“Bemsha Swing” by Thelonious Monk

play music video

“Bemsha Swing” by Thelonious Monk

	song info     “Bemsha Swing” by Thelonious Monk is a jazz song.     Song Title: Bemsha Swing     Artist: Thelonious Monk     Genre: jazz     Composer: Copyright © Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best     Piano: Thelonious Monk     Bass: Paul Chambers     Drums: Max Roach     Tenor saxophone: Sonny Rollins     Trumpet: Clark Terry     Recorded: 1956, New York City     Number of listens: 8219     Current rank: 2793 (updated weekly)     Highest rank: 2570 (play the video all the way through to register a vote for this song) Translations courtesy of Apple and Google.

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Bemsha Swing” (also known as “Bimsha Swing”) is a jazz standard co-written by Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best.

    The tune is 16 bars in the form of AABA. It is in 4/4 meter but is often played with a 2-feel. The melody consists of a motif around a descending C Spanish phrygian scale (the A section) and a chromatic sequencing of the same motif a fourth higher on an F Spanish phrygian scale (the B section). The chordal movement by contrast suggests a C Major tonality rather than C Spanish phrygian, its relative minor f (melodic or harmonic), or its relative Major, A♭ Major. However, the song ends on a D♭maj7 (#11) rather than a C chord, a displacement which is characteristic of Monk compositions.

    The song was first recorded by Monk on the sessions for the album Thelonious Monk Trio in 1952. It was later recorded with Monk as a sideman on the Miles Davis album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. Monk revisited the song on his acclaimed 1957 LP Brilliant Corners.

—from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedia’s block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedia’s original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and U.S. Government Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 require that web sites provide transcripts of audio for the deaf.
We will be adding lyrics to all songs as fast as we can. Please be patient.

most recent comment

    Margaret: This is my favorite song.

    To submit a comment, use the form below:

    Please use the form (with the delay for a human to inspect it) because this website is attacked by more than 20 spam attempts per minute. The only way to keep you safe from the spam is by having human review.