by a friend of Monk's named Thelma Murray.^[4] The first recording was made by Cootie Williams on August 22, 1944,^[5] after the pianist Bud Powell persuaded Williams to record the tune.^[6] Monk first recorded the song on November 21, 1947, and later appeared on the Blue Note album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1,^[7] and recorded it several times after that. His first version was transcribed by Lionel Grigson in A Thelonious Monk Study Album (Novello, 1993).^[8]

Jazz trumpeters Cootie Williams and Dizzy Gillespie further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding his own lyrics. Williams composed an eight bar interlude, played by the ensemble on his recording. This interlude is not included on any of Monk's recordings and is rarely if ever played. The lyrics were copyrighted November 27, 1944 under the title "Grand Finale".^[6] Both Williams and Hanighen received co-credits for their contributions. The commonly played intro to "'Round Midnight" was originally composed by Dizzy Gillespie for the end of his arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", but later adopted it to the intro for "'Round Midnight".^[9] Gillespie later reused the arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", and recorded it for Birks' Works and Something Old, Something New.

Later versions[]

The song is sometimes incorrectly called "'Round About Midnight", as Miles Davis used this as the title of his 1957 Columbia Records album 'Round About Midnight that included a version based on Dizzy Gillespie's arrangement. It became a signature song for Davis; his performance of it with Monk at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, which was heard by producer George Avakian, was crucial in securing him a recording contract with Columbia Records.^[10] He had previously recorded the song in the studio two other times, once for Prestige in 1953 and again in 1956 as released on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.

A recording by Jimmy McGriff was used as the 6pm closedown theme in the early days of Radio Caroline in 1964.

In 1971, Ron Grainer used a down-tempo variation by Cootie Williams to accompany a memorable scene from The Omega Man. The song later appeared on a 2004 Gotan Project CD, Inspiración Espiración, featuring Chet Baker.

In 1986, the song was used as the title for the film Round Midnight which starred veteran saxophonist Dexter Gordon in a fictional story about an expatriate American jazz musician living in Paris. The soundtrack by Herbie Hancock prominently features the song "'Round Midnight" along with a number of other jazz standards and a handful of original pieces written by Hancock.

In 2002, Italian pianist Emanuele Arciuli commissioned a number of composers to create the Round Midnight Variations.^[11] The composers included Roberto Andreoni, Milton Babbitt, Alberto Barbero, Carlo Boccadoro, William Bolcom, David Crumb, George Crumb, Michael Daugherty, Filippo Del Corno, John Harbison, Joel Hoffman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Gerald Levinson, Tobias Picker, Matthew Quayle, Frederic Rzewski, Augusta Read Thomas and Michael Torke.^[12]

Notable recordings[]

By Monk[]

Recording date	Appears on	Duration	Release date	Solo	Live	Note	Reference
1947/11/21	Genius of Modern Music	3:10	1951			The same version was already released in 1947 as a single with "Well You Needn't" as the B-side; today the compilation Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 is more established.	[13][14][15]
1954/06/04	Piano Solo	5:13	1954			France only release	[16]
1957/04/12	Thelonious Himself	6:44	1957			The original CD reissue, released in 1987 via Original Jazz Classics/Riverside Records, includes an extensive 22-minute solo recording of "'Round Midnight" outtakes and experimentation in the studio.	[17][18][19]
1957/08/13	Mulligan Meets Monk	8:29	1957				[20][21][22]
1958/07/09	Thelonious in Action	6:15	1989			Bonus track on 1989-CD reissue	[23][24]
1960/04/29	Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk	12:07	1960				[25][26]
1961/04/15	The First European Concert '61	7:09	1991			unofficial release	[27][28]
1961/05/16	Thelonious Monk In Stockholm	6:52	1987			unofficial release	[29][30]
1963/02/09	Spastic And Personal					unofficial release	[31][32]
1964/10/31	Live at the It Club	6:32	1982				[33][34][35]
1964/11/03	Live at the Jazz Workshop	9:10	1982				[36][37]
1966/03/27	Switzerland 1966		1991			unofficial release	[38][39]
1968/11/19	Monk's Blues	3:49	1990			with quartet and big band; originally released in 1968, but the track was first featured on the CD reissue in 1990 as a bonus track (recorded at the same session)	[40][41]
1968	Straight No Chaser – Music From The Motion Picture (OST)	2:14	1989				[42][43]
1970/10/04	Thelonious Monk In Tokyo						[40]
1971/11/14	The Giants of Jazz	8:17	1972			as "The Giants of Jazz" with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Al McKibbon, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding; other recordings of the group have been made while touring Europe in 1971 and released as bootlegs	[44][45][46]
1972/06/15	The Last Concerts	6:54	2009				[47][48]
1972/09/16	Live At The 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival	5:15	2008/08/05			as "Art Blakey and The Giants of Jazz"	[49][50]
1975/07/03	The Last Concerts	7:40	2009				[47][48]

By others[]

References[]

Sources

• Kelley, Robin D. G. (2009). Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. Free Press. p. 568. ISBN 978-0-684-83190-9. Retrieved May 5, 2014. thelonious monk something in blue compositions by.

Further reading[]

• Gourse, Leslie (1998). Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk. Schirmer Books. ISBN 978-0-8256-7229-3.