Jazz piano may refer to:

• Jazz piano, a piano-oriented subgenre of jazz music
• Piano Jazz, an NPR radio show, hosted by Marian McPartland since 1978, focused on the aforementioned genre

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Bugge Wesseltoft (with John Scofield) at Moers Festival 2006, Germany

Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft (born 1 February 1964 in Porsgrunn) is a Norwegian jazz musician, pianist, composer and producer. He has his own label named Jazzland Records. In the 1990s, Bugge has made a transition from Nordic jazz traditions exemplified by the ECM record label to a style sometimes referred to as "future jazz" or nu jazz. He has played with Jan Garbarek.

He also received in 1996 the "Spellemannprisen" for his album New Conception of Jazz, also in 1998 and 2002 for his albums with Sidsel Endresen, Duplex Ride and Out Here, In There.

The track "Existence" could be heard in Philippe Harel's movie "Extension du domaine de la lutte", adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's roman, written in 1994.

Discography[link]

New Conception of Jazz[link]

• 1997: New Conception of Jazz
• 1998: New Conception of Jazz: Sharing
• 2001: New Conception of Jazz: Moving
• 2003: New Conception of Jazz Live
• 2004: New Conception of Jazz: Film Ing

Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft (duo)[link]

• 1994: Nightsong
• 1998: Duplex Ride
• 2002: Out Here, in There

Bugge Wesseltoft (solo)[link]

• 1997: It's Snowing on My Piano
• 2007: Im
• 2009: Playing
• 2011: Songs

With others[link]

• 1990: Sagn with Arild Andersen
• 1990: I Took Up the Runes with Jan Garbarek
• 1991: Live at Rockefeller with Jazzpunkensemblet
• 1993: Exile with Sidsel Endresen
• 1993: Tid with Tore Brunborg
• 1996: Nordic with Billy Cobham
• 1997: Thirteen Rounds with Jazzpunkensemblet
• 1997: Bitt with Audun Kleive
• 1998: Rites with Jan Garbarek
• 1999: Friday Sessions - Jazzland Sessions
• 1999: Saturday Sessions - Jazzland Sessions
• 1999: Sunday Sessions - Jazzland Sessions
• 1999: Billy Cobham presents Nordic - Off Color with Billy Cobham
• 2005: Cool Side of the Pillow with Michy Mano
• 2005: The Cloud Making Machine with Laurent Garnier
• 2007: Public Outburst with Laurent Garnier
• 2011: Duo with Henrik Schwarz

Guest appearances[link]

• 2001: Dreams That Went Astray with Jon Eberson Group
• 2001: Home with Beady Belle
• 2001: RevisitÈ with Erik Truffaz
• 2003: Cewbeagappic with Beady Belle
• 2005: Closer with Beady Belle
• 2006: "Beauty Came To Us In Stone" with Mungolian Jet Set

Also appears on[link]

With Lars Danielsson & Nils Petter Molvaer With Jan Garbarek

• Rites (ECM, 1998)

With Terje Rypdal

• Vossabrygg (ECM, 2003)

With Lars Danielsson & Nils Petter Molvaer

• Beginner's Guide to Scandinavia (3CD, Nascente 2011)

See also[link]

• Nu jazz

External links and references[link]

• Bugge Wesseltoft - official site of the musician.
• Bugge Wesseltoft's biography from the Jazzland website.
• Bugge Wesseltoft at Allmusic
• Bugge Wesseltoft fan site
• GubeMusic - Bugge Wesseltoft on Gube Music.
• Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz RBMA lecture

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Photo by Nick Myers & Aaron Rockers

Kenny Werner (born November 19, 1951) is an American jazz pianist.^[1]

Biography[link]

Kenny Werner is a pianist and composer. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continues to impact audiences.

Kenny was recently awarded the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his seminal work, No Beginning No End. No Beginning No End is a musical journey exploring tragedy and loss, death and transition, and the path from one lifetime to the next. Utilizing over 70 musicians, Kenny’s third album for Half Note Records is an expansive composition featuring Joe Lovano, Judy Silvano, Wind Ensemble, Choir and String Quartet.

