"Memories always start 'round midnight..."

This blog is just over a month old today! To celebrate, let's get our theme song out there. As you might've read if you've been here since the beginning, it was at a Thelonious Monk tribute concert that I was inspired to create and name what you're (hopefully) enjoying now. Here are some notable versions of his true 20th century standard...

The mad Monk himself:




Miles Davis (with a young Herbie Hancock on keys):




Dizzy Gillespie and a big band treatment:




Ella Fitzgerald:




Nnenna Freelon (with an older Herbie Hancock and playing in Cloud City, apparently):



Cassandra Wilson (whom I met last year at the 930 Club when I saw her duet with T Bone Burnett):



Lastly, Bobby McFerrin. If you can forget the near misery-inducing irony of his ubiquitous 1988 smash "Don't Worry, Be Happy," it's pretty amazing what he can do with his voice:



Oh, Herbie Hancock is in that last performance, too, isn't he? Yeah, and he's also in the 1986 film Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon, as well (which I first saw back in 1990 or so and again recently). Okay, Herb. You win. What do you want me to do for you now?

Seriously?

Okay, you're the man, so here you go: