Thelonious Monk - 1947
Thelonious Monk is the glue that binds earlier piano masters like James P. Johnson to the generation of players that came to the fore in the 1950s and 60s. This is demonstrated in ‘Everything Happens to Me’ – a combination of early “stride piano technique” with interesting altered chord extensions.
‘Monk’s Mood’ (below) is a lovely melody with a complex harmonic structure. We look at how the first and second chord groups works. See if you can identify other chord groups and how the groups make sense to you.
The first two bars of ‘Monk’s Mood’ is a great example of what Jerry Coker calls a “Backdoor Cadence“. The idea is that a IV-bVII-I progression can be a substitution for an ordinary II-V-I cadence.
We have already discussed how the diatonic II and IV chords are “sisters” (they share three common notes) (Link). Monk adds a lovely twist to this by making the IV chord minor. Example 1 shows us how this Fm7 is like a Dm7b5. Musicians from this period loved a nice b5.
The bVII (Bb) substitution for the V (G) is more sophisticated. Bb is not a sister chord for G but Bb7 does resolve nicely to Cmaj7 because it has two “leading tones” a semitone above the 3rd and 5th of the C chord (Example 2).
Monk makes the progression smoother by making the chords more similar. The #11 on the Bb is the third of the C and the 9 on the C is the third of the Bb..
Bars 3 & 4, and the similar bars 9 & 10, are no less interesting (and challenging) than bars 1 & 2. It’s a great example of why “Preparational Analysis” (Link) is a worthwhile effort. Any lead sheet I’ve seen calls the “chord” (which is really just an interval) in bars 4 & 10 a Dbmaj7. I prefer to call it a C with a d flat bass. Example 3 shows why.
The logic of calling this progression a modified II-V-I rather than a II-V-bII or a temporary bII-#IV-I is compelling but ultimately we need to trust our ears. Listen to Example 3 and see what you think. By the way, the Ab+79 is a tritone substitution for the Dm (Link).
Example 3
Another thing you might try, while preparing an improvisation, is play these bars ending with a C arpeggio and then a Db arpeggio. For me neither is totally satisfying but what does work is the symmetrical “Half-Whole” scale (Example 4).
