Comments on: Monk's birthday

Monk's birthday

hortense — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:15:54 -0800

Thelonious Sphere Monk's birthday is today and WKCR will not stop playing his music untill after midnight

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:19:29 -0800

Happy Birthday, Great One.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:26:26 -0800

I think you meant, 'Round Midnight

By: eatitlive

eatitlive — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:29:16 -0800

Phil Schapp on at 1:00 PM EDT to give the complete historical perspective. I hope to learn exactly which crepuscule Monk spent with Nellie.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:31:15 -0800

A little Epistrophy (GooTube) to celebrate Monk's birthday!

By: eatitlive

eatitlive — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:31:32 -0800

As usual I got the spelling wrong. It's Schaap. Save it, Phil.

By: O Blitiri

O Blitiri — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:32:19 -0800

Ahhh...! Monk. Thank you for this.

By: danb

danb — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:33:51 -0800

The best. My favorite way to introduce someone to Monk is to play George Harrison's version of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" -- the most straight-ahead rendition you can imagine -- followed by Monk's solo version. The minds, they are blown. When I did that for my friend from a classical theory course, he just started laughing.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:35:09 -0800

Hopefully local rock stations play David Lee Roth today until midnight as well.

By: hortense

hortense — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:36:14 -0800

Yes, psmealey "I do pretty well until after midnight" is part of the lyric and got into my typing. hope me. a

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:42:39 -0800

Hey! It's Daniel Pearl's birthday today too! Sphere... Pearl... eh?

By: unwordy

unwordy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:05:39 -0800

Nice! He is one of my top 4 jazz greats, along with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane. Actually, by my amazing powers of deduction, since Miles is my #1, he is my #2.

Such a unique style.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:06:17 -0800

Monk is one of the few jazz dudes (Mingus is another) that made me understand why people love Jazz. 89 tek 9 (guess when I started listening to kcr) is one the last good things about New York radio.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:06:23 -0800

My day just got a hell of a lot better. Thanks for this!

By: TedW

TedW — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:16:00 -0800

Pretty cool; thanks for the reminder. Other musical birthdays today include John Prine.

By: Tuffy

Tuffy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:21:09 -0800

caddis: GooTube!!! also: Writing as I listen to the WKCR stream, I'm reminded why instrumental jazz always makes me feel grumpy. I just don't GET it!!! I know I could read some books that would explain it to me, but I want to respond to it viscerally like my jazz-loving friends. I've talked to a few jazz fans who said their appreciation was born almost instantly, the first time they heard some. Whereas to me it's all just fairly pleasant noodling. Grrr!

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:21:41 -0800

Hopefully local rock stations play David Lee Roth today until midnight as well. I would like to hear a Thelonious Monk version of "Panama".

By: kosem

kosem — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:22:08 -0800

"Monk's Dream" shuffled through my ipod en route to work this morning. What a freakin' genius. Happy birthday!

By: digaman

digaman — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:35:30 -0800

If a hip Martian came down to Earth and asked me to explain the feeling of jazz to him or her, Monk's recordings of "Criss Cross" (the early one, with Milt Jackson, available on The Best of the Blue Note Years ) and "Well, You Needn't" (with Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins, from Monk's Music) -- along with, you know, Miles' Kind of Blue and Charlie Parker's stuff -- would be at the top of my list.

By: twsf

twsf — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:43:51 -0800

Grrr! The music was great until the last tune ended, and now the DJ has been pontificating for over *five minutes*. THAT's a big part of what turns off many listeners to jazz, the interminable "Male Answer Syndrome" DJ style, listing every damn sideman, the year the tune was composed, the year it was performed, which studio it was recorded in, which take, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Just STFU and play some Monk! I'm headed off to Pandora to make my own Monk station...

By: mbd1mbd1

mbd1mbd1 — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:53:39 -0800

I'll drink to that. Straight, no chaser, please.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:55:42 -0800

Phil always goes on like that. It can be quite interesting, but frequently he will talk for almost my entire drive into work and then just as I get there the music starts.

By: feloniousmonk

feloniousmonk — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:16:19 -0800

I feel compelled to show up here, given the semi-eponymous nature of my username.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:18:24 -0800

Some Miles streams from the new album Cool and Collected. (.mov files) [from a promo email I received this morn]

By: copystar

copystar — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:35:09 -0800

Anyone know the background behind The Loneliest Monk's middle name? I mean, Sphere? What's that about?