Born in Brooklyn, NY on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Kenny began playing and performing at a young age, first recording on television at the age of 11. Although he studied classical piano as a child, he enjoyed playing anything he heard on the radio. In high school and his first years of college he attended the Manhattan School of Music as a classical piano major.

His natural instinct for improvisation led Kenny to the Berklee School of Music in 1970. There he sought tutelage of the renowned piano teacher Madame Chaloff. Her gracious wisdom and inspiration became a driving force in Kenny’s conception: music conscious of its spiritual intent and essence.

From Boston, Kenny traveled to Brazil with the saxophonist Victor Assis Brasil. There he met Victor’s twin brother, Brazilian pianist Joao Assis Brasil. He studied with Joao, who provided another piece of the puzzle for Kenny’s conception that would lead to Effortless Mastery, his landmark opus on how to allow the master musician from within to manifest.

Kenny started his own trio in 1981 with drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Ratzo Harris. The Kenny Werner Trio matured for fourteen years, wowing audiences in America and Europe and recording four albums along the way.

Kenny had written many original compositions featuring trios and other small group configurations, but in the mid 1980’s, he became the pianist for the Mel Lewis Orchestra (currently known as the Village Vanguard Orchestra). Challenged by Mel and Bob Brookmeyer to write for the band, he produced his first compositions and arrangements for jazz orchestra, consequently leading him to write for the major bands in Europe including the Cologne, Danish, and Stockholm Jazz Orchestras, The Umo Jazz Orchestra of Finland and several times as the guest composer and soloist with the Metropole Orchestra of Holland. Since then Werner has had many commissions to write for large ensembles such as jazz orchestras, full orchestras and most recently, wind ensemble, choir and string quartet as featured on his latest CD, No Beginning, No End.

Several outstanding musical partnerships began in the 1990’s. Kenny continues to play duo with Toots Thielemans, the legendary harmonica player. For twenty years he has played with and arranged for Betty Buckley, a Broadway legend. They made six albums together and she has sung his arrangements for small band and orchestras across the globe. He also has had a nearly forty-year friendship and musical collaboration with Joe Lovano. They have recorded on a number of each other’s projects.

In 2000, Kenny formed a new trio with Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Weidenmueller on bass. They played nearly a decade together and released three albums, with Kenny acting as composer, arranger, and pianist. Their last album, Peace – Live at the Blue Note, released in 2004, began a wonderful relationship with Half Note Records, the recording arm of the Blue Note Jazz Club. He created three CDs before the release of his masterpiece, No Beginning No End. In 2007, Kenny Werner released his first album for Blue Note Records. Lawn Chair Society, featuring Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade, received critical acclaim for its fusion of electro and acoustic elements.

Kenny’s groundbreaking work on Improvisation, Effortless Mastery – Liberating the Master Musician Within, was published in 1996. Using his life experiences as a microscope into the artist’s mind, Effortless Mastery is a guide to distill the emotional, spiritual, and psychological aspects of an artists’ life. Today it is one of the most widely read books on music and improvisation. The book is a required reading at many universities. Werner, without intention, touched off a revolution of inspiring musicians to do inner work on the mind, body, and soul in attempt to upgrade their musical experience from the mundane to the profound. The book is also popular with artists of other mediums and business professionals. Kenny continues to teach and give clinics in the United States and abroad. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at New York University.

Kenny Werner’s influence is unsurpassed. He has impacted an entire generation of musicians and artists. Despite his creative output, Kenny is still focused on the music. “I am still more and more aware of the true purpose of the music and the people who play it: to heal and unite the planet.”

Awards[link]

1985 & 87: National Endowment For the Arts performance grants.

1993: National Endowment for the Arts Grant to present a concert in tribute to Mel Lewis.

1995: grant awarded by NEA to compose a piano concerto dedicated to Duke Ellington, performed in February 1996 by the Cologne Radio Orchestra.

Distinguished Artist Award for Composition from the New Jersey Council of the Arts for a piece entitled "Kandinsky" from his CD, Paintings.

