{"id":31,"date":"2007-10-09T21:42:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T01:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2007\/10\/monk_at_90_monk_forever\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:35:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:35:06","slug":"monk_at_90_monk_forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2007\/10\/monk_at_90_monk_forever.html","title":{"rendered":"Monk at 90, Monk Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thelonious Sphere Monk (Oct. 10, 1917 – Feb. 17, 1982) should be celebrated today on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and always for the indestructible resonance of his compositions, pianism and performance style. He is an authentic icon of the American alternative, the possibility of us each becoming, and making sense of, who we uniquely are.
\nIt’s easy to hear Monk’s influence in present day jazz — as easy as listening to a parade of 18 jazz and classical keyboardists in 10-15 minute increments from 5 p.m. to 9:15 this evening (Oct. 10) at the Fazioli Piano Marathon in the Winter Garden of World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan, admission free. They’ll lack the touch of the man himself — but then, he is inimitable. Check out his juggling act with cigarette, handkerchief, fragmented melody and flowing counterpart on “Round Midnight”<\/a>, co-credited to Cootie Williams and Bernie Hanighen, but one of Monk’s signature songs.<\/p>\n


\nOnce you really hear Monk, you’ll remember him. His idiosyncratic melodies and brilliantly insightful harmonies easily enter the ear, then slip beneath consciousness to affect one’s stance, breathing and pace, maybe speech patterns and thought. He is a link between Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington and Cecil Taylor, and by only slightly extended comparison, the distilled amalgam of Bach and Webern. His music is simultaneously as elemental and inevitable as the earth, and strikingly original, truly individualistic, expressive beyond conventions of jazz (or any other) tradition. His songs and improvisations are funny, strange, upbeat, arduous, murky, driven and driving and ceaseless in their flow. He was not prolix — his music always unfolds with logic, by plan. Yet that plan was devised by Monk alone, and is understood by us only thanks to his gift of it to the audience, the public, the world.
\nMonk’s impact on other forms of music and art than jazz is not obvious, but it’s bound to exist. No music so instantly recognizable, full of indestructible integrity, rewarding to the musicians who try it and entertaining to listeners, too, exists in a bubble. Monk’s music<\/a> (title of one of my favorite of his albums, featuring tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane and a reverent yet prototypically Monkish rendition of “Abide With Me”) has lots to teach us, about independence and interdependence, the tones between tones, how wrong can be right and the virtues of ugly beauty.
\nAt the World Financial Center, the following keyboard artists will play, in this scheduled order: Aaron Goldberg, Rachel Z, Helio Alves, Deidre Rodman, Frank Kimbrough, Natalia Kazaryan, Rodney Kendrick, Luis Perdomo, Juan Jose Chuquisengo, Aaron Diehl, Ran Jia, Randy Weston, Martha Marchena, Fred Hersch, Cedar Walton, Joel Fan, Geri Allen and Dan Tepfer. Great idea — pianists, and players of other instruments, too, should do this around the world. Frequently. Perhaps in the future they will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thelonious Sphere Monk (Oct. 10, 1917 – Feb. 17, 1982) should be celebrated today on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and always for the indestructible resonance of his compositions, pianism and performance style. He is an authentic icon of the American alternative, the possibility of us each becoming, and making sense of, who we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":141,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/11\/classic_monk_classical_jazz_at.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":0},"title":"Classic Monk, classical Jazz at Lincoln Center","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The jazziest scene at the second night of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Monk Festival was in the fifth floor atrium, during intermission of simultaneous concerts by pianist Danilo Perez's trio (reprising his cd Panamonk, in the Allen Room) and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performing members' arrangements of Monk's music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":777,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/01\/organ-monk-weds-funk-thelonious-soul-and-smarts.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":1},"title":"“Organ Monk” weds funk & Thelonious, soul and smarts","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Organist Greg Lewis, wearing a monk's robe, plus guitarist Ron Jackson and drummer Damion Reid, tore up with full\u00c2\u00a0respect the knotty compositions of the\u00c2\u00a0late great Thelonious Monk\u00c2\u00a0last night at 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. About a dozen people heard them over a 90 minute period (they played a full set,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jeremy Clemons, drums; Greg Lewis, organ. Artist provided photo, credit sought, no copyright infringement intended","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/greg-lewis.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/meet_the_composer_grants_-_no.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":2},"title":"Meet the Composer grants — not for improvisers","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Pursuant to online debates about whether grants and fellowships are good for jazz -- here's\u00c2\u00a0a report on the non-profit\u00c2\u00a0Meet the Composer's choice of 31 recipients for $300,000 towards realization of commissions. Only one jazz-related project among them: composer-guitarist Joel Harrison, commissioned by the Brooklyn-based organization Connection Works, to write for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2750,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2020\/04\/future-jazz-past-hal-willner-circa-1992.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":3},"title":"Future Jazz past: Hal Willner, circa 1992","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The death of funny, smart, idiosyncratic, unique music producer Hal Willner at age 64 saddens me. Hal Willner, photo by \u00a0David Andrako We were East Village neighbors in the go-go '90s, flush with ideas to try in the future. Here's my entry about him from Future Jazz (Oxford U Press,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/41V4564B46L.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2247,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2017\/06\/nea-supports-jazz-and-us-arts-nationwide.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":4},"title":"NEA supports jazz and US arts nationwide","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment of the Arts, arguably the most misunderstood and beleaguered doing-good office of the federal gov't (excluding the NEH, EPA, Consumer Financial Bureau, Civil Rights Division of the Justice Dept., and a few others) has issued its 2017 funding report, highlighting that its monies (monies from we US\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Anthony Braxton\"","block_context":{"text":"Anthony Braxton","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/tag\/anthony-braxton"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/04\/jazz_lofts_aint_what_they_used.html","url_meta":{"origin":31,"position":5},"title":"Jazz lofts as they used to be","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Composer\u00c2\u00a0Steve Reich said, \"Without John Coltrane, there would be no minimalism.\" The topic was Hall Overton, the man who arranged Monk's music, treating jazz as contemporary \"classical\" composition. 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