Eb minor, WTF?

[Hardbopjazz]

I am attempting to play 'Round Midnight in the key Monk wrote this in, Eb minor on piano, damn, Monk could have written this in an easier key. Does anyone know if most versions of this standard is played/recorded in this key?

[JSngry]

That's usually where it is, yeah.

[Free For All]

I think some jazz tunes (like many standards) can be transposed to different keys and work just fine.

With Monk, I think he specifically chose keys that best created the desired "darkness" for the tune, as well as how it laid on the piano for him. With Monk tunes I kind of consider it sacrilege to move them to a different (i.e., "easier") key. You gots to play it the way monk wrote it.

Edited November 19, 2010 by Free For All

[jeffcrom]

On piano or saxophone, I've never played RM in any other key except Eb minor, except when accompanying a singer who needed it in another key.

[Mark Stryker]

I think some jazz tunes (like many standards) can be transposed to different keys and work just fine.

With Monk, I think he specifically chose keys that best created the desired "darkness" for the tune, as well as how it laid on the piano for him. With Monk tunes I kind of consider it sacrilege to move them to a different (i.e., "easier") key. You gots to play it the way monk wrote it.

I agree but this can be a little slippery. Monk recorded "Straight No Chaser" in B-flat I believe, but F has become the standard key because that's where Miles played it on "Milestones." In a related issue, you've got the tunes where the changes have been altered -- Miles' versions of "Well You Needn't" and "Round Midnight" compared to Monk's, and I'm sure there are other examples.

Coda: I recall a story from Robin Kelley's Monk bio in which Miles comes off the bandstand and complains to George Wein that Monk was playing the wrong changes to Round Midnight.(!)

Edited November 19, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[AllenLowe]

talk to Barry Harris - he used to always complain that people played the wrong changes to Midnight, courtesy of the Real Book.

Edited November 19, 2010 by AllenLowe

[Mark Stryker]

talk to Barry Harris - he used to always complain that people played the wrong changes to Midnight, courtesy of the Real Book.

I saw trumpeter John McNeil once in a small club in Urbana in 1985. In between tunes he noticed a stray Real Book on the piano. "Hey, there's a Real Book!" he said. "Now we can play a whole bunch of wrong changes."

Edited November 19, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[Alexander Hawkins]

Plus Round Midnight moves to enough places tonally, that you're going to have some fairly 'distant' corners harmonically wherever you start!

[7/4]

I think some jazz tunes (like many standards) can be transposed to different keys and work just fine.

I've started to move a few of them into guitar keys to take advantage of the open strings. This makes a lot of sense if I'm playing alone or with just a bass player. With other players (and when I play around with a piano), I'd just rather leave 'em alone.