2010: Guggenheim Fellowship Award for the CD "No Beginning No End"

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Beyond the Forest of Mirkwood, Solo, 1981
• 289 Bridge St. with Joe Lovano, Billy Drewes, Bill DeArango, Ratzo Harris, Tom Rainey, 1982
• Introducing the Trio with Ratzo Harris, Tom Rainey, 1989
• Uncovered Heart with Eddie Gomez, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, John Bernard Riley, Edson Cafe Adasilva, 1990
• Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 34, Solo, 1994
• Copenhagen Calypso, Solo, 1994
• Gu-Ru with Tim Hagans, Billy Drewes, Jamey Haddad, Ratzo Harris, Tom Rainey, 1994
• Live at Visiones with Ratzo Harris, Tom Rainey, 1995
• Meditations, Solo, 1995
• A Delicate Balance with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, 1998
• Unprotected Music with Marc Johnson, Joey Baron, 1998
• Beauty Secrets with Billy Hart, Joe Lovano, Betty Buckley, Mark Feldman, Drew Gress, Heide Stubner, Mary Wooten, Dave Ballou, Tony Malaby, Todd Reynolds, Victor Schultz, Ari Hoenig, Johannes Weidenmüller, 2000
• Peace with Johannes Weidenmüller, Ari Hoenig, 2004
• Dreamtales with Claudia Villela
• Democracy with David Sánchez, Matt Shulman, Brian Blade, Scott Colley
• Shadows with Marcin Oles, Bartlomiej Oles, 2006
• Naked In The Cosmos with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra
• Lawn Chair Society with Brian Blade, Scott Colley, Dave Douglas, Chris Potter, Lenny Picket, 2007
• No Beginning No End with Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano, winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, 2010

As sideman[link]

With Joe Lovano

• Tones, Shapes & Colors (Soul Note, 1985)
• Village Rhythm (Soul Note, 1988)
• Landmarks (Blue Note, 1990)
• Universal Language (Blue Note, 1992)
• Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition Two (Blue Note, 2000)

With Maria Schneider

• Evanescence

Bibliography[link]

• "Effortless Mastery": Book published in 1996 by Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Inc.
• Channeling Music: Organica, Spring 1988
• Play for the Right Reasons - Organica, Winter 1990
• Hostile Triads - The Piano Stylist & Jazz Workshop, April-May 1991

References[link]

External links[link]

• Audio Recordings of WCUW Jazz Festivals - Jazz History Database
• Kenny Werner - The Official Site
• Kenny Werner's album "No Beginning No End"

Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk, at Minton's Playhouse, New York, 1947
Background information
Birth name	Thelonious Sphere Monk
Born	(1917-10-10)October 10, 1917 Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States
Origin	Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States
Died	February 17, 1982(1982-02-17) (aged 64) Englewood, New Jersey, United States
Genres	Jazz, bebop, hard bop
Occupations	Pianist, composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1940s-1973[1]
Labels	Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Columbia
Website	http://www.monkzone.com

Thelonious Sphere Monk^[2] (October 10, 1917^[3] – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered one of the giants of American music.^[4] Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.^[5]

His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This was not a style universally appreciated; poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'.^[6]

Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano.

He is one^[7] of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck) as of 2010.^[8]

Early life[link]

Thelonious Monk was born October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marion. A brother, Thomas, was born in January 1920.^[9] In 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City. Monk started playing the piano at the age of six. Although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was largely self-taught. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but did not graduate. He toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz.

In the early to mid 1940s, Monk was the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub. Much of Monk's style was developed during his time at Minton's, when he participated in after-hours "cutting competitions" which featured many leading jazz soloists of the time. The Minton's scene was crucial in the formulation of bebop and it brought Monk into close contact with other leading exponents of the emerging idiom, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis. Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at the club. Monk's style at this time was later described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk's stated influences included Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and other early stride pianists. In the documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, it is stated that Monk lived in the same neighborhood in New York City as Johnson and knew him as a teenager.

Mary Lou Williams, among others, spoke of Monk's rich inventiveness in this period, and how such invention was vital for musicians since at the time it was common for fellow musicians to incorporate overheard musical ideas into their own works without giving due credit. "So, the boppers worked out a music that was hard to steal. I'll say this for the `leeches', though: they tried. I've seen them in Minton's busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, I'm afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming. Why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses."^[10]

Early recordings (1944–1954)[link]

(From left) Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947

In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was among the first prominent jazz musicians to promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 (later anthologised on Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1) which showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisation. Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T. S. Monk, who is a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara (affectionately known as Boo-Boo), was born in 1953.

