Thelonious Monk — Nice Work if You Can Get it lyrics

Lyrics

Guy-trumpets
Al Sears, Herbie Fields and unknown-tenor sax
Charlie Christian-guitar
Nick Fenton and unknown-bass
Kenny Clarke and unknown-drums
1.I Got Rhythm
Work If You Can Get It
Down Down
4.I Found A Million Dollar Baby
And Soul
6.I've Found A New Baby
Melancholy Baby
Lorraine
Georgia Brown
A Lucky Guy
At The Savoy
Thelonious Monk-piano
Roy Eldridge,"Hot Lips"Page, Joe
THELONIOUS MONK — AFTER HOURS AT MINTON’S
(Definitive DRCD11197)
The Second World War was a crucial time for jazz as the music evolved from Big
Band Swing into more intimate groups featuring extended solos. Within a few
years the music would evolve drastically into BeBop (a term coined by Monk).
Recorded music at the time was limited to how much would fit on the side of a
10-inch 78 rpm disc, but a clever Columbia University student, Jerry Newman,
had two portable disc-cutters and a supply of 12 inch blanks which allowed him
to capture ten minute jams at a time. He liked to hang out in Harlem where the
scene was swingin’at Minton’s Playhouse off 7th Avenue. On any night half a
dozen musicians of the calibre of Oran «Hot Lips» Page, Kenny Clarke,
Charlie Christian and Roy Eldridge were kicking around some Tin Pan Alley
tunes and stretching out. On piano: the one and only Thelonious Monk.
THELONIOUS MONK — AFTER HOURS AT MINTON’S collects a dozen tracks recorded at
Minton’s Playhouse in May 1941, featuring the legendary pianist.
It’s a reissue of THE EARLY THELONIOUS MONK on Moon, with the addition of one
track «Stompin'at the Savoy» from the recordings made with Charlie Christian.
These rare tracks recorded at Minton’s in 1941 have appeared in various
configurations. The most well-known of them feature Christian, the cool daddy
of electric jazz guitar. THE IMMORTAL CHARLIE CHRISTIAN on Laserlight features
his Django-inflected runs but I’m always waiting for the band to cool down so I
can hear Monk trinkling away. Now the spotlight is on Monk. The sound is not
perfect but you can hear it fine as if through a P.A., and almost imagine Monk
shuffling his feet and playing his ham-handed version of stride like he’s
shadow-boxing with the keyboard. Then he’ll pull out one of those whole-tone
glissandi, light as a feather, and float it by imperceptibly in the background
as Joe Guy, with his mute, warbles «I found a million dollar baby…
in a five and ten cent store.»
On one or two tracks you are almost outside on 118th Street; nearby a couple of
kids who have not yet earned the nicknames «Coffin Ed» and «Gravedigger»
are playing cops and robbers around the trash cans, hiding down basement
stairs. Inside in the smoky room hustlers shuffle, pimps primp, and
inter-racial couples sway to the groove. Up on the tiny bandstand Monk is
concentrating, sweating in his jacket, tie and hat, his feet seeking invisible
organ pedals, sucking in his cheeks in a dramatic reversal of the Dizzy
Gillespie look.
After a lugubrious start from Herbie Fields’tenor on «Body and Soul,»
Roy Eldridge decides to rip it up Kansas City style. «Melancholy Baby» and «Sweet Lorraine» appeared on TRUMPET BATTLE AT MINTON’S where Hot Lips and Joe
Guy duke it out. Five of the track appeared on the Xanadu album HARLEM ODYSSEY,
but the rest were scattered all over the place. For completists,
the set is missing «Topsy» with Hot Lips Page from AFTER HOURS IN HARLEM,
and two tracks with Hot Lips Page from SWEETS, LIPS AND LOTS OF JAZZ.
It’s also missing four tracks with Don Byas that appear on two albums,
LIVE AT MINTON’S and MIDNIGHT AT MINTON’S. But this is a concentrated dose of
early Monk and the only documentation of his pianistic evolution.
The influence of Art Tatum can be heard in strident backing runs on «Sweet Lorraine» but Monk is definitel