it's always Monk time

Last night I went to hear Jason Moran (my favorite musician, pictured above) re-create Theolonius Monk's 1959 Town Hall concert. Along for the ride were T.S. Monk (son of Theolonious) on drums and Taurus Mateen (bass player in Moran's trio, the Bandwagon), along with seven musicians on a variety of horns -- from French tuba to trombone to sax to trumpet. Actually, it was more like a re-imagining than a performance that hewed to the original. Moran created some looping sections based on old tapes of the original concert that had been recently discovered. Each member of the horn section had a brief opportunity to show off his stuff while a bit of the loop played behind him. It worked, though by the seventh solo, I wasn't as enamored of the idea. Better was when the group of 10 took on those great original tunes (Crepscule with Nellie, Monk's Mood, Off Minor, Little Rootie Tootie, et. al.) and Moran-ized them. That translated to adding a lot more notes to the originals. That's what Jason Moran does: He packs a lot of playing into his music, but somehow all those notes makes a complex, beautiful collage of sound.

Nonetheless, as a longtime devotee of Monk's music, I gotta say this: These are not tunes that can be improved upon. Along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Theolonius Monk was one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century. But Jason and T.S. Monk had a lot of fun with playing these gorgeous works, and it was a thrill to hear them live. Credit must go to Duke University and SF Jazz, which have commissioned Moran for the task. Makes perfect sense. Monk was a great pianist of the 20th century, and Moran (who is incredibly impressive and smart), is one of the greats of this young century.

T.S. Monk told a great story about his father. Theolonious never pressured him to go into music. In fact, he never asked him about it all. When T.S. turned 15, he began to be interested in playing. So, Theolonious called up his friend Max Roach and asked him to show his son the ropes. For five years T.S. played drums in the family's apartment, and he says his father never asked him how it was going. Then, five years later, Theolonius needed a drummer and asked his son to sit in. Just like that. Trial by fire. But also a really cool example of parenting.

I was lucky enough to interview Jason Moran last fall. To read that article, past this URL into your browser
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2006/10/26_Moran.shtml