We See
Monk stuff came pouring in after the last post.
Biggest deal: JW's link to Todd Bishop's online reprint of Frankie Dunlop's 1985 interview. For many, Dunlop was Monk's greatest drummer. He's also a bit of mysterious figure, so this meaty collection of quotes is exceptionally valuable.
HH wrote in about another mystery, Carl Brown, the bassist on the Lacy/Cherry Evidence. "I asked Billy Higgins about Carl Brown. I was assuming it was a stage name. He said that was his real name and something like, 'He came to NY, did what he had to do and he split.'"
KW mentioned Misha Mengelberg. Mengelberg's deep love of Monk is unquestionably sincere, and at times Han Bennink (an important Mengelberg associate) has something of the old school parade swing. Bennink seems more well-known for outlandish behavior -- setting fire to stages, etc. -- than for his beat, a curious state of affairs that underrates what he is capable of. It's been too long since I've heard the Lacy-Mengelberg-Bennink Monk/Herbie Nichols tributes on Soul Note.
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Speaking of which, it was unfriendly and incorrect to list only Lacy/Cherry and Flanagan Monk albums as top shelf non-Monk Monk records. Bennie Wallace and Sam Newsome are two saxophonists who take Monk's tunes to a displaced but honest place. Paul Motian drums like Monk plays piano: Monk In Motian is classic, and one night I saw the Electric Bebop Band stomp "Brilliant Corners."
One of the guitarists on that gig, Steve Cardenas, has produced an important collection of the complete canon notated as accurately as possible. Between Cardenas and Robin D.G. Kelley the future of Monk reception looks to be on the right track.
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Bloggers Jon Wertheim, Dan DiPiero, and Ronan Guilfoyle responded positively to my post. Thanks!
The first part of Guilfoyle's smart unpacking wonders about the time I wrote, "I’m pretty sure Ronan and I disagree about nearly everything in jazz from A to Z, and look forward to looking him up in Dublin sometime and arguing all night long over some Jameson."
The A to Z part was an exaggeration, for I second almost everything in Guilfoyle's post...until the end, when he suggests that Chick Corea is an excellent interpreter of Monk.
At which point I hiss and cower like a vampire doused by holy water.
Just kidding. Chick with Miroslav and Roy is undeniable. Somehow I've never really heard Trio Music, an omission that suggests how much music I still don't know.
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Naturally it feels good when my opinions seem to carry weight with others. But -- obviously -- everything on DTM should be treated as an invitation for further exploration, not as any kind of definitive truth. I'm still learning!
DTM has been rather negative recently. It's all too easy to feel godlike when passing judgments typing away at the computer. I'll try to tone it down a bit, at least for a while.
04/17/2011
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