Thelonious Monk was one of the
greatest musicians ever.
Many musicians feel the need to play many notes, but Monk
was content to play few notes, but to make every note
count. For example,
Captain Beefheart, (
Don Van Vliet,)
describes the most memorable performance he ever witnessed:.
I saw Monk once at a theatre in San Fernando Valley.
They gave him a grand piano, a really beautiful
Steinway, with a cut glass bowl of roses. He came in
late wearing a trench coat. He dumped the bowl in the
piano, knocked down the lid, and hit one note. The
sound: everything going into the piano, the strings,
the water splashing, the roses. And then he left.
"God, one note!"
from: http://junior.apk.net/~hoon/5Monk.html
Two things really made Monk's
music outstanding: even as the
leader of a band, he didn't attempt to dominate the band, he
would let the other
musicians have a good
blow, putting a few
notes in the gaps. The thing that made Monk
unique was his
sense of
timing. He would play the same
musical phrase many
times in a piece, and each time it would sound very different
because of being timed differently.
Thelonious Monk is well worth listening to.