Dear Shawn Ealy - If I may be so bold, there's an huge "love-in" for your genius of a grandfather happening today {Nov./20/2020} on the "Bradley's" FaceBook Group Page - photos, comments, memories... He certainly lives very vividly for a great many people... You may have to apply for "membership" of the group - but I think you can read posts without said membership. I sign myself, sincerely, a life-long fan of your grandfather's enormous genius and legendary big-hearted generosity. My regret is that, though I have every record he made, I never got to see him live. But he lives still - BELIEVE ME! Abraços from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Thank you for making this document available. Walter was a great pianist and a wonderful, bighearted man. He was the closest thing to Bud Powell and Monk we've had and knew their music thoroughly all the while maintaining his own considerable personality. This clip would be more accurately called" Monk Medley" as Walter starts with Monk's Mood, goes into Criss Cross and finishes with Ruby My Dear. Any other clips of Walter are very welcomed.
Wow, this was the first time I was exposed to Walter Davis Jr. and the music of Thelonius Monk. This is indeed a gem because Walter did not record these exact interpretations on his cd, so this is it. Such a tragedy that he would pass on just a year later. True genius. Thank you for sharing.
For me, no pianist "gets" Monk more than Barry Harris (who shared the Baroness's pad with Monk for years), Randy Weston, and Walter Davis, Jr. Walter is the only one I never heard live.
It does have some elements in the long improvisational intro that sounds like "Monk's Mood", but at times like "Ruby Dear". He breaks fully into "Ruby My Dear" at 2:25. I'd consider this a medley of these two tunes.
Ruby My Dear and Monk's Mood have distinctly different chord progressions and melodies. He plays both songs in their entirety, but there are more than two songs in this medley. The songs are: Monk's Mood, Criss Cross, Ruby My Dear. He doesn't improvise through the forms on any of them. He plays each song's complete structure. Before he plays "Criss Cross" he establishes the new tempo with a short vamp on one chord, and then continues. Each song is played without improvisation.
