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Thelonious Monk

Palo Alto

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Monk Documentary -- 8/10
AfroPop documentary trailer
1 Ruby, My Dear  
2 Well, You Needn't  
3 Don't Blame Me  
4 Blue Monk  
5 Epistrophy  
6 I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams  
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In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert was recorded by the school's janitor. Palo Alto is now available  physically on Impulse! Records and digitally on Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment. 

  • Five minutes that will make you love Thelonious Monk / The New York Times
    Posted At: November 1, 2023
    We asked Jon Batiste, Arooj Aftab, Mary Halvorson and others to share their favorites.The New York Times - Marcus J. Moore writes……For over a year, The New York Times has been asking musicians, writers and scholars to share the music they’d play for a friend to get them into jazz. Now we’re focusing on Thelonious Monk, the innovative pianist and bandleader whose angular melodies and dissonant chords made hi...

  • Thelonious Monk AfroPoP documentary makes JAZZIZ: The Week in Jazz
    Posted At: April 28, 2023
    JAZZIZ: The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz world. It’s a one-stop destination for the music news you need to know. Scott Yanow writes….The most important jazz musicians are the ones who are successful in creating their own original world of music with its own rules, logic, and surprises. Thelonious Monk, who was criticized by observers who failed to listen to h...

  • Music Grotto picks it's 55 'Best Jazz Pianists Of All Time'
    Posted At: December 1, 2022
    Music Grotto writes….Jazz is one of the most fascinating and complex music genres of the modern era. Rising from gospel music, blues, and ragtime, it would go on to shape rock and roll, funk, and even hip hop. These jazz pianists were some of its most influential pioneers, from the earliest years up to the modern day. Here are the first 10 on their list, and one of their iconic songs.1. Art Tatum - Tea For ...

  • The perfect introductory playlist to Thelonious Monk / FAR OUT
    Posted At: February 17, 2022
    “A genius is the one most like himself.” – Thelonious Monk (1917-1982).FAR OUT's Tom Taylor writes…..Thelonious Monk was not only a genius because of his total expression of individuality, but also because nobody could imitate the self-same thing even if they tried. As the poet and jazz aficionado once affectionately described him, he was an “elephant at the keyboard”, and that thumping style was hard to ma...

  • Thelonious Monk, 40 years after his death / boingboing
    Posted At: February 17, 2022
    "A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination," Thelonious Monk once said.boingboing's DAVID PESCOVITZ writes….Today is the 40th anniversary of the jazz maestro's death. Over at Signal, DIY musicologist David Katznelson digs into "The Genius of Monk" and delivers a valuable view on Monk's daunting catalog of recordings through the eyes (and ears) of some of David's ...

  • 'Palo Alto' cleanly captures how one of Thelonious Monk's longer standing groups operated / JazzWord
    Posted At: March 28, 2021

    Jazz Word's - Ken Waxman writes.....Rather than outtakes, Palo Alto is a hitherto unknown recording of an equally obscure concert Monk and his quartet performed one afternoon in 1968 at a Palo Alto high school. Booked by an enterprising student and taped by a staff member, the fidelity isn't up to studio standards. But it cleanly captures how the pianist and one of his longer standing groups with ten...

  • 'We can't have a New York City without Birdland' / PIX11
    Posted At: January 24, 2021

    Iconic NYC jazz club rallies to stay open amid pandemic. WPIX11's Magee Hickey writes....Like so many jazz clubs and music venues across the city, 'Birdland' has been shuttered on West 44th Street since the pandemic began last March, except for a brief reopening last month. What better way to open the Save Birdland fundraiser than hearing the legendary Catherine Russell sing its anthem: t...

  • The six familiar titles on Thelonious Monk's 'Palo Alto' is exceptional / PAPATAMUS
    Posted At: January 20, 2021

    PAPATAMUS Robert Rusch writes.......THELONIOUS MONK is another great iconic artist whose post-mortem issues are uncommon due to his erratic gigs and the fact that he was house bound for many of his later years. Monk's latest find - MONK!!!! PALO ALTO [Impulse umb0023180-o2], is a recording from December 1968. This date came about when he was invited to play at a high school in Palo Alto, California. Monk...

  • Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto makes 'JazzTimes: 10 Best of 2020'
    Posted At: January 4, 2021

    JazzTimes writes.....For our 2020 Year in Review section, we calculated the top 40 new releases and top 10 historical/reissue recordings of 2020 based on year-end lists by our writers. They were asked to choose the 10 best new releases and five best historical titles-i.e., albums and box sets consisting primarily of music recorded 10 or more years ago. Albums and box sets released between Nov. 10, 2019 a...

  • Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto makes Central Coast Public Radio - Best of 2020
    Posted At: December 29, 2020

    The DJs at Central Coast Public Radio: KCBX clearly love to explore and enthusiastically share new music. Here are some of their picks for the top albums and songs of 2020. Tom Di Santo, host of 'Speak Low' picks; Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto as one of his top albums. In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary ja...

  • Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto makes 'jazzwise: top 20 reissues and archive albums of 2020'
    Posted At: December 21, 2020

    Some real finds and compelling rediscoveries from Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Charles Mingus, Shirley Scott, and more These are the top 20 reissues and archive albums of 2020 as voted for by Jazzwise's esteemed writers and editors. You can find out how they all voted in the December issue of Jazzwise – out now! We have included the original revi...

  • Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto makes 'NPR: Best Reissues And Box Sets Of 2020'
    Posted At: December 18, 2020

    Brief summary of the year in reissues and vault rediscoveries: There was an avalanche of them, across all genres and all eras. Each promises edification, offering dives into the rich contexts of historically significant records while also being flat-out thrilling listening. Thanks to the work of sound-obsessed archivists and audio detectives this year, it's now possible to trace John Coltrane'...

  • 88.1KJAZZ - Los Angeles offers Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto for their Fall pledge drive
    Posted At: December 15, 2020

    In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert was recorded by the school's janitor. Palo Alto is no...

  • NYC's 'Eyewitness News7: Here and Now' gets the incredible backstory behind the release of a rare recording by Thelonious Monk
    Posted At: November 8, 2020

    On this episode of Here and Now, a presidential election like no other as we take a look at what happened and what's next for the country. Also, Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO) helps young men get out of the criminal justice system and stay out. The challenge of juggling two racial realities - a conversation with the author of "Grey Boy: Finding Blackness in a White World" and the incredible backs...

  • There is much to be gained from listening to the spontaneous inventiveness that emerges on Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto / THE REHEARSAL STUDIO
    Posted At: October 4, 2020

    My guess is that, by now, most readers already know the back-story for the recently-released Impulse! Records album Palo Alto, presenting a "live" recording of Thelonious Monk performing at Palo Alto High School on October 27, 1968 and leading a quartet whose other members were Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drums. The concert was arranged by a sixteen-year-old st...

  • Thelonious Monk's legendary 1968 concert at Palo Alto High School, shelved for decades, captures some of the fiercest, most spirited versions of his quartet's repertoire / Pitchfork
    Posted At: October 1, 2020

    Thelonious Monk once said: "Weird means something you never heard before. It's weird until people get around to it. Then it ceases to be weird." By the time Monk and his quartet strode into the auditorium at Palo Alto High School on October 27, 1968, people hadn't just gotten around to his oblong, minimalist take on jazz-they'd left it behind. After decades of toiling in New York's clubs to little outsid...

  • Palo Alto: That time when Thelonious Monk played a high school / Paste
    Posted At: September 30, 2020

    The unearthed recording of Thelonious Monk's classic quartet oozes with bootleg charm Located in present-day Silicon Valley, the Bay Area city of Palo Alto was a most unlikely place to catch a Sunday-matinee performance by Thelonious Monk back in 1968. By that time, Monk's jazz-giant stature had been firmly established, so it was a major coup that a plucky teenager named Danny Scher was able to snag ...

  • Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto. Could anything be less likely? / the arts fuse
    Posted At: September 29, 2020

    This 1969 concert by the Thelonious Monk Quartet was produced by a high school student and recorded by his school's janitor. Its publicity posters were printed up by the Palo Alto High School Graphic Arts Department. The janitor, we are told, received permission (but from whom?) to tape the concert as a reward for his having tuned the piano. Before the concert, only a few tickets were sold, but then a cr...

