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Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  7/8/01; 9:59:32 PM Topic:  Well You Needn't Msg#:  2006 (in response to 2005) Prev/Next:  2005/2007 Reads:  3055

It seems like the Monk family prefers a close relative of the alternate bridge that you've posted from the "New Real Book": Db7 | Db7 | D7 |D7 | Eb7 E7 | Eb7 D7 | Db7 C7 |B7 C7
I've gotten these from a book by Ronnie Mathews called "Thelonious Monk: Intermediate Piano Solos" that is published by Hal Leonard.

Mathews played piano in the band led by Monk's son, T.S. Monk. He also studied with Hall Overton who did a number of big band arrangements of Monk's tunes that Thelonious used in an important series of recordings in the early 60's. There's actually a statement in Mathews' book "Thelonious Monk: Easy Piano Solos" which indicates that the family endorses his versions.

I'm not sure of the provenance of the different variations of this bridge. I know that Monk was a master at inventing alternate substitute chord sequences for pieces of music. I've read that when Monk and Coltrane played together at the Five Spot they would each make their own substitutions and somehow make it work out during the performance. It's possible that some of these are different ways that Monk actually played the tune on different occasions. Some of the subs used in the 'New Real Book' versions are just tritone substitutions which are considered to be nearly synonymous by jazz musicians. For instance G7 interchanges with Db7, Ab7 interchanges with D7, etc.

Another possibility is that Miles Davis may have been involved. During the 50's with his great quintet with Coltrane, Miles had no compunction about reharmonizing the tunes that his band played. He did this for Brubeck's In Your Own Sweet Way, Benny Carter's When Lights Are Low, and Monk's Round Midnight. Miles band also did a famous version of Well You Needn't. It may be that one of the alternates is documenting Miles' version of the tune.

I will post MIDI versions of the alternates you've submitted so we can try to figure this out.

Thanks for starting this thread. It should be interesting to see what we can find out.

• Re: Well You Needn't, Joe Bianco, 7/9/01; 9:17:51 PM

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