MONKULELE
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Epistrophy





Ukulele Arrangement
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Listen to the Ukulele Arrangement with this audio player:
Notes
This was the first Monk composition to be copyrighted, in 1941, with co-composer and drummer Kenny Clarke, and it is the only Monk composition whose origin involves a ukulele. As the story goes, Clarke came up with the melody after guitarist Charlie Christian showed him a fingering while fooling around with a ukulele.
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Monk and Clarke led the house band at Minton’s Playhouse at that time, and they began to close each set with this tune, a practice Monk continued for the rest of his career, so it is heard on virtually every live recording by Monk.

Since this is a classic ensemble tune, I arranged it here for two ukuleles and a bass.
 
Recordings
 
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