2 November 2013 

Believe it or not, I was actually at this gig at the Marquee Club in March of 1965, I think with my brother, sitting a couple of feet from the master himself. And, I was at his funeral in NYC at the ‘Jazz Church’, St. Peter’s in the Citibank Building at which Charlie Rouse played, along with a host of other jazz greats. In the quartet are Charlie Rouse tenor saxophone, Larry Gales bass and Ben Riley on drums. Unfortunately this not the entire programme but maybe half of it (35 minutes). There’s so little of Monk on record let alone on film, but one, the best movie about jazz that I’ve seen is ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’, directed by Bert Stern. And for an excellent book on Monk see, ‘Thelonious Monk – The Life and Times of an American Original‘ by Robin D.G. Kelley. Free Press 2009. Continue reading →