Celebrating The Birthday Of Thelonious Monk

This week on 12th Street Jump we celebrate the birthday of Thelonious Monk with our special guest Dave Chael.

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 unorthodoxapproach 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'.-wikipedia

Dave Chael

A graduate of Southwest Missouri State University and the University of North Texas where he was a member of the famous One O’Clock Lab Band. He currently works for the Social Security Administration and performs regularly with Bram Wijnands, Roger Wilder Quartet, Westport Art Ensemble, Kerry Strayer and the New Kansas City Seven and Horacescope. -KCJazzOrchestra.net

On the funny side of things, Dr. Pearl dishes advice to Ah-nold Shwarzen-something and Joe B on the campaign trail and the gang plays “So, What’s Your Question?” to learn a bit more about Monk.

Song List:
In Walked Bud
Epistrophy
Bemsha Swing
Rhythm-a-ning
Evidence
Well You Needn’t
Straight, No Chaser