Happy Birthday Monk! – October 10th, 2005

TheloniusMonk
A day late and a dollar short! Of course Monk’s phrase was ‘Straight No Shooter” and I missed his birthday yesterday and discovered it upon a lark at the Bad Plus website.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) is at the top of my list of musical influences and his obtuse and euphoric style of enharmonic jazz continues to delight me. I’ve worked several songs into my own set list from Monk including;
– Blue Monk
– Monk’s Dream
– Round Midnight
– Hackensack

Monk’s Mood is one of my favorite all-time jazz piano recordings.