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Christopher Monsen

About Me

Music scribe (mostly jazz + semi-, non-, un- & plain popular). Knows a thing or two about US culture & politics. Passionate Arsenal FC and NYKnicks fan.

My Jazz Story

I was first exposed to jazz via my local big band, in which my father played guitar. Their repertoire consisted of, among other things, a host of Count Basie compositions. However, this interest didn't really take hold until a few years later, around age 15 or so, when my curiosity first led me to Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, among others. Soon after, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and crucially, Ornette Coleman. Things exploded since then.