Man In The Brown Hat – Cecilia Coleman

Of the many tributes to Thelonious Monk, some are more literal—approximations of his unique style—while others are more personal to their respective composers but connected to Monk in spirit. The Man In The Brown Hat is in the former category, quite accurate in the Monk tradition. This medium-up song has plenty of angular phrases built in fourths or augmented triads. The rhythms have that Monk bounce; the way the first two phrases repeat over the barline is particularly authentic. The melody is accompanied by a relatively simple, yet subtly quirky set of changes. The A and C sections of this AABC form are more straightforward, but with an unexpected resolution near the end: G7-E♭7-F6. The bridge begins with major 7th chords descending in whole steps—spelling out Monk's beloved whole tone scale. The second half of the bridge is the most "Coleman-esque" part of the song, with a slightly more lyrical melody and some elegant contrary motion at the end.

In addition to our regular lead sheets, we have a piano lead sheet showing the two- and three-note voicings that Cecilia plays to make this song particularly Monkish. These voicings, mostly fourths and tritones with some seconds, don't always have the melody note on top. The melody notes are shown at full size while the harmony noteheads are smaller.

On this recording, the melody on the last measure of the bridge is not voiced in seconds as it is in our piano lead sheet and solo piano arrangement. One melody note is also different: Cecilia plays E♮ rather than E♭ at the end of the fifth measure.

For the solo piano arrangement, click on Piano Corner.