Thelonious Monk - 1947
Thelonious Monk’s ‘Introspection’ foreshadows a type of chord progression that would become popular in the 1960’s and beyond. The piece was first recorded in 1947 but it is his 1965 solo excursion (complete with a false start!) that is most instructive.
The A section is an extraordinary seven bars of unresolved b7 chords before coming “home” to D major. The B section wobbles back and forth between D flat and D.
Example 1 shows us how the first three bars move up and down in half steps until we finally get a II-V-I to Ab. But, the Ab turns out to be not only another unstable b7 chord but it arrives on the third beat of the bar and is passed over before the bar ends! From there we move around in non-committal thirds until we finally get a V-I resolution for a well earned two bar rest on D major.
Now let’s do a little Preparational Analysis on the melodic material. If we listen carefully we can hear at least three motifs or ideas at work in the A section. Motif 1 (Example 2) is played right at the beginning and then repeated three times starting on different notes. The second motif is used in bars 6 to 9. The third feature is a shifting rhythmic pattern.
Monk doesn’t really “solo” on the album ‘Solo Monk’. But Steve Lacy and Charles Davis have a go at it on the 1961 album ‘The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy’. Listen to how Lacy keeps playing around with the motifs. Below is the A section melody only and then the first bit of Lacy’s solo.
