![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bemsha-Swing-radial-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\r\nI have “Bemsha Swing” on the brain for no special reason. It’s one of Thelonious Monk’s most persistent earworms, and every once in a while it wakens from its dormant state to occupy my music circuitry for a week or two or three. When I am jamming on the guitar, my fingers constantly find their way into it, and I walk around humming or whistling it\u00a0 too. I like to think of my relationship with the tune as more symbiotic than parasitic, but either way, the tune is well and truly embedded in me. I don’t know how it was able to take such firm root, but maybe over the course of writing the post, some ideas will suggest themselves.<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
Monk co-wrote “Bemsha Swing” with drummer Denzil Best<\/a>. KUVO explains<\/a> that they originally copyrighted it under the title \u201cBimsha Swing\u201d, referring to \u201cBimshire\u201d, a nickname for Denzil Best’s family home of Barbados. Monk first recorded it in 1952 with Gary Mapp<\/a> on bass and Max Roach<\/a> on drums.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n