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:39:25 -0800

Why won't this dude stop talking and play some music!?

By: paulsc

paulsc — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:42:19 -0800

Thanks for the link, hortense, although right now, the stream is all Phil talking (and talking, and talking, and talking...), not Monk. Phil's what's wrong with jazz, Monk's what right. mo' Monk, mo' Monk, mo' Monk, baaaaaby, Monk, mo' Monk, MO' MONK!

By: drill_here_fore_seismics

drill_here_fore_seismics — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:17:06 -0800

Can't beat some Melodious Thunk. Dimeadozen still have a well seeded television recording of the Monk Quartet on Polish television from 1966 which is really nice quality and more than worth a watch.

By: Superfrankenstein

Superfrankenstein — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:18:13 -0800

By: treepour

treepour — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:19:38 -0800

Crap, how am I going to get out the house now?? (Oh wait, the DJ just started blabbing endlessly, this is my chance . . .)

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:29:24 -0800

My god, the DJ is driving me insane. Hrm. OK. The music just started again.

By: danb

danb — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:47:35 -0800

copystar, that reminds me: Victor Wooten has a tune called The Loneliest Monk. It took me years to figure out the reference -- I didn't hear about the MTV story until a few months ago -- even with the line "The loneliest monk / he chased a straight line, not." Friggin' Victor Wooten.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:23:05 -0800

Phil's what's wrong with jazz No, he's not. I've done my share of yelling at the radio while Phil pontificates, and in fact I think I've complained about him here before, but though he's a self-absorbed babbler who should be put on a much shorter leash when he's got a mike in front of him, he is in fact very good for jazz. He's helped a lot of musicians and educated a lot of people, and he plays fantastic music (sometimes music only he has access to). Kenny G is what's wrong with jazz.

By: Miles Long

Miles Long — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:44:47 -0800

Tuffy, my visceral appreciation for bebop was born with the assistance of our old friend Mary Jane. I guess needed to stop thinking about what I was hearing in order to start enjoying it. One such exposure and it stuck forever. agreed. mary jane taught me a lot about jazz. At some point i realized that i was listening to a voice, speaking repeating phrases and variations on phrases in a complex language i could almost understand. The emotional content however was crystal clear. and this doesn't disappear like fairy gold when you're straight. and in a way, all music is noodling.

By: danb

danb — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:45:47 -0800

Kenny G is what's wrong with jazz. Pat Metheny can expand on that, if you like.

By: Miles Long

Miles Long — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:53:49 -0800

speaking of djs, for the most part, fuck em. they can be useful if you want to know who did a song, or who was playing drums on this song or whatever, but all this data, all these numbers, tell me nothing and obscure more than they illuminate. dancing about architecture.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:58:27 -0800

Neat. Love me some Monk.

By: Tuffy

Tuffy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:37:10 -0800

--Tuffy, my visceral appreciation for bebop was born with the assistance of our old friend Mary Jane. ... --agreed. mary jane taught me a lot about jazz. I can't believe you guys call it Mary Jane. Nobody I know calls it that. Generational thing maybe? (I'm 36.) RE jazz, I wonder if it comes down to how much music you heard as a child. If it was a lot, you probably have an intuitive sense of common Western chord progressions etc. With some "Mary Jane" (grin) to turn off your higher critical mind, you can sort of "feel" how jazz screws with those ingrained structures. Just a theory.

By: Doublewhiskeycokenoice

Doublewhiskeycokenoice — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:53:42 -0800

To celebrate this illustrious occasion, why not pop open a bottle of this Fine Beer while listening to his fine tunes. Some of the money goes to a Great Cause and it's delicious to boot.

