Surprisingly, “Epistrophy” was familiar to swing dancers during that era when a guy named “Monk” first started making a name on the scene as a paragon of the new thing in jazz. The song is 32 bars long, but follows the less typical ABCB form. The half step up and down movement of the chords can present a challenge to anyone not used to soloing like that. There have been many recordings of Monk himself performing this song and he often used it as a set closer.