In August 1951, New York City police searched a parked car occupied by Monk and friend Bud Powell. The police found narcotics in the car, presumed to have belonged to Powell. Monk refused to testify against his friend, so the police confiscated his New York City Cabaret Card. Without the all-important cabaret card he was unable to play in any New York venue where liquor was served, and this severely restricted his ability to perform for several crucial years. Monk spent most of the early and mid-1950s composing, recording, and performing at theaters and out-of-town gigs.

After his cycle of intermittent recording sessions for Blue Note during 1947–1952, he was under contract to Prestige Records for the following two years. With Prestige he cut several highly significant, but at the time under-recognized, albums, including collaborations with saxophonist Sonny Rollins and drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach. In 1954, Monk participated in a Christmas Eve session which produced most of the albums Bags' Groove and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants by Miles Davis. Davis found Monk's idiosyncratic accompaniment style difficult to improvise over and asked him to lay out (not accompany), which almost brought them to blows. However, in Miles Davis' autobiography Miles, Davis claims that the anger and tension between Monk and himself never took place and that the claims of blows being exchanged were "rumors" and a "misunderstanding".^[11]

In 1954, Monk paid his first visit to Europe, performing and recording in Paris. Backstage Mary Lou Williams introduced him to Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a member of the Rothschild family and a patroness of several New York City jazz musicians. She would be a close friend for the rest of Monk's life, including taking responsibility for him when she and Monk were charged with marijuana possession.

Riverside Records (1955–1961)[link]

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At the time of his signing to Riverside, Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records did not sell in significant numbers, and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for mass-market acceptance. Indeed, with Monk's consent, Riverside had managed to buy out his previous Prestige contract for a mere $108.24. He willingly recorded two albums of jazz standards as a means of increasing his profile. The first of these, Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, featuring bass innovator Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke, included Ellington pieces "Caravan" and "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".

On the 1956 LP Brilliant Corners, Monk recorded his own music. The complex title track, which featured tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, was so difficult to play that the final version had to be edited together from multiple takes. The album, however, was largely regarded as the first success for Monk; according to Orrin Keepnews, "It was the first that made a real splash."^{[citation needed]}

After having his cabaret card restored, Monk relaunched his New York career with a landmark six-month residency at the Five Spot Cafe in New York beginning in June 1957, leading a quartet with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums. Unfortunately little of this group's music was documented due to contractual problems, Coltrane being signed to Prestige at the time. One short studio session was made for Riverside (only released later by its subsidiary Jazzland in 1961) and a larger group recording featuring Coltrane was split between that album and Monk's Music; an amateur tape from the Five Spot (not the original residency, but a later September 1958 reunion with Coltrane sitting in for Johnny Griffin) was issued on Blue Note in 1993; and a recording of the quartet performing at a Carnegie Hall concert on November 29, previously "rumoured to exist",^[12] was recorded in high fidelity by Voice of America, rediscovered in the collection of the Library of Congress in 2005 and released by Blue Note.

"Crepuscule With Nellie", recorded in 1957, "was Monk's only, what's called through-composed composition, meaning that there is no improvising. It is Monk's concerto, if you will, and in some ways it speaks for itself. But he wrote it very, very carefully and very deliberately and really struggled to make it sound the way it sounds. [... I]t was his love song for Nellie," said biographer Kelley in an interview.^[13]

The Five Spot residency ended Christmas 1957, Coltrane left to rejoin Miles Davis's seminal sextet, and the band was effectively disbanded. Monk did not form another long-term band until June 1958, when he began a second residency at the Five Spot, again with a quartet, this time with Griffin (and later Charlie Rouse) on tenor, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.

On October 15, 1958, the residency having ended and en route to a week-long engagement for the quartet at the Comedy Club in Baltimore, Maryland, Monk and de Koenigswarter were detained by police in Wilmington, Delaware. When Monk refused to answer the policemen's questions or cooperate with them, they beat him with a blackjack. Though the police were authorized to search the vehicle and found narcotics in suitcases held in the trunk of the Baroness's car, Judge Christie of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the unlawful detention of the pair, and the beating of Monk, rendered the consent to the search void as given under duress.^[14] Monk was represented by Theophilus Nix, the second African-American member of the Delaware Bar Association.

