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Hey Guys,

I'm relatively new to Jazz but have been listening and practising many hours a day for the last few months. Recently discovered Thelonious Monk on youtube and have bought "Complete Blue Note Recordings" - I really dig his style and his sound - the first time I listened I didn't know what to think of it, but its grown on me a lot.

I notice his name doesnt seem to appear nearly as often as other 'greats' when people list names on the forum etc. Just curious to know what others think of him?

Manachi

PS. I'm open to any recommendations of any specific tracks of his that I should check out!

You should definitely check out his album, "Solo Monk"

He's quite an eccentric pianist (both as a musician and as a person). He's able to use dissonance to create some very beautiful music. One thing he used a lot are voicings with minor 2nds, along with his very angular lines and... interesting rhythm.

Yea Monk is amazing... everything from his feel, touch.. I love "brilliant corners", Pannonica is one my favorite Monk Tune.

let's don't be over excited over Monk, he is original in some sense but far from great. Thousands of better players out there.

Take a listen to this tragic, stiff performance for instance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmhP1RgbrrY

I couldn't even listen to the end...
If I didn't see title I'd think it's amateur school band.

Once again delirium you miss the point. He created a particular sound. Like it or not, it's his.

that way you can call music any noise.

So a major 2nd interval is just noise? That's all he's doing my friend. Ever heard of the 9th in a chord? (Something that's in every single Jazz voicing today?).

Read up on the history Del. It was Dizzy, Bird and Monk staying up in the wee hours of the morning discussing harmony. (The book is an Autobiography of Dizzy Gillespie). From these guys came Modern Jazz and Bebop.

I thought it was a minor second he was playing. Like a b9, but adjacent to the root.

That's the stupidest assertion I have read on Piano World, and there have been some doozies. Delirium, indeed.

Or maybe it's tongue in cheek, like the German guy in a wig on You Tube who "fixes" the difficulties that Monk didn't have the time to work out himself.

I didn't actually try to analyze what he played there but I play this tune a lot and it's often characterized by adjacent diatonic notes (which could sometimes be half step). A b9 on the dominant would also be consistent with him.

I see I'm in kindergarten here.

I actually like Monk.

Cathy

tremens, delirium QUOTE let's don't be over excited over Monk, he is original in some sense but far from great. Thousands of better players out there.

From Wikipedia 1.Often regarded as a founder of bebop.
2.He is one of only five jazz musicians to be featured on the cover of Time (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck.
Monk's style at this time was later described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk's stated influences include Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and other early stride pianists. Monk's unique piano style was largely perfected during his stint as the house pianist at Minton's in the early-to-mid 1940s, when he participated in the famous after-hours "cutting competitions" that featured most of the leading jazz soloists of the day. The Minton's scene was crucial in the formulation of the bebop genre and it brought Monk into close contact and collaboration with other leading exponents of bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis.

Mary Lou Williams, among others, has spoken of Monk's rich inventiveness in this period, and how such invention was vital for musicians since at the time it was common for fellow musicians to incorporate overheard musical ideas into their own works without giving due credit. "So, the boppers worked out a music that was hard to steal. I'll say this for the `leeches', though: they tried. I've seen them in Minton's busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, I'm afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming. Why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses
Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records did not sell in significant numbers, and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for mass-market acceptance
Today Thelonious Monk is widely accepted as a genuine master of American music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are performed by artists from many different genres. He is the subject of award winning documentaries, biographies and scholarly studies, prime time television tributes, and he even has an Institute created in his name. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was created to promote jazz education and to train and encourage new generations of musicians. It is a fitting tribute to an artist who was always willing to share his musical knowledge with others but expected originality in return.
Robin D. G. Kelley Ph.D.

tremens, delirium I hope your piano playing sounds better your talk and what you write is boring. DPVJAZZ

so you guys have to read in wiki and have a phd to tell you what is good for your ears? pathetic...
For me listening to somebody is enough and while Monk's solo was interesting the whole performance I didn't like at all.

Anyway, listen to whatever makes you happy but don't cheat your ears they know better then you.

You're certainly in good company. A couple of hundred years ago, the conductor and virtuoso violinist, Louis Spohr, heard Beethoven's 5th Symphony and described it as, "an orgy of vulgar noise."

What I admire most about T Monk is his compositions that many jazz musicians have recorded and turned them into standards. Monk was a great songwriter.

He had a piano style that worked for him, a bit choppy at times and inconsistent in his touch, but that was what defined his eccentric and almost elfin personality.

Some of my favorite tunes he wrote were, Round Midnight, Monks Mood, Pannonica and Ruby My Dear. Hopefully he got the royalties he was entitled to when he was around.

I saw his CD set on Amazon, Monk Alone: The Complete Solo Studio Recordings of Thelonious Monk 1962-1968 by Thelonious Monk (Audio CD - 1998) - Original recording remastered. Must order it soon.

katt

You know there is no one like him, he is one of a kind.. you hear people copying Bill Evans, or Oscar Peterson, but not Monk. If there is such thing as a voice on an instrument, then he truly has one.

Kenny Werner once said "do you think Theolonius Monk himself will actually be able make the audition Monk Institute?

You love his music for what it is.. And for me I can appreciate him a lot better when I can drop my expectations for what jazz piano is supposed to sound like.

dvpjazz&daro

I don't know firsthand, bur rumor has it that tremens did post his own music in a jazz forum and people were laughing at him because his music was so...you know what.

I figured, it's like some sports fan who talk all this crap about their team and atheletes..it's easy to criticize people when you aren't the one pouring your heart out on the stage/stadium..

But who knows may be we are all wrong and he is right, and he is actually that brilliant, in that case, I do wonder why the whole world doesn't know about his music.

Maybe he can enlighten us as to how ignorant we are with his brilliant playing

It isn't really important, but I don't think that Tremens' playing has any importance at all.

One doesn't have to be a great musician to have an idea about things.

Also, it isn't rare that very good musicians, great ones even, disdain other great musicians. Armstrong denounced bebop and ridiculed Parker and Gillespie for their berets and sunglasses.

That said, I do find what tremens,delirium says in this thread about Thelonious Monk to be idiotic. I suspect that it is tongue-in-cheek, or said by spirit of provocation, but it is nonetheless idiotic.

As for Thelonious Monk, he was an immense artist, a musician of gigantic stature, and has had an influence so profound and widespread that it is difficult to measure it. It goes beyond imitating his style, copying his licks, transcribing his solos. It goes beyond his compositions, even.

Coltrane worked in Monk's band, during the period leading up to Giant Steps and My Favorite Things. Think of what that represents. Monk is a key element in the development and the flowering of the genius of Coltrane.

The importance of Monk is beyond measure.