Straight, No Chaser
Thelonious Monk
Paris, 1969
Click here to Support Jazz on the Tube
Thelonious Monk’s composing work often feature uncomplicated devices used uniquely. In this track, “Straight, No Chaser,” he employs a single abstraction – on each occasion with a new ending, and in a newer section of a measure. The mutating, revolving accents represent true musicianship – complexity out of the simple. The progressions – 12-bar blue chords – are simply brilliant.