Columbia Records (1962–1970)[link]

After extended negotiations, Monk signed in 1962 to Columbia Records, one of the big four American record labels of the day along with RCA Victor, Capitol, and Decca. Monk's relationship with Riverside had soured over disagreements concerning royalty payments and had concluded with a brace of European live albums; he had not recorded a studio album since 5 by Monk by 5 in June 1959.

Working with producer Teo Macero on his debut for the label,^[15] the sessions in the first week of November had a stable line-up that had been with him for two years: tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (who worked with Monk from 1959 to 1970), bassist John Ore, and drummer Frankie Dunlop. Monk's Dream, his earliest Columbia album, was released in 1963.

Columbia's resources allowed Monk to be promoted more widely than earlier in his career. Monk's Dream would remain the best-selling LP of his lifetime,^[16] and on February 28, 1964, Monk appeared on the cover of Time magazine, being featured in the article "The Loneliest Monk".^[17] He continued to record a number of well-reviewed studio albums, particularly Criss Cross, also from 1963, and Underground, from 1968. But by the Columbia years his compositional output was limited, and only his final Columbia studio record Underground featured a substantial number of new tunes, including his only waltz time piece, "Ugly Beauty".

As had been the case with Riverside, his period with Columbia Records contains many live albums, including Miles and Monk at Newport (1963), Live at the It Club and Live at the Jazz Workshop, both recorded in 1964, the latter not being released until 1982. After the departure of Ore and Dunlop, the remainder of the rhythm section in Monk's quartet during the bulk of his Columbia period was Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums, both of whom joined in 1964, Along with Rouse, they remained with Monk for over four years, his longest-serving band.

According to biographer Kelley, the 1964 Time appearance came because "Barry Farrell, who wrote the cover story, wanted to write about a jazz musician and almost by default Monk was chosen, because they thought Ray Charles and Miles Davis were too controversial. ... [Monk] wasn't so political. [...O]f course, I challenge that [in the biography]," said Kelley.^[13]

Later life[link]

Monk had disappeared from the scene by the mid-1970s, and made only a small number of appearances during the final decade of his life. His last studio recordings as a leader were made in November 1971 for the English Black Lion label, near the end of a worldwide tour with "The Giants of Jazz," a group which included Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon and Art Blakey. Bassist Al McKibbon, who had known Monk for over twenty years and played on his final tour in 1971, later said: "On that tour Monk said about two words. I mean literally maybe two words. He didn't say 'Good morning', 'Goodnight', 'What time?' Nothing. Why, I don't know. He sent word back after the tour was over that the reason he couldn't communicate or play was that Art Blakey and I were so ugly."^[18] A different side of Monk is revealed in Lewis Porter's biography, John Coltrane: His Life and Music; Coltrane states: "Monk is exactly the opposite of Miles [Davis]: he talks about music all the time, and he wants so much for you to understand that if, by chance, you ask him something, he'll spend hours if necessary to explain it to you."^[19]

The documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988) attributes Monk's quirky behaviour to mental illness. In the film, Monk's son, T. S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he would withdraw and stop speaking. Physicians recommended electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment option for Monk's illness, but his family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were prescribed instead.^[20][21] Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997), reported that at least one of Monk's psychiatrists failed to find evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Another physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and prescribed drugs during his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.^[20]

As his health declined, Monk's last six years were spent as a guest in the New Jersey home of his long-standing patron and friend, Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who had also nursed Charlie Parker during his final illness. Monk did not play the piano during this time, even though one was present in his room, and he spoke to few visitors. He died of a stroke on February 17, 1982, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award,^[22] and in 2006, Monk was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.^[23]

Art Blakey reports that Monk was excellent at both chess and checkers (draughts).^[24]

Tributes[link]

Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy performed as Monk's accompanist in 1960. Monk's tunes became a permanent part of his repertoire in concert and on albums. Lacy released several albums entirely focused on Monk's compositions including Reflections, School Days, Epistrophy, Eronel, Only Monk, and More Monk.

Gunther Schuller wrote the work "Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk" in 1960. It was later performed and recorded by other artists, including Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Bill Evans.

Stevie Wonder wrote the song "Thelonious" which appears on Jeff Beck's 1975 album Blow by Blow.

