Thelonious Monk Thursday
Sorry for no post yesterday, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, imagine that. Much going on lately, some of which I hope to post about, some of which I do not. We’re gearing up for our VBS, among other things. In the meantime, please enjoy some video by one of my personal favorites, Thelonious Monk, just because it’s good fun for a Thursday.
This first clip features the Thelonious Monk Quartet performing “Epistrophy,” live in Paris, 1966:
This second clip was found in the archives of the Dutch Broadcasting company and features Monk’s quartet playing “Rhythm-a-ning” in 1961 with Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Ore on bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums. This seems to be one of the few times Monk was seen performing without a hat:
I was hoping to find a clip that featured Monk dancing but didn’t have any luck. During live performances, he would often leave the piano and sort of dance/shuffle around the stage in a trance-like state, leaving the other musicians on their own, sometimes for extended periods. He apparently quite eccentric and suffered from some sort of apparently undiagnosed mental illness. He was hospitalized several times during his life, but there was never an official diagnosis that I’m aware of.
Monk’s music is not for everyone. Many consider it to be quite “rough,” and many have literally questioned whether or not he knew how to play at all. He often used dissonant melodies and what many people call “angular twists.” Yet, despite the many peculiarities, Monk is often considered to be one of the founders of Bebop and many of his compositions are now considered standards.
My wife’s not too keen on naming our next child Thelonious.
- Listen to Thelonious Monk for yourself
- Browse more Monk videos (please let me know if you come across one of him dancing!)
- Download Thelonious Monk from eMusic
Monk is one of my favorites! Thanks, Brent, for the video links.
Brent:
Thanks for these — great stuff.
I spent nearly 20 years (beginning at a very young age) vigorously studying jazz piano. Until it was apparent that God was calling me in another direction, I thought my life would be spent(and for a while I worked) as a professional jazz pianist. With that said, I used to literally spend hours in a practice room, day after day with old Monk recordings, learning every song and solo that he played. He is truly one of the greats of Jazz and my style has been incredibly influenced by him.
Thanks again — I hadn’t seen these yet!
I enjoyed those!
Monk fans might enjoy Victor Wooten’s tribute song, “The Loneliest Monk” off his album “What Did He Say?” It honors Monk saying that he “played the wrong notes right.”
Nick, do you happen to have any personal recordings? I’d love to hear them if they’re available for public ears?
Brent: I just came across this post again — sorry it took so long.
I have a lot of recordings, but they’re all on cassette tapes. I’ve been talking about getting them transfered to CD so I can then make digital files. You’ll be the first to know when I do.