Blue Monk is an instrumental blues by Thelonious Monk, written in the studio and first recorded by the Thelonious Monk Trio on 22 September 1954. It was first released on the album Thelonious Monk Plays (Prestige, 1954). The tune is a blues in B-flat and is regarded as a jazz standard. Its melody is partly borrowed from Charlie Shavers' 'Pastel Blue'. Together with 'Round Midnight', it is the composition Monk recorded most often, and he counted it among his favourite pieces. It appears on almost every live Monk album, including recordings made at Carnegie Hall with John Coltrane, at the Five Spot, at Town Hall, in Tokyo and at Newport. Later versions have been recorded by Art Blakey, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Ray Bryant, among many others.
