As you might guess, Bill Frisell has been among the foremost Monk interpreters throughout his career, particularly in his work with the late, great Paul Motian, but everyone from Tal Farlow to Charlie Hunter has worked some Monk into their repertoire, which means our decision to share a simple Spotify playlist and leave it at that turned into something a bit more…involved. Mostly “‘Round Midnight,” of course, which is about as standard as a Standard can get, and has been giving all manner of treatment (standard and not), but stretching well into the (brilliant) corners. And that Monk thing, that angular, clustered, syncopated, funky thing…damned if that’s not a sweet spot for guitar players.īe it that thing or those songs, guitar players have embraced the Monk songbook as their own. Monk was, needless to say, absolutely huge, as iconic as an icon can be, a singular presence as a musician and arguably as influential a composer as jazz has ever known. We’ve observed a few notable milestones here – the anniversary of John Coltrane’s passing just a few months ago, Charlie Christian’s Centennial last summer–and we cannot allow the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk (born Octoin Rocky Mount, North Carolina) to pass without mention. Heck, the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ Milestones is coming up next year. No matter when you are, something happened 10 years before it, or 20, or 50, or 100… and milestones always need marking. One thing you can count on: things keep having happened.
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