'Round Midnight

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'Round Midnight is a jazz standard written by jazz musician Thelonious Monk and first published in 1944. The piece of music, one of the most popular lyric compositions of modern jazz , was recorded by many artists of various styles.

History of origin

Cootie Williams & Orchestra - 'Round Midnight

After Thomas Fitterling, Monk wrote the first foundations for 'Round Midnight' in 1936. He completed his composition Grand Finale in the summer of 1943 and then titled it I Need You So , the copyright to this was registered in September 1943 and read Round About Midnight .

The composition remained in the archives for eight years until 1944 , when jazz pianist Bud Powell urged orchestra conductor Cootie Williams to record 'Round Midnight . The Cootie Williams Orchestra recorded the piece on August 22, 1944, with Monk protégé Bud Powell on piano, as well as Ermett Perry, George Treadweill, Lammar Wright senior and Tommy Stevenson (trumpet), Ed Burke, Bob Horton and Ed Clover (trombone), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (vocals), Sam "The Man" Taylor and Les Pope (tenor saxophone), Eddie DeVerteuil (baritone saxophone), Leroi Kirkland (guitar), Carl Pruitt (bass) and Sylvester Payne (drums) . Characteristic is an eight-bar interlude , for which Williams was granted the rights as co-author. The signature tune for his orchestra was created. Copywriter Bernie Hanighen (misspelled on the label) and Williams registered their copyrights in November 1944. The Eb minor song appeared as the B-side of the single Somebody's Got To Go / 'Round Midnight (HIT # 7119), but did not hit the charts .

analysis

The key is E flat minor. The piece consists of an A and a B part, both of which are 8 bars long. The A section is repeated at the beginning and then played again after the B section, creating the AABA form that is typical for many jazz standards . The composition is therefore 32 bars long.

The first 5 bars of 'Round Midnight . Other transcriptions differ considerably in melody and harmony.

The core of the A section is formed by the b-es'-f'-b'-ges' motif over E flat minor and a chromatically falling bass from E flat, which is the distinguishing feature of the entire piece. The two second tones of bass (d) and melody (es) in particular form the characteristic (here even slightly dissonant) sound of a small ninth. This motif (marked in red in the music example ) is spun on in the 3rd bar as es′-ges′-b′-des′-c ′ over c-half-diminished and "rocks" in the 5th bar as a′-ces′- es ″ -ges ″ over A flat minor 7 upwards, before the melody falls again in the 7th and 8th bars. Here the theme closes with Gs', F ', Es', D' and B ' above the dominant B flat major 7 , which prepares the tonic in E flat minor and thus introduces the repetition of the A part ( no longer included in the music example ).

The end of the 1st A part is also the material for the first four bars of the B part, in which this final turn is first slightly modified as ges′-f′-es′-d′-b and finally continued as ges′- f′-es′-d′-b ′ is repeated in the original version. Then follow in half notes over ces ′, b ′, ges ′ f ′ and again over es ″ des ″ ces ′ and b ′ two descending melody lines, which finally lead back to the last A section.

Cover versions

Thelonious Monk - 'Round About Midnight

It was more than a year before Dizzy Gillespie picked up the title on February 7, 1946. Gillespie didn't stick to the original composition either, but added his now famous intro and cadences for his big band arrangement. However, there was no copyright entry for this.

Now the composer Thelonious Monk followed on November 21, 1947 with his version on the single 'Round About Midnight / Well You Needn't (B-side recorded on October 24, 1947) (Blue Note # 543), who performed at his own Gillespie's edits took over. In addition to Monk (piano), George Taitt (trumpet), Edmund Gregory (alto saxophone), Robert Paige (bass) and Art Blakey (drums) played. Blue Note also released the version on the Genius of Modern Jazz album . He also recorded the piece as a piano solo at his last session on November 15, 1971.

Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight

A turning point for the development of Round Midnight was the performance of the composition by Miles Davis at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 17, 1955, when it came on stage unplanned, was announced by Duke Ellington and played two other tracks in addition to Round Midnight . Miles Davis (trumpet), Zoot Sims (tenor saxophone), Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone), Thelonious Monk (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Connie Kay (drums) were his instrumental accompanists. Davis and Monk got into an argument on the return trip from Newport when Monk accused Davis of having played the piece wrong - Monk got off the tour bus angrily. Conversely, Davis told festival director George Wein after the performance that he should tell Monk that he was playing the wrong notes. Wein replied: "Tell him yourself, he wrote the piece". The quarrel was soon forgotten. Davis recorded the piece several times, for example for Prestige Records on the album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants as well as in 1953 with Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker and again in 1958 as a member of the Michel Legrand Orchestra. 'Round Midnight was part of Miles Davis ' live repertoire until the late 1960s. It is so strongly associated with Davis that, for example, Eric Nisenson named his biography of Davis after the piece.

The Newport gig marked a comeback for Davis and led to a recording deal with Columbia Records . This performance rekindled the interest in Davis after a period of drug problems and led to the formation of his quintet with John Coltrane . The LP Round About Midnight was quickly recorded in New York , which contained one of the classic versions of 'Round Midnight as the title track. Recorded at the Columbia studio on 30th Street in New York on September 10, 1956 ( 'Round Midnight ; the other tracks were composed between October 26, 1955 and June 5, 1956) with the cast Miles Davis (trumpet), Paul Chambers ( Bass), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Red Garland (piano) and Philly Joe Jones (drums), the LP is one of the jazz classics; The producer was George Avakian .

Prince didn't release a cover version, but named 'Round Midnight' as one of 55 songs that inspired him musically.

statistics

Artists of different styles who took up the standard were for example Bobby McFerrin , Stan Getz , Chick Corea , Hermeto Pascoal , Elkie Brooks as a vocal piece and Andy Summers and Sting (members of the rock band The Police ).

According to the Jazz Online Discography "Tom Lord", the piece was recorded at least 1555 times, plus dozens of other recordings under the titles ' Round About Midnight, Around Midnight, Round Bout Midnight, Round Midnite, Autour de minuit, Alrededor de medianoche, Vid Midnatt, At About Midnight Intorno a mezzanotte, Около полуночи aka ラ ウ ン ド ・ ミ ッ ド ナ イ ト, Vain öisin and Narcomania .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Fitterling, Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music , 1997, pp. 105 ff.
  2. ↑ THE OFFICIAL THELONIOUS SPHERE MONK WEBSITE AND HOME OF THELONIOUS RECORDS. Retrieved June 3, 2012 .
  3. ↑ The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord. Retrieved June 3, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Who recorded 'Round Midnight? Retrieved June 3, 2012 .