Blue Note

Final week of the M's here and it's going to be a little varied this week. Not so much metal as much blues and jazz this week. Starting off the week with some Thelonious Monk. Monk was the giants of American Jazz with his very unique improvisational styling. He is the second most recorded Jazz composer only behind Duke Ellington. That's a large gap considering Ellington penned over a 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70. Another side fact is he is only one of five Jazz musicians to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Monk got his start in 44 with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet and by 47 he was making his debut as a leader for the famed Blue Note label. Over the next few years he would work with the Jazz legends including Coltrane, Davis, and Rollins. Releasing several critical acclaimed and complex records up until the 60's. Sadly by the mid 70's Monk spent the last decade of his life as a recluse, rarely making appearances or even speaking to anyone. While some in the Jazz community pan his greatness, others praise it. 'The Best of The Blue Note Years' focuses on Monk's early career with Blue Note. Good place to start for someone not familiar with Monk.

As far as Jazz has always been concerned it's never been about being orthodox in any sense of the word. Much like any other sub genre of music, Jazz has it's own unique genres. While there's a sense of confusion abound when you tell people that you enjoy Jazz, for me it's because they associate Jazz with addicts and really far out people. And that much like being a metal head is a stereotype. For me there are good starting points to get into Jazz, the standard masters like Davis, Coltrane, Ellington and Armstrong are all fine places to start. Each of those artists has a landmark album, which is usually the a real good point to start. Once you develop a taste for it or at least an understanding, then it's time to branch out into the other genres or other albums. For me though this best of collection for Monk is a good starting point for the Jazz novice. If anything it's a great album just to chill out to.

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