{"id":8723,"date":"2017-10-10T19:25:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8723"},"modified":"2017-10-10T19:25:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T02:25:09","slug":"monk-would-be-100-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/10\/monk-would-be-100-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Monk Would Be 100 Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6178\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Thelonious-Monk-Pure-Monk-451608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Thelonious-Monk-Pure-Monk-451608.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Thelonious-Monk-Pure-Monk-451608-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thelonious Monk. I&#8217;ve never given it much thought, but if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re astrologically inclined it makes sense that he was a Libra. From the beginning, some fellow musicians and close listeners recognized Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unique abilities and piquant musicality. Those less receptive, or unwilling to hear out of the mainstream jazz boxes of the late 1930s and early forties, were amused or puzzled by Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way with the piano. It took years for many to embrace the peculiarities that his genius and personality transmuted into one of music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most endearing personal styles. There are\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthank goodness\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhundreds of recorded examples of his unclassifiable artistry, and dozens of videos.<\/p>\n<p>At the Berliner Jazztage in 1969, Monk played a masterly unaccompanied set, then was joined by the stride pianist Joe Turner, bassist Hans Rettenbacher and drummer Stu Martin. As if that weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough of a treat, the video includes a bonus: Sarah Vaughan beautifully intoning a Beatles song that was at the top of pop charts in the 1960s. She follows the Monk segment, accompanied by Johnny Veth, piano; Gus Mancuso, bass; and Eddy Puci, drums.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZzWjR6xO-BE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>May our half-hour visit with Monk and friends in Berlin get your weekend off to a fine start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thelonious Monk. I&#8217;ve never given it much thought, but if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re astrologically inclined it makes sense that he was a Libra. From the beginning, some fellow musicians and close listeners recognized Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unique abilities and piquant musicality. Those less receptive, or unwilling to hear out of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}