In 1983, saxophonist Arthur Blythe's album Light Blue: Arthur Blythe Plays Thelonious Monk was released by Columbia Records.

Anthony Braxton recorded Six Monk's Compositions (1987) in 1987, and pianist Ran Blake recorded Epistrophy in 1991.

Round Midnight Variations is a collection of variations on the song "'Round Midnight" premiered in 2002. Composers contributing included Roberto Andreoni, Milton Babbitt, Alberto Barbero, Carlo Boccadoro, William Bolcom, David Crumb. George Crumb, Michael Daugherty, Filippo Del Corno, John Harbison, Joel Hoffman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Gerald Levinson, Tobias Picker, Matthew Quayle, Frederic Rzewski, Augusta Read Thomas and Michael Torke.^[25]

Free jazz pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and his band recorded every composition by Monk for Monk's Casino, released as a triple CD set in 2004.

Salim Ghazi Saeedi has dedicated a song entitled "For Thelonious, and His 88 Holy Names" to Thelonious Monk in his 2011 album, Human Encounter.^[26]

Discography[link]

Blue Note Records (1948–1952)[link]

• Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 (1947 Blue Note recordings)
• Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 (1951–1952 Blue Note recordings)

Prestige Records (1952–1954)[link]

• Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige 7027), 1952-4
• Monk (Prestige 7053) recorded 1953-4
• Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (Prestige 7075), recorded 1953-4

Riverside Records (1955–1961)[link]

• Thelonious Monk plays the Music of Duke Ellington (1955)
• The Unique Thelonious Monk (1955)
• Brilliant Corners (1956 recording with Sonny Rollins and Clark Terry)
• Thelonious Himself (1957)
• Monk's Music (1957)
• Mulligan Meets Monk (1957, with Gerry Mulligan)
• Thelonious in Action and Misterioso (1958, live at the Five Spot with Johnny Griffin)
• The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (1959, Charlie Rouse joined the band then)
• 5 by Monk by 5 (1959)
• Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (1959)
• Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk (1960, with Charlie Rouse)
• Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (1957 recordings, 1961 issue) - Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.^[27]
• Monk in France (recorded in 1961)
• Thelonious Monk in Italy (recorded 1961)
• Thelonious Monk and the Jazz Giants (1987)
• Thelonious Monk Quartet Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! (with Coltrane recorded 1957, released in 1993 on Blue Note)
• Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957, released 2005 on Blue Note.)
• The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (2006 collection of the 1957 studio recordings with Coltrane)

Columbia Records (1962–1968)[link]

• Monk's Dream (1963)
• Criss Cross (1963)
• Monk in Tokyo (1963)
• Miles & Monk at Newport (1963, with unrelated 1958 Miles Davis performance)
• Big Band and Quartet in Concert (1963)
• It's Monk's Time (1964)
• Monk (1964)
• Solo Monk (1964)
• Live at the It Club (1964)
• Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964)
• Straight, No Chaser (1966)
• Underground (1967)
• Monk's Blues (1968)

Other labels[link]

• Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (Atlantic, 1958)
• Thelonious Monk Nonet Live In Paris 1967 (France Concert LP FC-113, 1967)
• The Giants of Jazz (Atlantic, 1971) with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Al McKibbon, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding

As sideman[link]

With Coleman Hawkins

• Bean and the Boys (Prestige 7824) 1944

With Milt Jackson

• Wizard of the Vibes (Milt Jackson: 1948 Blue Note recordings)

With Miles Davis

• Bags' Groove (Prestige, 1954)
• Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige, 1954)

With Sonny Rollins

• Moving Out (Prestige 7058) 1954 (on one track)
• Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1957)

With Gigi Gryce

• Nica's Tempo (Savoy, 1955)

With Clark Terry

• In Orbit (Riverside, 1958)

Compilations[link]

