Monk - wise or crazy you decide!

shatners basoon

Found this on the bad plus blog

They're the notes of Steve Lacy (played soprano i think), Monk'd be a great teacher. This is a good addition the the long line of great Monk tales.
The one about him not talking to his band for ages is the best though!

Hey, why not post any good stories you've got here if you've got any, might be interesting.

Setun

Wise. For sure.

crap, embedding disabled.
Here's a link. I think Monk goes for a little dance during the tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHtZ66EcZnU

herbieflowers

genius

shatners basoon

Daddio wrote: »

Wise. For sure.

crap, embedding disabled.
Here's a link. I think Monk goes for a little dance during the tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHtZ66EcZnU

Heh, thats great. I love the way youtube just gets better and better for these videos.

And monk is probably a bit of both to be honest, you'd have to be to write such strange, fractured tunes that manage to be so brilliant at the same time. He is definitely my favorite composer, though Shorter, Horace and Mingus come close.

I remember a friend telling me this story about Monk about how he went on tour with a band without ever speaking to them. No directions, no criticisms or anything. Eventually, they asked him why he wouldn't say anything- still nothing from Monk. A while passed after the tour was over and one of them got a telegram from Monk. It read

'cause you so damned ugly!'

Perhaps a bit of an urban myth but captures the great man well I think