Monkbeatz

Monkbeatz: Ugly Beauty

by Mark Corroto
April 9, 2016

Seventy years ago, nobody was playing pianist Thelonious Monk's music, except Monk. One of the originators of bebop, along with Dizzy Gillespie; Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell, he created his own language. As the 1940s turned into the 50s, Monk's music developed its own distinctive parlance. The earliest interpreter of Monk, maybe a better word is exponent, was soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. Lacy, after a stint in the pianist's ensemble, took it upon himself to spread the Monk ...