It could have been worse—toxic red sludge, for instance.
The technician just left after performing CPR on the internet connection, which was out of commission for 48 hours. The Rifftides staff will resume posting soon. Now, ears open wide and notebook in hand, we’re off to The Seasons for the next concerts of the Fall Festival. This afternoon,Tom Harrell’s quintet and pianist Bill Mays are performing Harell, Antheil and Gershwin with the Yakima Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Tonight, it’s the Mays trio with Martin Wind and Matt Wilson.
In the meantime, if Thelonious Monk were alive he would be celebrating his 93rd birthday. Let us all celebrate Monk. This 1966 performance of “Blue Monk” with Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales and Ben Riley has been viewed 1,140,150 times. No wonder.
Afloat Again—On Monk’s Birthday
October 10, 2010 by
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
At Monk’s piano solo even the spaces he leaves are swinging. — “Blue Monk” was his favorite tune.
Happy birthday, Thelonious!
We all dig you, you dig?
(By the way, feel free to click on my name, and you can hear some more Monk; for studying Steve Lacy’s notes of what Monk has told him, go HERE. — I have transcribed them.)
Here in Russia we also celebrate Monk’s birthday.The Oleg Kireyev Quartet dedicated to this event a 1.5 hour concert of Monk’s music in his CCU jazz club.And Cyril Moshkow, Editor-in-Chief of the only(AFAIK) and quite interesting Russian journal “ДЖАЗ.РУ” ( http://jazz.ru ), posted a very interesting comment and a video “Pannonica”(We know who it was) on ДЖАЗ.РУ portal.
But the video “Blue Monk” is really superb! Thank you,Doug!