  • Verve Presents 'Monk Goes To School' podcast
    Posted At: September 28, 2020

    In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert was recorded by the school's janitor and finally rele...

  • 'Palo Alto' by Thelonious Monk. A jazz titan goes to high school with his quartet in fine, freewheeling form / The Wall Street Journal.
    Posted At: September 26, 2020

    ‘In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year-old Jewish kid named Danny Scher had a dream. He wanted to bring the renowned Thelonious Monk and his quartet to play a benefit concert at his high school in Palo Alto, California." So begins a liner note by Robin D.G. Kelley, Monk's definitive biographer, for "Palo Alto," a previously unreleased recording of that concert, out now. (The music is available on...

  • Laid against the backdrop of 1968 America, a 16-year-old jazz evangelist and a quick thinking high school janitor lead to Thelonious Monk's 'Live From Palo Alto' / Passion of the Weiss
    Posted At: September 22, 2020

    In recent years record labels have bombarded jazz fans with a seemingly endless supply of "lost masterpieces" and newly discovered concert recordings. While some of these are superfluous (do we really need more live Keith Jarrett or Miles Davis albums?), others catch moments of such inspired creation that shelving them would do a disservice to the music. Bebop icon Thelonious Monk's Palo Alto falls into ...

  • The back story to 'Thelonious Monk Palo Alto' makes this album irresistible even before you've listened to it / JazzTimes
    Posted At: September 18, 2020

    In 1968, a 16-year-old jazz fan at Palo Alto High School in California decides to hold a concert in the school's auditorium to raise funds for its International Club-and convinces Thelonious Monk's manager that his client should be the headliner. (Not surprisingly, the student, Danny Scher, would soon become a major force in the live-music production world.) As concert day approaches, one of the school's...

  • Thelonious Monk band rolls through six crowd-pleasers where you can hear the quartet win over the Palo Alto students / The Pine Belt NEWS
    Posted At: September 16, 2020

    This never-before-heard 1968 performance at a high school in Palo Alto is real surprise from a period where Monk was not as prolific as before. While with Columbia Records in the Sixties, Monk had his biggest commercial success ("Monk's Dream" in 1963) and one of his late-period classics ("Underground" in 1968). Monk received a letter from student Danny Scher to play at his school. This concert featu...

  • In 1968, Thelonious Monk played a high school, now everyone can hear it / The New York Times
    Posted At: September 16, 2020

    52 Years Ago, an ambitious student named Danny Scher booked the jazz great at Palo Alto High School in Northern California. A recording of the event gathered dust for five decades. In the late 1960s, a precocious student named Danny Scher was the elected social commissioner at Palo Alto High School in Northern California. His duties included organizing dances and assemblies, but Mr. Scher, who grew u...

  • Thelonious Monk's artistry is woven into the very core of jazz history. 'Palo Alto' offers its own distinctive and illuminating pleasures / The New Yorker
    Posted At: September 15, 2020

    "Palo Alto," a new release of a previously unissued concert recording of Thelonious Monk and his quartet, from 1968, embodies some of the vexing paradoxes of his majestic artistry and his radically influential career. The album, scheduled for release in July from Impulse Records, was delayed, reportedly owing to contractual issues; it will now be released on September 18th, on CD and vinyl by Impulse and...

  • Live Monk from 1968 is a genuine find, a delight from start to finish / Kind Of Jazz
    Posted At: September 13, 2020

    Sometimes these previously unreleased, newly discovered albums turn out to be something of a disappointment; lots of hype over a recording session or concert that was probably left in the vault for good reason. That's not the case here. Palo Alto, a live recording from October 1968, captures Thelonious Monk's quarter with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse on a really good night. or in this case, a ...

  • Interesting facts you should know about Thelonious Monk from AmoMama
    Posted At: July 18, 2020

    Thelonious Monk might not be as popular as some other Jazz musicians, but he was a jazz genius who was considered one of the most creative originators of his time. Here is a look into his life and death. Many people go down in history for the impact they have made on the world. While some are known for their revolutionary ideas, some are considered originators. One such originator was the talented pianis...

  • Unheard Thelonious Monk recording of a surprise 1968 high school performance, finally set for release / WFMZ69 News
    Posted At: June 19, 2020

    In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert happened and was recorded by the school's janitor. Pa...
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