Thelonious Monk’s best-known composition, “’Round Midnight,” was first recorded 80 years ago this month. His slow, moody ballad ranks as among his finest work and one of the most enduring in jazz.

One of the most multifaceted saxophonists to come out of the 1970s-80s jazz avant-garde, Julius Hemphill exuded both fervid power and delicate sensitivity, always with an underpinning of swing to help ...