It\u2019s hard to believe that at one time, critics dismissed Thelonious Monk\u2019s playing as too simplistic because of the spaces he allowed in his piano playing. Whereas some of the most celebrated jazz artists are known for their dizzying speed, Monk\u2019s mastery was in his subtleness and his ability to give each of his songs enough breathing room for other musicians to fill in the spaces. <\/p>\n
Criss-Cross<\/i>, his second album with One of Monk\u2019s greatest gifts was his ability to throw in an irresistibly catchy melody from out of nowhere. Case in point for the song \u201cTea For Two.\u201d For about three minutes, the listener hears Monk\u2019s playing \u2013 commanding attention, but not at the forefront, allowing percussionist Frankie Dunlop to fill in the spaces. Just as the song is about to end, Monk switches structures and lays down the few chords that\u2019s most commonly associated with \u201cTea For Two,\u201d almost as a slight toss off. \u201cThink of One,\u201d later famously covered by Wynton Marsalis, features another playful exchange between Monk\u2019s piano and Dunlop\u2019s percussion. <\/p>\n Most of the recent re-releases of Criss-Cross<\/i> contain the ballad \u201cPannonica.\u201d Clocking in at seven minutes, Monk gives the song an emotional weight without resorting to any \u201cpounding the keys\u201d theatrics. Though not originally on the first Criss-Cross <\/i>recording, it is a fitting end to the album. <\/p>\n One of Criss-Cross<\/i>\u2019s greatest strengths is its diversity. Quoting an interview in the liner notes, Monk said \u201cEverything I play is different.\u201d Elitist? Maybe. Aloof? Possibly. But you can\u2019t argue with his statement after listening to Criss-Cross<\/i>. The playfulness of \u201c It seems like a schizophrenic mix, but Monk is able to make these unlikely mixes flow effortlessly into one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7919],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40208","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-thelonious-monk","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40208"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40208"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}