One Down, One Up: A Jazz Website

tornandfrayed:

Thelonious Monk by Eddy Posthuma de Boer.

György Ligeti digs Monk and Bill Evans →

Link via EricDolphy.

3 months ago 5 notes Reblog

atane:

Denzel as Thelonious Monk?
Perhaps sensing that his career choices of late had lapsed into self-parody, Denzel Washington has begun considering projects that could find him briefly stepping away from being an agent or cop or something who plays by his own rules and butts heads with a younger guy. For starters, there’s the upcoming Robert Zemeckis drama Flight, in which Washington puts on a different kind of uniform and breaks some different kinds of rules by playing a Sully-like hero pilot who’s revealed to also have a drinking problem. Now he tells The Observer—shortly after insisting that he would be “bored to tears” by doing the same roles over and over, presumably while bawling his eyes out—not only is he “hovering” around an unspecified comedy, he’s also considering starring in a biopic about jazz legend Thelonious Monk, for which a script is already in place. Not much else is known about the project, but Washington did say that he particularly loved how the innovative Monk played jazz by his own rules, unafraid to let an older note linger and clash with a newer, younger note and, like, get right inside its head. (Okay, not really.) (Source)

fabiche:

Thelonious Monk, David Redfern

bainer:

charlievilla:

[Portrait of Thelonious Monk, Minton’s Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947] (LOC) (by The Library of Congress)

Thelonious Monk at the piano where he solidified his legend.

bainer:

Thelonious Monk with his wife Nellie in Milan Italy circa 1964 (photo by Roberto Polillo)

bainer:

Thelonious Monk in concert in Milan Italy circa 1964 (photo by Roberto Polillo)

Thelonious Monk - Well You Needn't [Alternate]

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

bainer:

Thelonious Monk - Well You Needn’t [Alternate take] (1947)

From a Michael Cuscuna interview:

The greatest finds were the Monk material, especially the alternate take of “Well You Needn’t.” If that had been chosen as the master take, nobody ever would’ve played it because the way he plays the melody is so much more complex. It’s just brilliant and exciting.

4 months ago 37 notes Reblog » bainer

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

jazz-swing:

Thelonious Monk -April in Paris - Thelonious Himself 1957

4 months ago 41 notes Reblog » classicbluenotes