Underground is the seventh studio album that Thelonious Monk recorded for Columbia Records. It features Monk on piano, Larry Gales on bass, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, and Ben Riley on drums. This is the last Monk album featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet. Its cover image depicts Monk as a French Resistance fighter in the Second World War, an homage to longtime patroness and friend Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who had served in the resistance, and whose likeness also appears on the cover.
Music "Green Chimneys" is named after the school attended by Monk's daughter.
For "In Walked Bud", Jon Hendricks added lyrics.
Track listing All songs composed by Thelonious Monk unless otherwise noted.
Original LP Side one "Thelonious" - 3:14 "Ugly Beauty" - 7:20 recorded December 14, 1967 "Raise Four" - 4:36 "Boo Boo's Birthday" - 5:56
Side two "Easy Street" (Alan Rankin Jones) - 5:52 "Green Chimneys" - 9:00 recorded December 14, 1968 "In Walked Bud" - 4:17
CD reissue "Thelonious" – 3:13 "Ugly Beauty" – 3:17 "Raise Four" – 5:47 "Boo Boo's Birthday" – 5:56 "Easy Street" (Alan Rankin Jones) – 5:53 "Green Chimneys" – 9:00 "In Walked Bud" (Jon Hendricks, Monk) – 4:17
Special edition "Thelonious" – 3:16 "Ugly Beauty" – 10:45 "Raise Four" – 7:00 "Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 11)" – 5:55 "Easy Street" – 7:50 "Green Chimneys" – 13:09 "In Walked Bud" – 6:48 "Ugly Beauty (Take 4)" – 7:37 "Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 2)" – 5:34 "Thelonious (Take 3)" – 3:10
Personnel Musicians Thelonious Monk – piano Charlie Rouse – tenor saxophone Larry Gales – bass Ben Riley – drums Jon Hendricks – vocals on "In Walked Bud"
Production Teo Macero – production Tim Geelan – engineering Horn Grinner Studios – photography John Berg, Richard Mantel – art direction
References