"Round Midnight" (sometimes titled "Round About Midnight") is a 1943 composition by American jazz pianist Thelonious Monk that quickly became a jazz standard and has been recorded by a wide variety of artists. A version recorded by Monk's quintet was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993. It is one of the most recorded jazz standards composed by a jazz musician.
Composition and Monk's first recording It is thought that Monk composed the song sometime in 1940 or 1941. However, Monk's longtime manager Harry Colomby claims the pianist may have written an early version around 1936 (at the age of 19). The song was copyrighted September 24, 1943, in C minor under the title "I Need You So", with lyrics by a friend of Monk's named Thelma Murray. The first recording was made by Cootie Williams on August 22, 1944, after the pianist Bud Powell persuaded Williams to record the tune. Monk first recorded the song on November 21, 1947. It later appeared on the Blue Note album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1, and Monk recorded it several times after that. His first version was transcribed by Lionel Grigson in A Thelonious Monk Study Album (Novello, 1993).Rachel Hoiem, "Layin' Dead – Composition Analysis: 'Round Midnight (1947)" , As It Ought to Be, October 6, 2009.
Jazz trumpeters Cootie Williams and Dizzy Gillespie further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding his own lyrics. Williams composed an eight-bar interlude, played by the ensemble on his recording. This interlude is not included on any of Monk's recordings and is rarely if ever played. The lyrics were copyrighted November 27, 1944, and again April 13, 1945, under the title "Grand Finale". Both Williams and Hanighen received co-credits for their contributions. The commonly played intro to "Round Midnight" was originally composed by Dizzy Gillespie for the end of his arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", but later adopted it to the intro for "Round Midnight". Gillespie later reused the arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", and recorded it for Birks' Works and Something Old, Something New.
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. 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. Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers also apparently preferred to use the title "'Round About Midnight", as opposed to the original "'Round Midnight", in several recordings they made of the song.
A recording by Jimmy McGriff was used as the 6pm closedown theme in the early days of Radio Caroline in 1964.
In 1971, Ron Grainer used a down-tempo variation by Cootie Williams to accompany a memorable scene from The Omega Man. The song later appeared on a 2004 Gotan Project CD, Inspiración Espiración, featuring Chet Baker.
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, France. 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.
In 2002, Italian pianist Emanuele Arciuli commissioned a number of composers to create the Round Midnight Variations. They included Roberto Andreoni, Milton Babbitt, Alberto Barbero, Carlo Boccadoro, William Bolcom, David Crumb, George Crumb, Michael Daugherty, Filippo Del Corno, John Harbison, Joel Hoffman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Gerald Levinson, Tobias Picker, Matthew Quayle, Frederic Rzewski, Augusta Read Thomas and Michael Torke.
Notable recordings
By Monk Recording date Appears on Duration Release date Solo Live Note Reference 1947/11/21 Genius of Modern Music 3:10 1951 The same version was already released in 1947 as a single with "Well, You Needn't" as the B-side; today the compilation Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 is more established. 1954/06/04 Piano Solo 5:13 1954 France only release 1957/04/12 Thelonious Himself 6:44 1957 The original CD reissue, released in 1987 via Original Jazz Classics/Riverside Records, includes an extensive 22-minute solo recording of Round Midnight" outtakes and experimentation in the studio. 1957/08/13 Mulligan Meets Monk 8:29 1957 1958/07/09 Thelonious in Action 6:15 1989 Bonus track on 1989-CD reissue 1960/04/29 Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk 12:07 1960 1961/04/15 The First European Concert '61 7:09 1991 unofficial release 1961/05/16 Thelonious Monk In Stockholm 6:52 1987 unofficial release 1963/02/09 Spastic And Personal unofficial release 1964/10/31 Live at the It Club 6:32 1982 1964/11/03 Live at the Jazz Workshop 9:10 1982 1966/03/27 Switzerland 1966 1991 unofficial release 1968/11/19 Monk's Blues 3:49 1990 with quartet and big band; originally released in 1968, but the track was first featured on the CD reissue in 1990 as a bonus track (recorded at the same session) 1968 Straight No Chaser – Music From The Motion Picture (OST) 2:14 1989 1970/10/04 Thelonious Monk In Tokyo 1971/11/14 The Giants of Jazz 8:17 1972 as "The Giants of Jazz" with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Al McKibbon, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding; other recordings of the group have been made while touring Europe in 1971 and released as bootlegs 1972/06/15 The Last Concerts 6:54 2009 1972/09/16 Live At The 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival 5:15 2008/08/05 as "Art Blakey and The Giants of Jazz" 1975/07/03 The Last Concerts 7:40 2009
By others