When Monk starts dancing to your solo, you must be doing well...

[GeneZ]

The drummer plays like someone hopping and skipping down a sidewalk with
rocks and pebbles found in random places.... He just kept hopping and skipping
along gracefully, making quick swerves and moves. Always staying on firm ground....

Love that mentality in a drummer!

 

[Skeet6]

I love this. Monk was my introduction to bop playing.
Mike B

 

[hsosdrum]

LOVE me some Monk!

 

[Morello Man]

Unfortunately, it is not that cut and dried. If you watch the documentary "Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser", you will see Monk dancing and twirling around at an airport, doing that after walking into a studio, etc. The film examines his mental illness through interviews with several people in his life including his son. That is not to say that he didn't dig what Charlie Rouse was playing. It is to say that his dancing was not confined to that stimulus, as the documentary makes clear.

 

[Rockin' Billy]

Unfortunately, it is not that cut and dried. If you watch the documentary "Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser", you will see Monk dancing and twirling around at an airport, doing that after walking into a studio, etc. The film examines his mental illness through interviews with several people in his life including his son. That is not to say that he didn't dig what Charlie Rouse was playing. It is to say that his dancing was not confined to that stimulus, as the documentary makes clear.

: )

 

[GeneZ]

Unfortunately, it is not that cut and dried. If you watch the documentary "Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser", you will see Monk dancing and twirling around at an airport, doing that after walking into a studio, etc. The film examines his mental illness through interviews with several people in his life including his son. That is not to say that he didn't dig what Charlie Rouse was playing. It is to say that his dancing was not confined to that stimulus, as the documentary makes clear.

Even Frank Sinatra once hallucinated hearing great music coming from nowhere....

Great musicians live in a different realm than the average critic. Thelonious had his demons to contend with..... His music was fantastic and quirky.

 

[5 Style]

Monk's music was so much about rhythm, it's no wonder that he danced to it!

Most of the jazz that I regularly listen to is newer than Monk and I don't really listen to much be bop era stuff (as great as that music is) but though Monk dates from that era there's something about his music that really draws me in. Though he is from that era of be bop, it seems to me that his music stood apart as something that was very different than other stuff which was happening at the time. I love those monk albums, but also lots of stuff of various other folks interpreting his music...

 

[Slingerland3ply]

those chords on Monk's Piano are ear catching.

 

[bigbonzo]

Unfortunately, it is not that cut and dried. If you watch the documentary "Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser", you will see Monk dancing and twirling around at an airport, doing that after walking into a studio, etc. The film examines his mental illness through interviews with several people in his life including his son. That is not to say that he didn't dig what Charlie Rouse was playing. It is to say that his dancing was not confined to that stimulus, as the documentary makes clear.

I agree. Didn't look to me that he was dancing to the actual solo, just dancing.

Yup, call me Debbie Downer as well.

 

[thenuge]

So dancing in public = crazy? That seems cut and dried too. For a crazy person he sure got a lot done. I wish more people danced in public. Might be a better world.

Robin Kelley wrote a great bio of Monk, and he talks about the dancing in this interview. Monk was bipolar, which caused other problems. But dancing? I think no. Monk knew what he was doing. He loved fun. The hats, the song titles, the dancing. And he knew he was in show business..

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/03/the-secret-life-of-thelonious-monk/38128/

 

[hsosdrum]

... I wish more people danced in public. Might be a better world...

Amen!

 

[T-2]

Frankie Dunlop, John Ore and that groovy beat get me dancing too.

 

[Esotericdrums]

Even Frank Sinatra once hallucinated hearing great music coming from nowhere....

Great musicians live in a different realm than the average critic. Thelonious had his demons to contend with..... His music was fantastic and quirky.

The mystic and the madman swim in the same waters

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

That's some good vibes & stuff, cat....!!!

 

[RayB]

LOVE me some Monk!

Love Monk. I don't think of his music as "old". He had his own piano style, always fascinated by his approach. I got a CD "Monk Plays Standards", and his take on old standards is so creative.
I should add, if you dig Monk, dig Duke Ellington's piano playing. Monk was a great admirer of Ellington and you can hear it in his playing. Don't sell Duke short; he also had a very unique approach to piano. Listen to some of his solo work or duets with Jimmy Blanton on bass. He also made trio recordings with Max Roach (Money Jungle) and some sides with John Coltrane. During the big band era, no band was as original or creative. If you hear what he was doing in the 1920s with his first band: that was some stoned out sounds! Always took chances.