Monk's Poll: the compositions of Thelonious Sphere Monk

Yeah, this looks like a pretty incredible trove of free music, conveniently available in different formats. I've been enjoying that Bob Florence album Monk liked.

yeah, the arrangement of "straight, no chaser" is really fun

There's a new Thelonious Monk documentary that will open theatrically this week - the documentary itself is actually supposed to be a really good film (a rarity when too many music documentaries feel like EPK's with the slick and paint-by-numbers aesthetic of a television program or TV commercial). A short description:

A wealth of never-before-seen footage offers a gripping and intimate portrait of Thelonious Monk in Paris, 1969. The legendary pianist and composer arrives for a TV interview before his evening concert, where he is met with racist, colonialist acts both large and small. Edited together by acclaimed Senegalese-French filmmaker Alain Gomis (Félicité) from the show’s rushes, a picture emerges of Monk’s battle to reject the racist stereotypes his interviewer projects onto him. Ending with Monk’s rhapsodic performance that night, Rewind and Play captures the struggle—and triumph—of one of the geniuses of 20th century music.

And his son, jazz artist T.S. Monk, will be at BAM to do a Q&A following this Friday's screening at 7 p.m. As of this posting, tickets are still available:

https://www.bam.org/film/2023/rewind-and-play

i posted about this in the jazz thread, btw

it's awesome but the interview parts are pretty stark and weird. but mostly it's color video of solo piano performances, which would be interesting enough if that's all it was. i mean, i'm just saying that it's much better than the art-world jargon makes it sound.

cool that T.S. will speak -- are you going? (i'm not in NYC)

Cool. I will have a ticket from MUBI GO come Friday. Maybe I will try to attend with our old friend forks.

Although I have doubts I can get into that particular screening unless he has extra pull.

I would go but I'm away through next week - I didn't even know it was opening at BAM until yesterday.

This film is not available in your area *sigh*

Damn, he wrote so many good tunes. Monk had bars.