Wednesday, October 8, 1997
Monk to honor late father who
helped define his career path
MUSIC: Talented musician, bandleader pays tribute to his
greatest influence
By Sam Toussi
Daily Bruin Contributor
Like father, like son.
Well, kind of.
This Friday, at the Veteran’s Wadsworth Theater, Thelonius
Sphere Monk Jr., better known as T.S. Monk, will pay tribute to his
late father on what would have been his 80th birthday. The tribute
will include music from T.S. Monk’s recently released "Monk on
Monk," including such songs as "Little Rootie Tootie" and "In
Walked Bud."
The album is not simply a greatest- hits album, boasting some of
the most prominent names of contemporary jazz including Nnenna
Freelon, Geri Allen, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove,
Christian McBride, Diane Reeves, Arturo Sandoval, Wayne Shorter and
Grover Washington Jr. It is also a compilation of songs that the
late Monk wrote for people close to him.
"If Thelonius liked you, he’d write you a song," the younger
Monk jokes.
Not only will the event be an emotional one for the
up-and-coming jazz musician, but it will mark a defining moment in
the musical career of the drummer-bandleader. It has been a long
and winding road to this point, however.
To start the story of the younger Monk, one really must start
with his father, the legendary and complex jazz pianist, the late
Monk. Often referred to as the "High Priest of Be-bop," he was as
much a genius as he was an enigma.
His music would influence the likes of Miles Davis and Charlie
Parker as he established himself as an unconventional and highly
original composer. The late Monk’s compositions have been called
disjunct, quirky and odd but there is no doubt as to the power of
his music. His music is among the most difficult in jazz history to
play, but the songs are also some of the most layered, well-thought
pieces in jazz.
Many challenge themselves to play the late Monk’s music as he
would envision it, but most jazz musicians admit that this is near
impossible.
Then there was the man – the man most have called eccentric. But
eccentric only begins to describe the myth that was Thelonius Monk.
Once asked where he would live besides Los Angeles and New York, he
simply and sincerely replied, "The moon."
There are stories of his arrogance, his solitude, his
mono-syllabic conversations, his prolonged pensiveness, his
eloquent speeches. The fact remains that very few people ever were
able to get a firm grasp on the character that was Thelonius
Monk.
Despite all these legends, rumors and expectations, the younger
Monk knew a very different side of his father than anyone else.
Simply put, he was his dad.
"He was a regular father," the younger Monk recalls. "There was
a period when I was a little kid that he wasn’t touring so he was
home a lot. I remember him making breakfast, changing diapers,
meeting with teachers – a real Mr. Mom before the term was
coined.
"Music wasn’t really part of the equation. I knew he was a piano
player and the weight he had as an artist, but he was pretty
regular to me. He was a world-class billiards player, he played
basketball on the streets until he was 39. He’d take me on the road
and I’d see him in the clubs, it was all part of the tightly knit
Monk crew."
Still, the music was central in the Monk household as the
younger Monk’s mother adored opera, his Aunt Skippy loved Broadway
musicals and, of course, his father was always deeply committed to
his music. Yet there was no pressure for the Monk children to
follow in their father’s footsteps.
The younger Monk’s obsession with the drums began one day when
his father took him to a recording session. As he watched Max Roach
play the drums, he became hooked.
From then on, he would gravitate towards whoever would be
playing drums with his father at the time.
"(The drummer) opens up your sense of rhythm," he explains. "And
if you can play Thelonius Monk, you can definitely swing."
But he did not tell his father about his desire to play until
eight years later.
"(My father) didn’t really influence my decision to become a
musician," he says. "He figured in my music in a really healthy
manner. He never put any pressure on me at all. I was practicing a
good 13 to 14 hours a day in the room right next to him. Not a
single word for five solid years.
"In 1970, when I was 20 years old, he came in the door, and he
promptly said, ‘Are you ready to play?’ Two days later, I was
performing with him on a national TV show called ‘Soul.’"
As the music career of the younger Monk began, the real
influences of his father began to show.
"There was a real philosophical approach to music. Guys like
Miles Davis and Charlie Parker would come over and they’d play, but
mostly they’d talk and they’d talk about life and how music was
life," he says.
The philosophy of learning and teaching would be extremely
prevalent in the career of the younger Monk. He has performed a
wide variety of musical styles, ranging from folk to doo-wop to
Afro-Cuban, rhythm and blues and jazz.
"Growth for a jazz musician means increasing your vocabulary,"
the younger Monk explains. "You’ve got to listen to everything. I
wanted to play a little of everything towards being a better jazz
musician."
But when the he lost his father, girlfriend and sister in less
than three years (1982-1984), he temporarily ended his playing
career. Instead, he devoted his time to the Thelonius Monk
Institute, a bicoastal organization that works to enhance and
increase the teaching of music. But it was the institute that got
him to play again. He was pushed into performing at a fund-raiser
and rediscovered his love for the drums.
That would lead him to form the T.S. Monk Sextet in 1991. The
sextet has three Blue Note releases, "Take One" (1991); "Changing
of the Guard," (1993); and "The Charm" (1995). Yet it was the
recent release of "Monk on Monk" that has shifted the younger
Monk’s career into a higher gear.
However, the album has been a long time in coming. He was
hesitant to pay tribute to his father before the right time had
arrived.
"I had no jazz experience previous to 1992 without my father,"
he says. "I needed to establish a presence and show that I’ve got
something to say, a kind of sound that was different from my
father’s."
MUSIC: Tickets for "Monk on Monk" on Friday at the Veterans
Wadsworth Theater are $30, $27 and $11 with UCLA I.D. Call (310)
825-2101 for information.
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
Thelonius Monk Jr.