Monk: Misterioso

Although he was deeply influential on the modern jazz style of bebop, Thelonious Monk's playing style is miles away from the aggressively virtuosic music of fellow bebopers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. By contrast, Monk is known for his spare, dissonant style that often sounds deliberately tentative, even clumsy. His compositions are often based on a basic blues structure, but with unusual twists, such as the shuffling interplay between on- and off-beats in " Misterioso," one of Monk's earliest compositions. These two versions of "Misterioso" appeared on Monk's first recordings as a bandleader, the album "Genius of Modern Music," released on the Blue Note label. Years later, "Misterioso" would also be the title of a later Monk album, on which a longer, live version of the tune appeared.