The Power . . .

. . . music


(from http://theotherjournal.com/2008/09/16/the-monk-and-the-hymn-encountering-grace-in-the-work-of-thelonious-monk/)
". . . Each of us is continually involved in the co-creation of our story or the performance of our song. A song and a story alike are each common, apt metaphors for our lives, for living both as individuals and within a community. It is in the reality that we are all continually stumbling our way through life that the beauty and truth of Monk’s intentional awkwardness with this song (This Is My Story, This Is My Song) becomes evident. His characteristic discordant notes and unconventional timing are so appropriate as a symbol for our own lives. It aptly expresses our own imperfect faith, our own inconsistent story. . . I hope that I can tell my story in a way that contributes to the story, in a way that offers redemption to the broken world around me, yet my stuttering tongue and broken heart often keep me feeling useless and futile. I want to be able to play my song in a way that points to the beauty of the Kingdom, but my clumsy fingers seem to ruin the power of the melody. It is here that Monk’s performance offers me hope and inspires me within my own believing unbelief, in my own “already, but not yet” song. . ."

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Passion . . .

Social media, email and the Internet have not only brought about the quick and convincing scare syndrome and the quick-spread falsehood but it has also brought about the passionate reactionary.  Witness Hans Groiner.  No, he's not a passionate reactionary.  He is however, a very clever entertainment presentation from the clever and talented Larry Goldings, who is not may I mention, a comic by trade.

The passion, both rational and not, enters the picture when you read the commentaries of the YouTube offerings of Hans Groiner.  In short, the fictional Mr. Groiner is a musician who, although he does not like jazz, has undertaken the project of 'correcting' the music of Thelonious Monk. The result is a new-age-y, benign, vaguely familiar tune chock-full of major chords and 'straight' rhythms.  But Larry's shtick is very SNL-ish or Christopher Guest/Rob Reiner parody-like and every bit as witty.

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Ain't No Drag . . .

Bassist Larry Ridley recalls . . .


(from Straight No Chaser; The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk by Leslie Gourse)
". . . He was cool with me.  We'd talk about a lot of things. He would always have interesting kinds of ways of being very succinct and candid about his insights. One time someone made a comment to us-during the civil rights days, and things were pretty touchy, black power and all.  I had a big Afro and dashikis. We were very conscious of this whole movement. This white guy said something about "you boys" this and "you boys" that to me. I turned to Thelonious and said, "I'm tired of these motherfuckers calling us boys. They don't have to go through all that. We're men." Thelonious said to me, "Ain't no drag, Larry, because everybody wants to be young." I said, "Okay, I'll think on that one." So he could really turn things into nothing with a few words. And there I was, upset, with my fist up in the air about respect. It was interesting. . . "

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Is This Draggin' You, Man? . . .

(from Straight, No Chaser; The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk by Leslie Gourse)
". . . Invited to witness a rehearsal with Monk and Charlie Rouse, (Robert) Kotlowitz (for Harper's) wrote:

Monk feeds . . . Rouse . . . a note or phrase at a time, a mouthful to be digested to bewildered shakings of the head. It can take the entire two hours to get one full minute of music set between the two. Monk and Rouse say their notes, as though music were the simplest, most direct language available to man, and even more, as though B-C sharp, played on an instrument, means something as precise and unmistakable as C-A-T. Throughout the rehearsal, Monk directs with short comments. "You're not making it," he says placidly after the seventh repetition of an octave jump. "Dig it" Well into the next phrase, Monk says, "Don't tough the note, hit it.  And when you it it, augment it."

When he was satisfied, Monk said slowly, "Solid"  To Kotlowitz, who was listening to the repetitions, he said, "This dragging you?" . . . "

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Thelonious. . .

(from http://www.monkzone.com/monkzone.htm)
Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm—notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell. Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz in this period. Anointed by some critics as the “High Priest of Bebop,” several of his compositions (“52nd Street Theme,” “Round Midnight,” “Epistrophy” [co-written with Kenny Clarke and originally titled “Fly Right” and then “Iambic Pentameter”], “I Mean You”) were favorites among his contemporaries.

