Thelonious Monk Centennial

October 10, 2017Simon Pettet

[Thelonious Monk and Allen Ginsberg, Monterey, CA, 1963 – Photograph (c) Jim Marshall]

Jim Marshall‘s remarkable photo of an awe-struck Allen, regarding Thelonious Monk, backstage, in 1963 at the Monterey Jazz Festival.  Today (we’re always happy to celebrate) is Monk’s birthday. Born October 10, 1917, it’s even more than that – it’s his Centennial !

There have been Centennial celebrations all this year, (most recently, April’s events in New York at Lincoln Center, and, this past weekend, with Jason Moran and Kenny Baron at the Kennedy Center)

and this coming weekend, if you’re in the … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 234

September 4, 2015admin

                                                       [Allen Ginsberg]

                                                                     [Antonin Artaud  (1896-1948)]

                      [John Cage 1912-1992] It would have been Antonin Artaud‘s 119th birthday today. It would have been John Cage‘s 103rd. It will be Nicanor Parra‘s 101st tomorrow! – ¡Feliz cumpleaños! – Happy Birthday! – 101 years old ! – amazing!

                                                                     [Nicanor Parra] Allen Ginsberg’s archives – the repository at Stanford –  Geoffrey C Willard, the Media Production Coordinator, notes –  “The Allen Ginsberg Papers in the Department of Special Collections is truly the collection that keeps on giving. We here at the media lab have digitalized a huge portion of the media … Read More

(Tuesday April 7) Billie Holiday Centennial

April 7, 2015admin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Billie Holiday (1915-1959), New York, 1949 – Photograph by Herman Leonard]

Today, April 7, 2015 is the Billie Holiday Centennial

Billie Holiday was born, Eleanora Fagan, in Philadelphia exactly one hundred years ago today.

Allen Ginsberg, writing in 1947: “Billie Holiday is well-known in jazz circles as an amazing great woman. Little Jack (Melody) and Vicki (Russell), who know her, promised to arrange for me to meet her. I had long hoped and expected to meet her one time or another. … Read More

Sam Charters – Jack Kerouac’s Jazz – 3 (Monk, Dizzy and Bird)

August 31, 2014admin

Dizzy Gillespie01.JPG

part 3 – Monk, Dizzy and Bird  Sam Charters: I thought I would talk about the three black performers that Jack talks about so specifically – Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Thelonious Monk, was one of the most challenging of the three and played with them. Thelonious, unlike the other two, had severe technical limitations . I remember watching him at the Five Spot and I was always afraid when he played one of those descending runs he was going to beak his wrist, because he just never seemed to be able to quite get it

… Read More

Sam Charters – Jack Kerouac’s Jazz – 1 – (Intro)

August 29, 2014admin
SAM CHARTERS [Sam Charters]

This weekend – jazz weekend, we’ll present legendary jazz scholar, Sam Charters  (in a talk given on July 26, 1982 at The Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary On The Road Conference) –  “Jack’s Jazz’  Today, just a few brief moments from his opening remarks. Tomorrow, a full transcription of his lucid talk. 

[note – none of the illustrations or the hyperlinks are the responsibility of Sam Charters  –  this recording begins in media res – Charters has been just playing a series of  representative early swing band recordings] 
 
SC: …what you’ve … Read More

Jazz and the Beat Generation

August 28, 2014admin

Jazz and the Beat Generation – from On The Road –  “They ate voraciously as Dean [Neal Cassady], sandwich in hand, stood bowed and jumping before the big phonograph, listening to a wild bop record I had just bought called “The Hunt,” with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume.” Allen Ginsberg – on “Howl” – “Lester Young, actually, is what I was thinking about. “Howl” is all “Lester Leaps In”. And I got that from Kerouac. Or paid attention to it on account … Read More