Thelonious Monk- American Composer
Written by Joe D on October 6th, 2020
A Young Thelonious Monk playing at the legendary Minton’s, where BeBop was born. Dizzy Gillespie ripped off his look.
Here is a cool documentary on the great composer/musician Thelonious Monk. I always liked Monk but it was after working with Bob Downey that I really became a Super Monk Fan. Because Bob loved Monk, as a young guy in Grennwich Village he was in aqwe of the great Maestro. He saw him walking doen the street one time and was so im pressed by his bearing, his coolness, his genius. He told me he even got a job as a waiter at the 5 Spot, where Monk had a long residency and worked up the nerve to say hello to Monk one evening in the kitchen. To which Monk reponded, “Where’s the fucking orange juice!” I edited a film for Bob called Hugo Pool and we got Danilo Perez, a great Pasnamanian pianist to record a Monk influenced score for it. Anyway I coulsd go on and on about Monk but here watch this doc for yourself and dig the man in action.