Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. Recorded Maat Eisenhower Theater, The John F. The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall is an album by Thelonious Monk.The recordings, which were made at a concert in New Yorks Town Hall on February 28, 1959, were released in 1959 as a long-playing record by Riverside Records and in 1989 as a compact disc by Original Jazz Classics, expanded by a title.
Watch highlights from the concert in our video feature - and on the radio program, hear more music and learn more about Monk's original presentation.įeaturing Jason Moran (piano) with Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Frank Lacy (trombone), Bob Stewart (tuba), Walter Smith III (tenor saxophone), Logan Richardson (alto saxophone), Tarus Mateen (bass), Nasheet Waits (drums). Jazz Night In America took in a recent performance of Jason Moran's In My Mind: Monk At Town Hall, 1959 at the Kennedy Center. And he assembled a new band to do much more than re-create the music from that evening: He wanted players to perform his original arrangements of those tunes, along with a video projection by David Dempewolf.
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("It's how to learn Monk from Monk," Moran says.) He looked into Monk's personal history. He found audio tapes and photographs from the rehearsals. First, he started at a particular concert held at New York City's Town Hall in 1959 - notable because it featured Thelonious Monk backed by a large ensemble which had rehearsed intently for the date. Moran being who he is, it was more than a simple tribute. Monk left such a strikingly distinct body of work and personal style that one could dig deep yet hardly scratch the surface.Ī few years ago, Jason Moran developed a tribute concert to Monk. Discover releases, reviews, credits, songs, and more about The Thelonious Monk Orchestra - At Town Hall at Discogs. He's still obsessed with the pianist and composer, as well he ought to be. "I heard Thelonious Monk in that time when everything about me was transitioning, and it was the thing I could grab on to and focus on through my teenage years that pulled me through that time of wondering about everything that a teenager wonders about." He clarifies: Thelonious Monk was his chief inspiration as a 13-year-old in Houston Monk was the musician who made him want to be a pianist. Flushing Town Hall’s annual NEA Jazz Masters concert returns live to play the music from two of the greatest pianists in the history of jazz: Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver.
"OK, in my world, he is the most important musician," Moran says. He's talking as a musician himself - and very personally, at that. He's not really wearing that hat at the moment, though. Late in 2006, I was contacted by the San Francisco jazz festival and asked to recreate the historic Thelonious Monk concert that became the live recording Monk at Town Hall. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where he's the artistic director for jazz. Moran is in a dressing room deep within the John F. " Thelonious Monk is the most important musician, period," Jason Moran says.