Thelonious Monk Quartet - Monk In Denmark

Lulu's Back In Town (Warren & Dubin) 0:00
Don't Blame Me (McHugh & Fields) 17:44
Epistrophy (Monk) 23:11

Filmed in Denmark on April 17, 1966.

Thelonious Monk - Piano
Charlie Rouse - Tenor Sax
Larry Gales - Bass
Ben Riley - Drums


(I do not own the rights to this)

• Category

  Music

[nedroom]

Americans owe a great deal to European broadcasting networks for documenting and preserving our cultural heritage. Our own broadcasters had other priorities and time will show what is truly important. I will take Monk over Gilligan's Island any day :-)

[crookedgbh]

i'd disagree. Monk unfortunately was a planned out musician, and so he was only really playing as a 'band' when he was with these cats here, where they give thelonious the space and freedom to express his ideas freely. They all bop off thelonious, they don't bop together. Rouse is Monk's Sax Player. Straight out.

[Yvon Martin]

Great Musicians....

[MrBubblegumballs]

1% dissed. hmmmmm.. I love it.

[MrPsychotrash]

I was just trying...!

[crookedgbh]

i'd just like to add that i wasn't singularising monk saying that he can "only" play with this band. I just think that maybe monk didn't like to be pushed away from his comfort zone often. He had full comfort with this band. I believe he had the potential to do whatever he wanted just like anybody in this world.

[Darryl Leverett]

This art at its highest. These men are creating art and swinging hard. The have complete control over their instruments, a complete understanding of the music form, and doing all this in real time.

[Bill Snyder]

You may be right but it's more likely that it was just Monk being Monk. He was a weird guy in many ways but a great artist and with that I can understand idiosyncracy and other unusual behavior.

[Bill Snyder]

Indeed these guys played hand-in-glove with Monk. As a sideman or among other big names Monk didn't take the spotlight like this. Given his impact on the music overall this is the type of group that best showed his talent as a performer and conceptualizer. The video of Monk's hands ranks with "Jazz on A Summer's Day" for all-time great visual capture of a jazz legend. Thank you Timy Covert for posting.

[brenan6]

that guy is stoooooned