Aloha Friday Motivation | Thelonious Edition | #29

-

Happy Aloha Friday! (Blog Link)

This weekend marks the passing of one of the most prolific Jazz musicians of all time, Thelonious Monk. Monk was legen…wait for it…dary! Jazz music is in itself elusive and there might not be a more elusive jazz artist than Thelonious Monk. His style of play, his look, his approach to his music, his audience, and the world were so unique…it added to the allure. During performances, Monk would often stop playing and stand up to do a little dance. Then, as if it never happened, sit down and continue performing. Famous for his style in both music and wardrobe, the American pianist and composer is the second most recorded jazz artist after Duke Ellington. If you consider that Ellington composed more than 1,000 pieces of music and Monk wrote about 70, it says a lot about the enduring power of this composer’s works. Put another way, John Coltrane considered Monk his mentor! Fun Simpsons fact: The first recording of Bleeding Gums Murphy was when he played with Thelonious Monk at the Minton's Playhouse.[2]

Check out what other musicians had to say about Monk in this New York Time article. Also, here is Link to a live performance of what is considered his most famous song, Round Midnight. Notice that its Dizzy Gillespie giving the shout out intro to Monk. I urge you tonight to grab a glass of something and take in some Thelonious Monk!

And feel free to Meditate over some choice cuts from his illustrious career. 1)Thelonious Monk | Straight No Chaser 2)Thelonious Monk | Don't Blame Me 3)Thelonious Monk | Blue Monk 4)Thelonious Monk | 'round Midnight

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aloha Friday Motivation | Fuji Edition| #21

-
Image
  Happy Aloha Friday! ( BLOG LINK ) There is a Japanese proverb that says, “A wise-man climbs Mt. Fuji once; a fool climbs it twice.” 316 years ago tomorrow marks the last eruption of Mt Fuji, Japan’s most kenspeckle landmark. Situated roughly 2 hours from Tokyo, it is the highest mountain in Japan with its 12,000 ft stature rising up from the landscape like the platonic form of a volcano. Though deemed a low risk eruption threat, Fuji is still an active volcano, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire , home to 452 volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean, roughly 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes, accounting for almost 90% of the world’s earthquakes. Put another way: Major tectonic activity! Fuji holds a lot of spiritual significance, being one of Japan’s three holy mountains, along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. Sitting atop Fuji is Okumiya shrine , the highest shrine in all of Japan. Ironically, or fittingly depending on how you slice it, lying in the northwest foothi
Read more

Aloha Friday Motivation | Superstitious | POST:101323

-
Image
Happy Aloha Friday the 13 th ! ( Blog Link ) It is, sadly, another somber Friday, with such chaos and atrocity playing out in the world. To say the situation in Israel is complicated would be an understatement. This article tries to simplify it, but I don’t think such a complicated situation can ever be simplified. While I don’t want to dwell on it, I think Wendell berry does a good job of capturing a lot of what I have been feeling as of late: "When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." Source: The Peace of Wild
Read more

Aloha Friday Motivation | Pseudonym Edition | POST:042123

-
Image
  Happy Aloha Friday, Many would shake their head if I told them that Mark Twain and Nina Simone had a lot in common. Yes, they were both writers, passionate about their art form, passionate about many things. But Twain’s writing, owing to the times, was marked with racial undertones, while Nina Simone’s work fueled her civil rights activism. Through all of it though, the two shared a few ties that bind. Here are two pretty interesting ties!   Neither Mark Twain, nor Nina Simone were there actual names. Samuel Clemens pen name was born from his time piloting river boats in Mississippi and Mark Twain is a term that refers to the save depth for a riverboat to operate, 12 fathoms. Eunice Waymon took on the stage name Nina Simone (Nina for little one, and Simone after the Spanish actress, Simone Signoret) when she got a gig in a bar in Atlantic city, hoping to it would keep her conservative mother from finding out about her performances. A lin
Read more