Straight, No Chaser (composition)
"Straight, No Chaser" | |
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Song |
"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♭. Due to the influence of the Milestones version, the composition is usually performed in F.
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)
- Live at the It Club (1964)
- Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964)
- Straight, No Chaser (1967)
By others
- Milestones (1958) by Miles Davis with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley[3]
- Cannonball's Sharpshooters (1958) by Cannonball Adderley with Nat Adderley[3]
- Great Jazz Standards (1959) by Gil Evans with Steve Lacy[3]
- Got to Get It! (1967) by Bobby Timmons[3]
- Green Chimneys (1983) by Kenny Barron[3]
- Bye Bye Blackbird (1991) by Keith Jarrett[3]
- The Quintessence (1961) by Quincy Jones
- Bouncing with Bud (1962) by Bud Powell
- What's New (1969) by Bill Evans
- Sound Pieces (1966) by Oliver Nelson
- Carmen Sings Monk (1988) by Carmen McRae
- 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.
- ^ a b c d e f Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 408–409. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
- ^ "Standards overview". Allmusic.com.