Name Your Favorite Thelonious Monk Album. Please.

I've checked it out enough to know that Clint Eastwood didn't direct it. IIRC, his production company released it.

Addendum: Just realized that this info was already conveyed. Sorry for the duplication.

 

Clintwood is a lifelong jazz fan, and has as much right to represent himself as a jazz expert as you guys...

 

"Poor Coleman Hawkins" was the first guy to use Monk on his records and chose to record later in his career with Monk and Sonny Rollins because he respected them. And John Coltrane said he learned more from playing with Monk than with anyone else. Neither of them need any misdirected pity.
And time has proven that Monk's compositions are classics that are far from "almost impossible" to play.

 

I already pointed out that Clint Eastwood was credited as executive producer. Charlotte Zwerin directed. It didn't change the poster's mind, as I believe he said he didn't care if it was directed by 'Bozo the Clown'. And in fact, it doesn't matter to me either. It's a good film. Great performance footage as well as a glimpse into the intimate life of a great musician.
I think for those of us who are not part of that scene except as audience it's hard to understand the behavior of someone like Monk or Miles as being anything more than the product of a 'not normal' mind. And from there it's not much of a leap, at least for some of us, to believe that it's that 'not normal mind' that's driving the music.
As I pointed out, mentally ill persons have periods of lucidity as well as periods of what are called 'decompensation'. It's in those periods of lucidity that people with mental illness who are also gifted and intelligent produce great work.
There's also the issue of whether or not the behavior was more of a defense against the intrusion of the public, record companies, engineers, etc. In short, anything that was a distraction from making the music. Combined with the mental health issues which were a distraction on and off, the additional pressure may have simply been too much. Miles Davis was famous for his surly attitude toward the public, but you could also look at it as means of protecting his privacy. It's a mistake to make a psychiatric diagnosis from studio talk back, in any event.
Finally, I have to credit this thread for making me spend the last day listening to Monk. If you can't hear him playing behind his soloists for at least a chorus on most tracks there's something wrong with your hearing. And I'll once again cite recordings:
Straight, No Chaser Sony SACD
Complete Riverside Recordings Tracks from both Brilliant Corners and sessions with John Coltrane
The recently released live Monk/Trane
Peace.

 

I want to second this thought as well.
Remember the scene in Annie Hall where Alvy produces Marshall McLuhan from behind a cardboard stand-up in a movie line to set that blowhard academic straight? Well, it would certainly be nice to be able to produce these musicians to set the record straight on Monk.
All the standard canards about Monk have been aired again in this thread. That he was 'crazy', that he had 'poor technique'. And some new ones, at least to me. That he 'layed out' all the time. Yup. He was certainly blessed to be as successful as he was, considering that he was a lazy, inconsiderate, belligerent, unschooled, sloppy musician. It's a wonder that he ever made a record or appeared on the cover of Time magazine, two accomplishments that I'll bet meant not much to Monk, although he probably got a laugh out of it.
If you prefer another pianist's way, there's nothing wrong with that. But don't expect Monk to play like Bill Evans, or Evans to play like Monk. Vive le difference.
P.S. Monk's music is difficult to play, but there's nothing wrong with that. It took Steve Lacy years.

 

Yes he does. Now that I think of it, in fact, much more so than the people who have made Monk into a charicature on this thread.

 

Yet, I do not see Clint posting here and claiming that Monk was not a brilliant innovator, but an insane piano clunker who fooled the greatest jazz musicians in history in to playing with him, taking his abuse, and just laying back during sessions because he was arguably one of the worst band leaders of all time. Heck, I don't ever remember him saying that in any context, including the movie he didn't write or direct.

I bet next we are going to start claiming Sinatra was so drunk at his sessions, that he came in late on all his vocal cues. See, its not that he had an amazing sense of timing and swing, he was just drunk and lazy. Now don't get me stated on Coltrane.

 

Favorite Monk??
Straight, No Chaser or Monk's Dream.

I've added Brilliant Corners to my Amazon wishlist.

 

Good points about Eastwood, although I don't believe he posts on SH Forums. Were he to see some of the comments on this thread (which apparently were made in jest, although I never saw a 'smilie face' or a retraction), I think he would simply shake his head in embarrassment.

 

At least Monk didn't do steroids.

 

I get what the humor in what Monk is playing, I don't understand this. If you're making an attempt to lighten up what's been a pretty heavy exchange, that's cool. But if you're saying the subject itself isn't serious, or shouldn't be discussed, that's something else. In any event, I call this a non sequitr. Try again, letting us know what you think or what your favorite Monk album is.

