Celebrate Monk's 90th birthday

Thelonious Monk would have been 90 years young on October 10th this year. I found this out a few days ago when listening to some jazz on the radio. On the same radio show, they announced a documentary show about him that I totally missed. I wanted to record it, but I went to sleep instead.
I felt obligated to do something to celebrate his birthday, and I did.

I just came back from the Great American Music Hall in SF. I went there with my wifey, and our preborn beansky boy (or girl?), Avi, Aaron, and Caren (Avi's date?).
We heard and saw two Jazz ensembles - Monk's Trio who gave an amazing performance...almost like having the great Monk play on stage himself. Then came TS Monk (son of Thelonious) and his Sextet.


Holy shit, they were amazing. Blew me away. I haven't been to a good show in months, and this one made me realize that I have to start hunting for shows again. Anyways, there's no point in trying to describe the mastery of these players in words...I'll just say that I expected them to be really good, and I was still surprised.

By the way - Helen Sung, who played piano for TS Monk's sextet was absolutely mind blowing. I mean oh my freakin' god, and she's probably in her 30's or something, and already at such a level that one wonders how can she get any better. Too bad it's so hard to find these musicians on the mainstream channels. It definitely makes me appreciate the added value of going to jazz shows.


here's to Thelonious Monk - a genius.