By: Miles Long

Miles Long — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:06:58 -0800

only cause that's sort of the jazz name for it. Her. That or 'mary warner'. titter. i'm as old as you are. i just think it's a cute and quaint name. You might be right about knowledge of music allowing you to see how the really good improvisers are able to spin off from it. Picasso's life drawings looked almost like DaVinci's. Know the rules before you can break them, and all that. Most of the people i know who like jazz, it just suddenly clicked for them. your idea about just having 'enough' musical experience sounds like it explains that pretty well.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:23:23 -0800

I can't believe you guys call it Mary Jane. The earliest "Mary Jane"="marijuana" is from 1928. By the way, all you Phil haters, he has some very interesting background into Monk. Listening to Phil is like taking a class in music. He was an adjunct lecturer on Jazz at Columbia for years, although I don't think he does that anymore. As a Jaz historian he is fascinating. Nevertheless, I do sometimes just want to hear the music.

By: BrodieShadeTree

BrodieShadeTree — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:38:39 -0800

"there are no wrong notes" -kinda like life.

By: kozad

kozad — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:44:56 -0800

as a jazz pianist...yes, he is my #1 inspiration...but, to repeat what another guy said above: what kind of parents would give their child such a cosmic middle name like Sphere? I've read biographies of Coltrane, Mingus (well, auto-), Miles and Sun Ra, but never of St. Thelonious. Anybody know the story? BTW, my daughter, 3/4 white 1/4 Japanese has a normal but not too normal name, but if she had been born male, we were considering Rahsaan. (After Rahsaan Roland Kirk.) That might have been a little strange for him. Lucky we had a daughter, I guess. BTW, it's also Verdi's birthday today. Antonio Sphere Verdi. Aida, with elephants, to tie in with elephant post day, was his big hit. Saw it in SF. Props to their supertitles. (This was 20 years ago.)

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 19:05:55 -0800

"Thelonious Sphere Monk's birthday is today and WKCR will not stop playing his music untill after midnight... ... at which time they'll immediately commence playing Eric Clapton, right?

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 19:39:10 -0800

I have spent the evening listening to Monk on KCR, very nice. Thanks hortense, this was the post of the day, if only for alerting me to the KCR programming.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:26:21 -0800

...by the way, isn't this a little NYC-filter? It's always weird to me when people post stuff about radio stations as if everybody in the goddamned world could get them. Yet more evidence that New Yorkers don't really understand that there's a world that exists out here...

By: danb

danb — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:40:04 -0800

koeselitz -- what the fuck? Have you ever heard of the internet? Did you read the FPP?

By: hortense

hortense — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:39:30 -0800

Early today I was reading the Monk post at wood s lot, and listening to WFMU, and it got noisey, so I opened my bookmark for WKCR lo they were playing Monk!(what a coincidence huh) I almost didn't post because there was only eleven hours left, Glad that everyone enjoyed the show. I am enjoying the links and comments a bunch.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:14:18 -0800

Just in case people aren't aware of this, this is a WKCR tradition—they spend the whole day on the birthdays of great jazz musicians. From here:

Long ago it became tradition at WKCR to play 24 hours of a jazz great's music on his/her birthday. Max Roach (b. January 10, 1924) Roy Eldridge (b. January 30, 1911; d. February 26, 1989) Ornette Coleman (b. March 9, 1930) Bix Beiderbecke (b. March 10, 1903; d. August 7, 1931) Billie Holiday (b. April 7, 1915; d. July 17, 1959) Charles Mingus (b. April 22, 1922; d. January 5, 1979) Duke Ellington (April 29,1899; d. May 24, 1974) Louis Armstrong (b. August 4, 1901; d. July 6, 1971) (he believed his birthdate to be July 4th 1900, so we celebrate both birthdays.) Lester Young (b. August 27, 1909; d. March 15, 1959) Charlie Parker (b. August 29, 1920; d. March 12, 1955) (combines with Lester Young to form a three-day broadcast) John Coltrane (b. September 23, 1926; d. July 17, 1967) Thelonious Monk (b. Oct. 10, 1917; d. February 17, 1982) Clifford Brown (b. October 30, 1930; d. June 26, 1956) Coleman Hawkins (b. Nov. 21, 1904; d. May 19, 1969)

So keep those dates in mind. They also do extended festivals on particular people or themes, some of which are mentioned in this (pretty old) interview with Schaap. They once did an entire week of Sun Ra; I ran home from work each day to tape more obscure sessions. A great station. And yeah, you can listen to it on the internet from anywhere! *rolls eyes*

By: TedW

TedW — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:41:37 -0800

Danb, languagehat: you might enjoy Richard Thompson's "I Agree With Pat Metheny" mp3.