 

Monk's Music and Brilliant Corners

 

I have just finished reading all of the posts in this Thread, and I'd like to thank everyone, especially those who are advocating their positions so strongly and with such conviction. This is one of the most interesting Threads I've read around here in a long time.


I'm really just getting into jazz, so I don't know what my favorite Monk album is, because I haven't heard one all the way through yet. Based strictly on audio clips from Amazon.com, and after checking a number of his albums, I really like "Misterioso" so far.


I'm a whole lot more interested and eager to get to his music now though, as a result of this thread...

 

Now we're cooking with gas. Listen to Monk's music and make up your own mind. I think if you tabulated the results, Brilliant Corners and maybe Criss Cross come in first and second. If you want to learn about Monk, I think Martin Williams has written some good pieces on him (IIRC the piece is about the recording Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk), and the documentary Straight, No Chaser is available on DVD.

 

You should check out THELONIOUS IN ACTION as well. It's was cut at the same time as MISTERIOSO.

 

Oh please lighten up a little. You're not the police.

 

Personal attacks aren't welcome at SH Forums. Bring some substance to the table, as I have, and we can have a reasonable discussion. No one has countered any of the remarks I've made about Monk and his music. Listen to the recordings I've mentioned, view Straight No Chaser, learn about the travails of black musicians in America and why they act the way they do, learn about bipolar disorder. Come up with some ideas. I'm waiting.

 

Please accept my apologies for that snippy post. I thought your original remark about Blues in Orbit was on the mark, and I didn't realize that you and Steve had some friendly competition going. There's no way anyone else could have known about that. And Steve's response didn't address the issue of his views on Monk's mental health or how he plays. In fact, it amplified them.
If you read my original response to Steve's post about Monk's 'insanity', you'll see that it was in the form of a song lyric. Maybe you didn't find it funny.
I agree that people took this thread both personally and seriously. But the discussion should always remain civil. Sckott's responses, in my opinion, were out of bounds.
I don't mind people making jokes to lighten the atmosphere. I was trying to say that I didn't even understand what the joke was about. You'll notice that another poster agreed with that response, also.
Have a nice Thanksgiving.

 

I'm not a piano player, but Monk's music has always made perfect sense to me; sort of logical, but in an illogical way. After Ellington, he's the most important composer in jazz IMHO.
My favorite is unquestionably "Monk's Dream", am lucky to have scored an original Columbia in mint shape years ago from one of the record dungeons in Greenwich Village.
GREAT THREAD filled with lots of strong opinions; lets not forget, though, that we're all friends here and that these are opinions, not facts.

 

Well, I was a little snippy too, so I'm also sorry. (I'm not the police either, heaven forbid!).

I didn't realize it either at first!

 

Thanks. A lot of people have enjoyed this thread, which is nice. Anything that gets people interested in jazz and Monk so that they check it out for themselves is good.
Humor me on the subject of facts and opinions, though, if you will. The issues of Monk's inspiration are complicated. There would be a lot of opinions about it, even if you were a psychiatrist. The issue of how he played behind his soloists is a fact. You can hear it on the records.

 

Brilliant Corners, Monk's Music, Underground.

 

… The music was all. After a theme was introduced, Monk would comp for Trane for a couple of choruses and then get up from the piano and turn him loose while dancing his elbow-led stutter-steps near the stand before returning to the piano for his solo. JJ Johnson, in 1961, told me, "Since Charlie Parker, the most electrifying sound I've heard in contemporary jazz was Coltrane playing with Monk at the Five Spot… It was incredible, like Diz and Bird. – Ira Gilter, liner notes, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall.

Monk apparently liked to dance to the band, and who can blame him for dancing to the best music in town?

Undeniably a genius, and who knows where that well springs from. Madness can certainly be a part of it. I am just amazed by the music. Sometimes I don't know why Monk did what he did, but I'm comfortable not knowing why.

I'm a fairly new Monk fan, in a little over two years I've collected 16 albums. I feel I've just barely made a dent, that I'm just beginning to understand him.

To me, Monk comes in flavors: solo, quartet (trio and quintet), and tentet. Each is amazing to me for different reasons. But so far I have to say the following are my favorites:

Monk Big Band and Quartet In Concert, for the different voices the band gives Monk’s music.
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, for the joy.
Mulligan Meets Monk, two of my favorite players on an interesting date.

I’m just getting into the Rouse period, and Live at the It Club.

 

As I was saying...
Look, it's cool to not remember too well, but to pronounce what you recall as fact is not. And to amp that up by assuming what the musicians playing with Monk felt (I think the phrase was 'poor Coleman Hawkins', or words to that effect) about this fictional lack of support adds further insult. Monk got up and danced during the horn solos all the time. That was his signature thing, not laying out.