Yet, as much as Monk helped usher in the bebop revolution, he also charted a new course for modern music few were willing to follow. Whereas most pianists of the bebop era played sparse chords in the left hand and emphasized fast, even eighth and sixteenth notes in the right hand, Monk combined an active right hand with an equally active left hand, fusing stride and angular rhythms that utilized the entire keyboard. And in an era when fast, dense, virtuosic solos were the order of the day, Monk was famous for his use of space and silence. In addition to his unique phrasing and economy of notes, Monk would “lay out” pretty regularly, enabling his sidemen to experiment free of the piano’s fixed pitches. As a composer, Monk was less interested in writing new melodic lines over popular chord progressions than in creating a whole new architecture for his music, one in which harmony and rhythm melded seamlessly with the melody. “Everything I play is different,” Monk once explained, “different melody, different harmony, different structure. Each piece is different from the other. . . . [W]hen the song tells a story, when it gets a certain sound, then it’s through . . . completed.”

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iPod? . . .

. . . as a solo instrument. . .

(from Wikipedia.com)
Don ". . . Preston was born into a family of musicians in Detroit and began studying music at an early age. His father was the composer-in-residence for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Preston later did a stint in the army, serving in Trieste, Italy. Upon his return to Detroit during the early '50s, Preston associated with pianist Tommy Flanagan. He also sat in with Elvin Jones and others at the city's West End Cafe where Yusef Lateef conducted twice-a-week jam sessions with Milt Jackson's brother, bassist Alvin Jackson.

Preston moved to Los Angeles in 1957 where he hooked up with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Charlie Haden, and others who were hearing jazz in new ways.

Many will recognize Preston from his long collaboration with Frank Zappa as the keyboardist and one of the members of the original Mothers of Invention. Preston performed and recorded with Zappa until 1974. During that time he was music director for Meredith Monk(with whom he had previously shared a house) and started recording and performing electronic music.

He is a co-founder of the Grandmothers and still active with the band, completing an extensive tour in Summer-Fall 2000 and later tours through 2011.

Preston also appeared on-stage as a guest keyboardist with the Zappa tribute band Project/Object (featuring Zappa Band alumni Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy Brock) for several shows in 2001 and 2002.

From his Cryptogramophone Records biography: "Often compared to Cecil Taylor for his style of attacking the keys with intense passion, Preston’s solos also reflect intellect, technical skills and a storyteller's way with a line. His playing, like his compositions, ranges across panoramas of mood and emotion, all colored with the freedom that comes from possessing remarkable facility.

Preston has played and recorded with the likes of John Lennon, Peter Erskine and John Carter. He also has scored more than 20 feature film scores and 14 plays. He's the winner of numerous awards, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Known to jazz and keyboard aficionados for his pioneering contributions in the use of synthesizers and piano, legendary clarinetist and composer John Carter dubbed Don Preston the "father of modern synthesis.". . . "

And yes indeed, he DOES play the iPod. . .

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More . . .

 (. . . from Monk. . . )
"I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you're doing -- even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years."

"Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy"

"I'm famous. Ain't that a bitch!"
 . . . Thelonious Monk


. . . and more music . . .
from me. . .
This Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 6:00PM
Bread & Circuses Bistro
27 E. Chesapeake Avenue
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410-337-5282
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Monk. . .

 (from Thelonious Monk:  The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Delley)
". . . Monk walked away to another part of the studio where Weller's props lay.  He saw a little red wagon and decided to park there for a moment.  The image was striking.  There was Monk, sporting a clean dark three-button suite, dark tie, crisp white shirt, handkerchief, bamboo-framed sunglasses and plaid driving cap.  Bacon reluctantly asked Monk if it was OK to shoot him sitting in the wagon.  Thelonious agreed.  "I told them I would pose in a wagon, because I have actually composed while sitting in my kid's wagon on the front sidewalk."  To further underscore the point, Thelonious added his own props-his brief case, a sheet of staff paper and a long pencil. . . "

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