Tonk

Tonk is a suggestively relaxed humming tune in much the same vernacular as Jelly Roll Morton’s harmonic language from which a steady left-hand stride-piano and walking bass are directly borrowed. It accompanies a stark, sometimes ‘blue note’ chordal background in breezy airs of unceremonious, folksy complacency. It is a brief, episodic stay in the earlier times of straightforward ease and simple charms.