PLEASE NOTE: This will be the last new weekly posting on the site until mid to late September, at which time we expect to resume business as usual.  In the meanwhile, please be sure to explore the many other features on our website, especially the more than 4 years of great PAST PERFORMANCES dating all the way back to February of 2017.  Thank you for visiting and especially for following Mark Of Jazz.com.

In April 1966 Thelonious Monk and his quartet performed a live television concert in Oslo, Norway.  The quartet included Monk playing piano, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, Larry Gales playing bass and Ben Riley on drums. They performed a number of Monk standards including Blue Monk (Above) and Monk’s own ‘Round Midnight (Below).  Monk’s playing style is positively unique, using sparse voicings and omitting notes to add dissonance.  His music is almost its own genre, often seeming to inhabit its own musical universe.  Thelonious is something of an acquired taste … one well worth acquiring!