Great Lives - Thelonious Monk

[Jazzrook]

"Hannah Rothschild champions the life of jazz musician Thelonious Monk. Matthew Parris in the chair and music writer Richard Williams contributes to the debate."
('Great Lives' Radio 4, Tuesday 15 Sep, 4.30pm).

Should be fascinating but modern jazz-hating Parris could be an embarrassment.

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Hannah Rothschild champions the life of jazz musician Thelonious Monk. Matthew Parris in the chair and music writer Richard Williams contributes to the debate."
('Great Lives' Radio 4, Tuesday 15 Sep, 4.30pm).

Should be fascinating but modern jazz-hating Parris could be an embarrassment.

JR

"The last time I saw Parris" can't come soon enough but Ms Rothschild's film on Nica etc. is very good. And the US book of polaroids taken by Nica of Monk, Miles, Trane and virtually everyone else on the scene is magic. Shame Hannah can't get "the family" to give up the hours of tapes from the apartment.

Maybe Richard Williams and her will slap down that obnoxious preening twat Parris. That alone would make it worth listening out for.

BN.

[Jazzrook]

"The last time I saw Parris" can't come soon enough but Ms Rothschild's film on Nica etc. is very good. And the US book of polaroids taken by Nica of Monk, Miles, Trane and virtually everyone else on the scene is magic. Shame Hannah can't get "the family" to give up the hours of tapes from the apartment.

Maybe Richard Williams and her will slap down that obnoxious preening twat Parris. That alone would make it worth listening out for.

BN.

The late Christopher Hitchens knew how to deal with Parris on his Leon Trotsky 'Great Lives':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98uw-qzFq88

[Serial_Apologist]

The late Christopher Hitchens knew how to deal with Parris on his Leon Trotsky 'Great Lives':

www.youtube.com/watch?v=98uw-qzFq88

That was fun - missed it when it was broacast. Most timely! Thanks for finding and posting it, JR.

[johncorrigan]

"Hannah Rothschild champions the life of jazz musician Thelonious Monk. Matthew Parris in the chair and music writer Richard Williams contributes to the debate."
('Great Lives' Radio 4, Tuesday 15 Sep, 4.30pm).

Should be fascinating but modern jazz-hating Parris could be an embarrassment.

JR

The problem was that Parris was more interested in Baroness Rothschild than in Monk, and Hannah Rothschild seemed happy to let him perhaps because she wrote a book about her...once they got past that I started to enjoy it more.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The problem was that Parris was more interested in Baroness Rothschild than in Monk, and Hannah Rothschild seemed happy to let him perhaps because she wrote a book about her...once they got past that I started to enjoy it more.

Richard Williams says Parris is a
"sympathetic interlocutor". Didn't hear the program but other descriptions are available for him.

BN,

[Jazzrook]

"The last time I saw Parris" can't come soon enough but Ms Rothschild's film on Nica etc. is very good. And the US book of polaroids taken by Nica of Monk, Miles, Trane and virtually everyone else on the scene is magic. Shame Hannah can't get "the family" to give up the hours of tapes from the apartment.

Maybe Richard Williams and her will slap down that obnoxious preening twat Parris. That alone would make it worth listening out for.

BN.

Good to hear Richard Williams put Parris in his place when he said that Monk's piano playing was 'imprecise'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069rvbl

And did anyone see Parris on Channel 4 News comparing Jeremy Corbyn to 'a bear loose in your house'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_EBwWQ4GOM

[Ian Thumwood]

I heard Jeremy Corbyn's opening speech be described as being like someone picking up a trumpet for the first time and playing a free form jazz solo. I thought that was ironic as that doesn't actually sound too bad!

It is funny how people use jazz as a negative when expressing something and this is not the first time that I have heard anything free form being considered as a description for something that makes no sense and is rambling. I wonder just how many people making this assessment would be able to recognise when the form exists and when the improvisation is not using this as a basis for the solo?

It is strange that different or original approaches both within and outside jazz are treated with suspicion. Monk is perhaps the weirdest person to be considered "outside" as I think his music is actually pretty conservative especially in using chromatic patterns, the almost universal use of 4/4 time signatures, etc. The accidental harmonies and use of whole tone scales were known about in late 19th century music and even Bix was alleged to be using whole tones as a teenage cornet player. "Imprecise" is a intriguing adjective to describe his piano playing as he used clusters to imply the quarter tone albeit I don't think he can really be considered to be a micro-tonal pioneer.

[Serial_Apologist]

I heard Jeremy Corbyn's opening speech be described as being like someone picking up a trumpet for the first time and playing a free form jazz solo. I thought that was ironic as that doesn't actually sound too bad!

I'm glad one of us heard that too - had me thinking!

It is funny how people use jazz as a negative when expressing something and this is not the first time that I have heard anything free form being considered as a description for something that makes no sense and is rambling. I wonder just how many people making this assessment would be able to recognise when the form exists and when the improvisation is not using this as a basis for the solo?

I played my father the first of the Mujician recordings, introducing it by saying something to the effect that this was music collectively improvised completely on the spot, with no prior rehearsal or discussion. On being asked for his opinion afterwards, Dad confessed to not having liked it at all, since this was not in his view what jazz was supposed to be about, which was improvising on agreed tunes. When I told Keith and Julie Tippett this story, Julie said, "If you hadn't told him that beforehand, he might not have had that view". And so when I played the succeeding CD by the band, I did so without preannouncement of any kind. At the end Dad enthusiastically endorsed what he had just heard, saying "Why don't you play more stuff that's as good as that?"

It is strange that different or original approaches both within and outside jazz are treated with suspicion. Monk is perhaps the weirdest person to be considered "outside" as I think his music is actually pretty conservative especially in using chromatic patterns, the almost universal use of 4/4 time signatures, etc. The accidental harmonies and use of whole tone scales were known about in late 19th century music and even Bix was alleged to be using whole tones as a teenage cornet player. "Imprecise" is a intriguing adjective to describe his piano playing as he used clusters to imply the quarter tone albeit I don't think he can really be considered to be a micro-tonal pioneer.

What always strikes me about great jazz musicians who are sparing with notes and use a lot of space is their precisely placed sense of timing. Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Monk, Rollins (not always of course in his case), Miles and Bobby Wellins all I think fall into this category, for all their differences in other ways.