// Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original // 21.04.17
“I like to stand out, man. I’m not one of the crowd. If the crowd goes that way, I go the other way.” - Thelonious Monk
The line between planned experiment and artistic abdication or incompetence is hazy, as in modern painting.
The employment of elaborate chord substitutions and rhythmic innovations in order to weed out the bad players, or so the story goes, ultimately contributed to the birth of bebop.
Mondays: the professional musicians’ night off
"Today the big problem is that no one wants to work their left hand. Modern jazz is full of single-handed piano players. It takes long hours of practice and concentration to perfect a good bass moving with the left hand and it seems as though the younger cats have figured they can reach their destination without paying their dues."
Like Monk, when Chittison backed a soloist - including a singer - he was never content to simply feed him (or her) chords in the background. He tended to be extraordinarily busy, filling in every conceivable space to the point of competing with the soloist.
When Riley asked Monk about rehearsing, he replied, “Why do you want to do that, so you can learn how to cheat? You already know how to play. Now play wrong and make that right.”
Thelonious was feeling pretty good
It was dance music that you played. You were supposed to have some fun; they didn’t come there to listen. They came there to party.
What Monk witnessed on the road with the evangelist reinforced for him the essential relationship between music and dance - music is supposed to move the body and touch the soul.
“I like to stand out, man. I’m not one of the crowd. If the crowd goes that way, I go the other way.” - Thelonious Monk
The line between planned experiment and artistic abdication or incompetence is hazy, as in modern painting.
The employment of elaborate chord substitutions and rhythmic innovations in order to weed out the bad players, or so the story goes, ultimately contributed to the birth of bebop.
Mondays: the professional musicians’ night off
"Today the big problem is that no one wants to work their left hand. Modern jazz is full of single-handed piano players. It takes long hours of practice and concentration to perfect a good bass moving with the left hand and it seems as though the younger cats have figured they can reach their destination without paying their dues."
Like Monk, when Chittison backed a soloist - including a singer - he was never content to simply feed him (or her) chords in the background. He tended to be extraordinarily busy, filling in every conceivable space to the point of competing with the soloist.
When Riley asked Monk about rehearsing, he replied, “Why do you want to do that, so you can learn how to cheat? You already know how to play. Now play wrong and make that right.”
Thelonious was feeling pretty good
It was dance music that you played. You were supposed to have some fun; they didn’t come there to listen. They came there to party.
What Monk witnessed on the road with the evangelist reinforced for him the essential relationship between music and dance - music is supposed to move the body and touch the soul.
