Thelonious Mingus

Charles Mingus, ink on paper, 2020

 

My appreciation for certain jazz musicians active in the 1960s never wanes. In the midst of exploring new musical styles, eras, and geographic locations the old jazz favorites, such as Mingus and Monk, never cease to impress me. A Rolling Stone article Wynton Marsalis on 12 Essential Jazz Recording introduced me to this recording of Meditations on Integration made in Oslo in 1964. Flutist Eric Dolphy had just informed Mingus he was going to stay behind in Europe and the two of them have a little conversation on stage before starting the song. Mingus asks Dolphy how long he is planning to stay in Europe, a poignant exchange as Dolphy dies just a few months later. The approach of the drawing reminded me of how I did a series of Jazz drawings for the Top 100 of 1999, the first one of many that was exhibited publicly. The local Columbus newspaper The Other Paper chose Thelonious Monk to feature the cover of their events section. 

Thelonious Monk, The Other Paper, 2000

Monk's Time

Thelonious Monk
12 x 6 inches, oil on board, 2017

Lulu's Back in Town by Thelonious Monk is as old as I am (a few months older actually). The tune appears on the record It's Monk's Time that I recently bought at a thrift store, further extending the collection of Monk recordings on the jazz shelf in the back. The record is perhaps not Monk's greatest but the opening tune, a classic written by Al Dubin and Harry Warren and first recorded by Fats Waller in 1935, Lulu's Back in Town is another jewel in Monk's oeuvre. Monk's starting the tune in old fashioned stride piano style before his quartet, with Charlie Rouse on sax, comes in. Monk's characteristic sense of timing sets the tune apart from the great stride piano players of yore and from Waller's version. It is perhaps Monk's unique timing that puns into the album title which more directly refers to Monk's portrait on the cover of Time Magazine that appeared around the same time. That portrait, painted by Boris Chaliapin, is the most famous Monk portrait out there. I wish to compete with Chaliapin's especially now that Time Magazine has been sold to a conservative media outlet. So keep reposting this image to make it happen!

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 30 – Thelonious Monk

Swing Street

Thelonious Monk
5.5" x 8.5"
watercolor and pen on paper, 1995

Saturday is the last day before Hopkins Hall Gallery closes their doors. The long lasting gallery serving the arts at the Ohio State University ceases to exist and will morph into a smaller space off campus. It's name will be Swing Space but I will not be a part of it. I've worked 12 years at Hopkins Hall Gallery and I put in my resignation this week. I will seek part time teaching opportunities in my new home town of Fort Myers but no more exhausting gallery jobs for me. Painting is what I want to do more of. Of the shows that have passed through the gallery over the years one was called Swing Street, all about jazz: jazz paintings on the wall, live jazz music, and when there was nobody performing, sounds from the radio show Just Jazz with Ed Beach was heard over the speakers. Packing up the Hopkins Hall Gallery archive these tapes with Ed Beach's Chicago based radio show popped up. I copied one, somewhat randomly from the stack of ten: Thelonious Monk 1947 – 57, Pt. 2. So nice to hear all these great Monk tunes again. I hadn't listened much to his music for a long time and it was certainly enjoyable to pick it up again. What a genius! One exciting track after the other, and the one to top the top 10 list this week is an old favorite of mine called Blue Monk. While packing up the archives at work I also started to pack up my own archive of Top 100 materials. And what pops up? A reproduction of my illustration for Blue Monk done in 1995! I can't pass up the opportunity to score with the goal wide open, can I? Keep throwing me those bones, please.