Ruby, My Dear
Ruby, My Dear is a jazz ballad by the American composer Thelonious Monk .
background
The song was named after Rubie Richardson, Monk's first friend. It was first recorded in 1947 during a session for Blue Note Records , the time Monk made his final breakthrough as a jazz musician . Monk recorded the song several times, including in 1959 and 1965 as a solo piano version and with saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane (in New York's Five Spot Jazz Cafe, summer 1957); the version with John Coltrane is often considered the reference version. The quite straightforward melody is complemented by Monk's harmonic improvisations; Ruby, My Dear is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful love songs in bebop .
Sally Swisher wrote a lyrics for the song; the vocal version was recorded in 1988 by Carmen McRae for her studio album Carmen Sings Monk under the title Dear Ruby . The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 297 (as of 2016) cover versions in the field of jazz , among which the recordings by Peter Bernstein , Dexter Gordon , Kenny Dorham , Roy Hargrove , Bill Harris and Bud Powell are to be highlighted.
Recordings
T. Monk
- 1947 - Genius of Modern Music : Volume 1 (with Idrees Sulieman , Danny Quebec West , Billy Smith , Gene Ramey and Art Blakey )
- 1957 - Monk's Music (with Coleman Hawkins , Wilbur Ware and Art Blakey)
- 1959 - Thelonious Alone in San Francisco
- 1961 - Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (with John Coltrane , Wilbur Ware and Shadow Wilson ; recorded in 1957)
- 1965 - Solo Monk
- 1967 - The Nonet - Live (starring Charlie Rouse , Larry Gales , Ben Riley , Ray Copeland , Johnny Griffin , Jimmy Cleveland , Phil Woods, and Clark Terry ; released 1988)
- 1971 - The London Collection: Volume Two (with Al McKibbon and Art Blakey)
Other
- 1953 - Kenny Dorham on Kenny Dorham Quintet
- 1962 - Milt Jackson on invitation
- 1969 - Steve Lacy on Epistrophy (also Plays Monk )
- 1977 - Kenny Drew on Ruby, My Dear
- 1991 - Ran Blake on Epistrophy
- 1999 - Andy Summers on Green Chimneys
- 2005 - Richard Galliano on Ruby, My Dear
- 2010 - Charles Lloyd on Mirror
Individual evidence
- ^ Robin DG Kelley: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. Simon and Schuster, 2009, p. 51.
- ↑ jazz.com ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz Discography (online)
- ↑ Information at Jazzstandards.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
- ↑ allmusic.com
