MONK’S BLUES by THELONIUS MONK

Renowned and revered for his improvisational abilities, his contributions to the lexicon of jazz standards, and his many innovations in composition, it's no wonder that Thelonius Monk's catalog is one of the most recorded of all time. (Topped only by Duke Ellington.) An eccentric and quirky pianist, Monk's recordings were marked by strategic dissonance, abrupt key changes, and the usage of silence as an instrument, a style which was not fully understood in its time, (One jazz critic referred to Monk as "the elephant at the keyboard") but would prove highly influential to the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Mulatu Astatke, Chick Corea, and even his contemporaries like Miles Davis and Charles Mingus.