Round Midnight History
Round Midnight History
Round Midnight History
Contents
1 Composition and Monk's first recording
2 Later versions
3 Notable recordings
3.1 By Monk
3.2 By others
4 References
5 Other sources
Composition and Monk's first recording
It is thought that Monk originally composed the song sometime in 1940 or 1941.
However, Harry Colomby claims that Monk may have written an early version around
1936 (at the age of 19) with the title "Grand Finale". Monk first recorded the song
on the 1947 Blue Note album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1, and recorded it
several times after that. His first version was transcribed by Lionel Grigson in A
Thelonious Monk Study Album (Novello, 1993).[3]
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Jazz trumpeters Cootie Williams and Dizzy Gillespie further embellished the song,
with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding lyrics. Both Williams and Hanighen received
co-credits for their contributions.
Later versions
The song is sometimes incorrectly called "'Round About Midnight", as Miles Davis
used this as the title of his 1957 Columbia Records album 'Round About Midnight
that included a version based on Dizzy Gillespie's arrangement. It became a
signature song for Davis; his performance of it with Monk at the 1955 Newport Jazz
Festival, which was heard by producer George Avakian, was crucial in securing him a
recording contract with Columbia Records.[4] He had previously recorded the song in
the studio two other times, once for Prestige in 1953 and again in 1956 as released
on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.
A recording by Jimmy McGriff was used as the 6pm closedown theme in the early days
of Radio Caroline in 1964.
In 1986, the song was used as the title for the film Round Midnight which starred
veteran saxophonist Dexter Gordon in a fictional story about an expatriate American
jazz musician living in Paris. The soundtrack by Herbie Hancock prominently
features the song "'Round Midnight" along with a number of other jazz standards and
a handful of original pieces written by Hancock.