THELONIOUS MONK
Thelonious Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including “’Round Midnight”, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser”, “Ruby, My Dear”, “In Walked Bud”, and “Well, You Needn’t”. Monk is the second most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces, whereas Monk wrote about 70. Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time, after Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington and before Wynton Marsalis. (More from Wikipedia)
The 1960’s psychedelic/progressive rock band Spirit formed in Los Angeles in 1967, growing out of an earlier L.A. band called the Red Roosters. The inclusion of Randy California’s stepfather Ed Cassidy (drums) brought the band an added dimension that was missing from most 1960’s rock bands: Besides being much older than the other bandmembers, Cassidy cut his teeth playing in numerous jazz bands including stints with Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk, Thelonious Monk, and Lee Konitz. Ed Cassidy was also a founding member of the 1964 band Rising Sons that also included Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.
(November 2014)
