Today would have been the 112th birthday of Thelonious Monk. I've written before about Monk and his central mportance to the development of the harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary of modern jazz. So, today's post is just to recommend some things to listen to.

To hear Monk playing, check out this wonderful concert recording from 1971 concert featuring Monk and one of his fellow co-creators of bebop, Dizzy Gillespie. Monk's continuing influence as a composer is astounding. It's hard to find a new jazz album or to attend a live concert that doesn't include at least one of Monk's tunes in the set list. Taking this idea to the extreme, pianist Frank Kimbrough (and a quartet of multi-instrumentalist Scott

Robinson, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Billy Drummond) has recorded ALL of Monk's 70 compositions. This was my favorite album of 2018 and one I'm still listening to regularly.