Happy Birthday, Thelonious!
Thelonious Monk (10/10/1917–2/17/1982, piano, compositions) with Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Butch Warren (b), Frankie Dunlop (drums), live (TV show: “Evidence,” “Blue Monk,” Just a Gigolo” [L. Casucci, J. Brammer, I. Caesar], “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues,” “Epistrophy”), Tokyo, 1963
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Copper Harbor, Michigan (Lake Superior)

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radio
Today it’s all Monk all day at WKCR (Columbia University).
timeless
This clip, which I bumped into the other day, may be the best I have ever seen of an artist whose music means as much to me as anyone’s.
Thelonious Monk (1917-1982, piano, compositions) with Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Butch Warren (b), Frankie Dunlop (drums), live (TV show: “Evidence,” “Blue Monk,” Just a Gigolo” [L. Casucci, J. Brammer, I. Caesar], “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues,” “Epistrophy”), Tokyo (Japan), 1963
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.

never enough
Best job in music? Playing drums for Monk.
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM [1917-1982], piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; John Ore, bass; Frankie Dunlop, drums), live (“Monk’s Dream”; Drums solo; “Criss-Cross”; “Rhythm-a-Ning”; “Epistrophy”; “Evidence”; “Ruby, My Dear”; “Bright Mississippi”), Brussels, 1963
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Monadnock Building)

never enough
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Butch Warren, bass; Frankie Dunlop, drums), live, France (Amiens), 1966*
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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*0:00: Blue Monk
02:10: Crepuscule With Nellie
14:44: Rhythm-A-Ning
25:31: Hackensack
36:08: Epistrophy
38:20: Evidence
51:51: I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (G. Bassman, N. Washington)
1:08:18: Round Midnight
1:13:45: Epistrophy
sounds of New York
More of one of my favorite drummers—again at the Village Vanguard.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (1925-2002, piano), Charles Rouse (1924-1988, tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (1944-1989, flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (1937-, bass), “Git Go” (M. Waldron, excerpt), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Do you imagine that writers speak ‘as themselves’? No such selves exist.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
voices I miss
This drummer never fails to lift my spirits.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (piano), Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (bass), “The Git Go” (M. Waldron), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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