while `` shed `` showcased the pianist 's sinuous compositions in a small-band setting -lrb- six to eight acoustic instruments -rrb- , `` alone '' explores the transformation of the music called `` jazz `` from jelly roll morton , who claimed to have invented it , through duke ellington , who played his orchestra like a piano and vice versa , to thelonious monk , a modernist with his feet in the past and his head in the stars . ;