{"id":3363,"date":"2012-02-16T13:06:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T21:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2012-03-01T13:50:11","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T21:50:11","slug":"zurke-and-monk-a-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2012\/02\/zurke-and-monk-a-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Zurke And Monk: A Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Researching Thelonious Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inspirations and examples, the Canadian composer and musicologist Andrew Homzy has turned up a connection that may seem unlikely—until you hear the evidence.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It has been well documented,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Homzy wrote a group of fellow jazz researchers yesterday, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that Monk was inspired by Mary Lou William’s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWalkin’ And Swingin’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRhythm-a-ning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122) and John Kirby’s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPastel Blue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlue Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122). \u00e2\u20ac\u00a8\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8This morning, I discovered that Bob Zurke’s performance of ‘Tea For Two’, with the Bob Crosby Band in 1938, is the genesis of Monk’s still-unique version of the same tune. Recorded in New York, March 10, 1938 for Decca.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8\u00e2\u20ac\u00a8Zurke’s spectacular reharmonization begins at 2:39.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Notes: (1) Eddie Miller has the lovely tenor saxophone solo in the Zurke\/Crosby version. Cannonball Adderley called Miller \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first of the cool tenors.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (2) At the end of the Zurke\/Crosby version, and before the Monk, Adrian Gregg, the man who restored the sound of the Decca 78rpm disc, pops up to deliver a brief plug—DR.<\/em><\/p>\n