• Monk's Miracles (1966)
• Monk's Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1968)
• Midnight at Minton's (c.1941, issued 1973 under Don Byas' name. Monk does not play on all tracks of this or the other two CDs of 1941 material)
• After Hours (c.1941, issued 1973 under Charlie Christian's name)
• After Hours in Harlem c.1941, issued 1973 under Hot Lips Page's name
• April in Paris (Monk album)|April in Paris (1981 2-LP set of the 18 April 1961 Paris recordings)
• Monk's Classic Recordings (1983)
• Blues Five Spot (1984, unissued recordings from 1958–61, with various saxophonists and Thad Jones, cornet)
• Something in Blue, Nice Work in London, Blue Sphere and The Man I Love (all 1971 recordings, collected in The London Collection 1988, three CDs)
• The Complete Riverside Recordings of Thelonious Monk (1991, 15 CD, Riverside)
• The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk (1994, 4 CD, Blue Note)
• Live at Monterey Jazz Festival '63 (sept. 21–2, 1963, MFSL, 2 vols. issued 1996-7)
• Monk Alone: The Complete Solo Studio Recordings of Thelonious Monk 1962-1968 (1998, 2 CD, Sony)
• The Complete Prestige Recordings of Thelonious Monk (2000, 3 CD, Prestige)
• The Columbia Years: '62–'68 (2001, 3 CD, Sony)
• The Complete Vogue Recordings/The Black Lion Sessions (1954–71) (3LP, Mosaic)

Compositions[link]

See List of Thelonious Monk Compositions

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Thelonious Monk

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thelonious Monk

• Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
• The Official Thelonious Sphere Monk Website
• Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original - Official Website
• Thelonious Monk page in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
• Thelonious Monk's birth certificate
• The Thelonious Monk Website
• Roundabout Monk: The European Monk Website
• Thelonious Monk at All About Jazz
• IMDb entry for Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
• CBC.ca Article on 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners
• Thelonious Monk Multimedia Directory - Kerouac Alley
• Not So Misterioso: Robert Christgau on Monk
• Photo of Monk's grave at Findagrave

Claude Bolling (born 10 April 1930), is a renowned French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor.

He was born in Cannes, studied at the Nice Conservatory, then in Paris. A child prodigy, by age 14 he was playing jazz piano professionally, with Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, and Kenny Clarke. Bolling's books on jazz technique show that he did not delve far beyond bebop into much avant garde jazz. He was a major part of the traditional jazz revival in the late 1960s, and he became friends with Oscar Peterson.

He has written music for over one hundred films, mostly French, starting with the score for a 1957 documentary about the Cannes Film Festival, and including the films Borsalino (1970), and California Suite (1978).

Bolling is also noted for a series of "crossover" collaborations with classical musicians. His Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio with Jean-Pierre Rampal, a mix of Baroque elegance with modern swing, has been a top seller for many years, and was followed up by other works in the same vein. It was particularly popular in the United States, at the top of the hit parade for two years after its release and on billboard top 40 for 530 weeks, roughly ten years.

Following his work with Rampal, Bolling went on to work with many other musicians, from different genres, including Alexandre Lagoya, Pinchas Zukerman, Maurice André, and Yo-Yo Ma. He has also worked with, and performed tributes to many others, including Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson.

Works[link]

• Claude Bolling Plays Duke Ellington (1959)
• Cat Anderson, Claude Bolling And Co. (1965)
• Original Ragtime (1966)
• Original Boogie Woogie (1968)
• Original Piano Blues (1969)
• Original Jazz Classics (1970)
• Original Piano Greats (1972)
• Swing Session (1973)
• Jazz Party (1975)
• With the Help of My Friends (1975)
• Keep Swingin' Volume 4 (1975)
• Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano (1975)
• Hot Sounds (1976)
• Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Piano Trio (1975)
• Suite for Violin and Jazz Piano Trio (1977)
• California Suite (1978)
• Jazz Gala 79 (1979)
• Just For Fun (1980)
• Picnic Suite for Guitar, Flute and Jazz Piano Trio (1980)
• Toot Suite (1981)
• Claude Bolling (1981)
• Reds (1981)
• Suite for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Piano Trio (1983)
• Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio (1984)
• Jazz à la Francaise (1984)
• Live at the Meridien (1985)
• Suite No. 2 for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio (1987)
• Nuances (1988)
• Sonatas for Two Pianos (1989)
• Cross Over U.S.A. (1993)
• Enchanting Versailles - Strictly Classical (1994)
• A Drum is a Woman (1997)
• Tribute To The Piano Greats (2003)

External links[link]

• (French) Official site
• Claude Bolling at the Internet Movie Database
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks