Friday the 13th is a jazz tune composed by Thelonious Monk. It was written in the studio during a 1953 recording session and released in 1956 on the Prestige compilation Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. The piece is built on a minimal four-bar progression - G6, F7, Eb7, D7 - with each chord held for two beats and the melody filling about two and a half measures before the pattern repeats. It was recorded across three sessions between 1953 and 1954 with different lineups including a quintet featuring Sonny Rollins, and the album version runs roughly 10 minutes. The tune is noted for Monk’s distinctive piano voice, its concise, passacaglia-like motion, and its place in the hard bop era of jazz.
