Today is Monk’s birthday. He was born in 1917 and died 30 years ago in 1982. He surely had a formative influence on my playing. I grew up admiring his conviction and try to uphold his wisdom “I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing? even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”
Clint Eastwood made a 10 part doc on Monk: YouTube by Clint.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2z67tTQIvI&feature=related
Eighteen years ago, in 1994, a Japanese label TDK asked guitarist Steve Cardenas and me to do a Monk tribute album. We called it “10/10: The Music of Thelonius Monk. It’s out of print so I’ve put the music up on YouTube: http://bit.ly/QihuS3. If you want a copy, send me a request.
–Beez in the Hive attempting the Monk shuffle!