Straight, No Chaser (composition)
| "Straight, No Chaser" | |
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"Straight, No Chaser" is a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk. It was first recorded on Monk's Blue Note Sessions in 1951. It has been recorded numerous times by Monk and others and is one of Monk's most covered songs.[1] It is a 12-bar blues in B♭ which, like one of his other B♭ blues, "Blue Monk", makes creative use of chromatics in the melody. Miles Davis recorded a famous version on his Milestones album, in which the tune is played in F rather than B♭.
Music educator Mark C. Gridley wrote about Monk's composition style: "Monk employed simple compositional devices with very original results. His 'Straight, No Chaser' involves basically only one idea played again and again, each time in a different part of the measure and with a different ending."[2]
Carmen McRae recorded a vocal version of the tune in 1988, with words by Sally Swisher. The McRae version was titled "Get It Straight".[1]
Personnel
The lineup of the original 1951 recording was:
- Thelonious Monk – piano
- Sahib Shihab – alto saxophone
- Milt Jackson – vibraphone
- Al McKibbon – upright bass
- Art Blakey – drums
Renditions
By Monk
- Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 (1952)
- Mulligan Meets Monk (1957) with Gerry Mulligan
- 5 by Monk by 5 (1959)
- Monk in Tokyo (1963)
- Miles & Monk at Newport (1963)
- Live at the It Club (1964)
- Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964)
- Straight, No Chaser (1967)
By others
- Milestones (1958) by Miles Davis[3]
- 1958 Miles (1958) by Miles Davis
- Miles & Monk at Newport (1958) by Miles Davis
- The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco (1959) by Cannonball Adderley
- Great Jazz Standards (1959) by Gil Evans
- Bouncing with Bud (1962) by Bud Powell
- What's New (1969) by Bill Evans
- The Quintessence (1961) by Quincy Jones
- Sound Pieces (1966) by Oliver Nelson
- Stolen Moments (1975) by Oliver Nelson
- Carmen Sings Monk (1988) by Carmen McRae
- Bye Bye Blackbird (1991) by Keith Jarrett
- at the Blue Note (1994) by Keith Jarrett
- My Foolish Heart (2001) by Keith Jarrett
- Standards (2006) by David Benoit[4]
- Camp Meeting (2007) by Bruce Hornsby
Notes
- ^ a b Straight No Chaser at jazzstandards.com - retrieved on 24 April 2009
- ^ Mark C. Gridley: Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. Prentice Hall, July 31, 2002. ISBN 0-13-099282-8.
- ^ "Miles Davis – Milestones", Discogs.com.
- ^ "Standards overview". Allmusic.com.