Thelonious Monk playing piano at Minton’s Playhouse, NYC, in 1947. (Photo by William P. Gottlieb)
Throughout history, hundreds if not thousands of songs have been adopted into the extensive repertoire of jazz standards, but only a handful are universally recognized as masterpieces, and “ ‘Round Midnight” is undoubtedly one of them. It has been recorded by seemingly every musician with even the faintest connection to jazz — from Art Blakey to Amy Winehouse. Though it isn’t known exactly when Monk first wrote it, his longtime manager Harry Colomby claimed that the earliest draft of the tune dates back to the late 1930s, under the initial title “Grand Finale”.
By 1943, the pianist had reworked the composition and asked a friend to write lyrics, in addition to renaming it “I Need You So”. It was under this title that Thelonious Monk registered his first official copyright as a composer, on September 24th, 1943. The original lyrics were never recorded, but they appear to reflect the composer’s growing infatuation with his soon-to-be wife, Nellie Smith. The following lines are taken from the original “I Need You So” lyrics, written by Monk’s friend Thelma Elizabeth Murray:
“Since you went away I missed you,
Ev’ry hour I’ve wished to kiss you.
You are in my dreams, always,
I need you so.”
Portrait of Thelonious Sphere Monk. (Unknown Photographer)
Eventually, Monk chose to rename his composition for the third and final time, as “ ‘Round Midnight” or alternatively, “ ‘Round About Midnight”. Surprisingly, Thelonious does not perform on the very first studio recording of his piece, which was made in August of 1944 by trumpeter Cootie Williams. The story goes that Monk’s close friend and fellow bebop pianist Earl “Bud” Powell introduced Cootie to the song, and he liked it so much that he began using it as the theme tune for his orchestra’s live performances.
Williams also penned an original interlude section for his arrangement of “ ‘Round Midnight”, which is almost entirely forgotten today, but which earned him a co-composer credit for the piece regardless. Cootie’s added interlude occurs at 2:09 in this recording. A far more memorable contribution was made by bebop trumpeter and composer Dizzy Gillespie, who added a brooding introduction and coda to Monk’s masterpiece, both of which are still often played by jazz musicians to this day.
Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie, at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1963. (Photo by Paul Ryan)
By the mid-1940s, Thelonious and Dizzy were already well-acquainted from innumerable late-night jam sessions held at Minton’s Playhouse, where Monk worked as the house pianist from ‘41. By 1946, Dizzy Gillespie decided to arrange and record a big band version of “ ‘Round Midnight”, which also featured Thelonious on keys, under the collective guise ‘Tempo Jazz Men’.
This was the first time Monk ever performed it in the studio, and also the first arrangement to include Dizzy now-famous intro and coda sections. Monk evidently admired Gillespie’s additions, as he soon began incorporating them both into his own performances of the piece. Intriguingly, the famous introduction was not originally written for Monk’s tune at all, but instead it was first conceived as an outro for a 1945 sextet arrangement of the song “I Can’t Get Started (With You)”, by Vernon Duke. The coda which eventually became the famous “ ‘Round Midnight” introduction can be heard at 2:32 in this recording.One year after Dizzy’s big band version, Monk finally records “ ‘Round Midnight” as a leader for the first time on November 21st, 1947 for Blue Noterecords. The recording was released later that year as a Shellac 78 single, with another notable Monk composition, “Well You Needn’t”, as the B-side. For more details about this session and the musicians involved, see this page from JazzDisco.org.
Although Dizzy is not present on this recording, Monk still chose to include his added introduction, something he would continue to do for the rest of his career whenever he performed this piece. Strangely, this release seems to be the first official appearance of the piece’s alternate title, “ ‘Round About Midnight”, the name which Miles Davis would eventually adopt for his most famous recording of the piece in 1957. After Monk’s initial quintet recording, the tune was established as a standard and it continued to grow progressively more popular with jazz musicians for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the piece’s idiosyncratic melody and unusual harmonic structure made it stand out from other compositions of that era, and secondly, especially after Miles’ version, it began attracting younger jazz musicians (trumpeters in particular) who were eager to prove themselves to their elders. Until the end of his career, Thelonious Monk continued performing and recording “ ‘Round Midnight” frequently with many different musicians and groups, and each version is expressive in its own way.
His 1957 solo piano version from the record “Thelonious Himself” for Riverside records is particularly captivating, with his trademark off-kilter rhythms and dissonant phrasing style on full display in this unaccompanied setting. Other versions by Monk himself include a 1955 live recording with Miles Davis at the Newport Jazz Festival, and a later show at The Blackhawk in 1960. According to Miles, his Newport performance of the standard was a watershed moment in his career, and in his autobiography he states:
“When I got off the bandstand, everybody was looking at me like I was a king or something — people were running up to me offering me record deals. All the musicians there were treating me like I was a god… It was something else, man, looking out at all those people and then seeing them suddenly standing up and applauding what I had done.”
After this concert, Miles recorded the piece twice more in the studio: once with Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, and again a few years later with John Coltrane in ’56 for Prestige records. Shortly after these he named an entire LP “ ‘Round About Midnight” for Columbia in 1957, which includes an iconic recording of the title track. This version in particular captures the intimate mood of the piece perfectly, and as a result it has become possibly the most iconic performance of the standard ever recorded.
From the first note of Davis’ muted trumpet, alongside John Coltrane’s haunting tenor and Philly Joe Jones’ brushwork– a distinctly ominous atmosphere is created. With Paul Chambers on bass and Red Garland on piano, the rhythm section here is absolutely outstanding, and their accompaniment inspires fiery performances from both Miles and Coltrane. This excellent band came to be known as Miles Davis’ ‘First Great Quintet’, although he made a few personnel changes over the next few years. Unsurprisingly, the “ ‘Round About Midnight” LP became one of Davis’ most well-known records due to the rhythm section’s uncanny interplay and the two soloists’ imaginative interpretations of standards. This group, along with the Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, was pioneering a new style of jazz birthed from Bebop known as ‘Hard Bop’.
Over the years after Monk’s 1947 quintet version, many more enthralling recordings of “ ‘Round Midnight” were made by musicians such as Charlie Parker (with Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell), Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter), Dexter Gordon (with Woody Shaw), and countless others. Eventually the composition even began to attract vocalists as well, including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and decades later, Amy Winehouse. At least three sets of lyrics have been written, but the two most famous versions were done by Bernie Hanighen in the ‘40s, and by Jon Hendricks later on. Luckily, as Monk grew older through the ‘60s and ‘70s, many of the pianist’s performances were filmed live, so there are quite a few videos of him playing “ ‘Round Midnight” on camera. What better way to end our exploration of this standard, than with a masterful live rendition from the original composer himself? Accompanying Monk in this riveting live performance from 1966 are saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley.
This concludes our second article here at Gems of Jazz, and we sincerely hope you enjoyed reading about jazz history and the musicians who made it happen. Your support is very much appreciated and we will continue striving to create more insightful content for our audience to enjoy.
