Watched the dvd documentary of "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" last night. It was produced by Clint Eastwood.

If you're into Monk's music and want to learn more about the man, it's worth watching. I got my copy through Netflix. The film includes lots of live footage of Monk playing at various clubs and showed his eccentric behavior on and off stage. Battling mental illness for most of his life. An interesting documentary on a equally interesting and eccentric man.

Watched the dvd documentary of "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" last night. It was produced by Clint Eastwood.

If you're into Monk's music and want to learn more about the man, it's worth watching. I got my copy through Netflix. The film includes lots of live footage of Monk playing at various clubs and showed his eccentric behavior on and off stage. Battling mental illness for most of his life. An interesting documentary on a equally interesting and eccentric man.
I agree. I'd recommend this film to anyone who loves music, not just jazz fans. It lets you see into the world of a very important art form near the hight of its vitality (and get to know about a very important composer/player). You're sure to come away with a new lens with which to view jazz of this era with.

Strong agreement with both the above statements. I recently saw this, and was simultaneously intrigued and enlightened. A fascinating man, who obviously poured the whole of himself into his music.

Thanks for the tip. I love Monk's music. Hopefully I can find the dvd.

cubdog

Strong agreement with both the above statements. I recently saw this, and was simultaneously intrigued and enlightened. A fascinating man, who obviously poured the whole of himself into his music.
I had mixed feelings as well. You could tell when he was sitting at the piano he was in his own world. But when not playing, he seemed sort of "lost," which left me kind of sad.

It was a perplexing film, which I suspect was the way people felt when around him.

Is this the film where they show Monk and his band playing live and he gets up from the bench and the music just overcomes him? Considering he was the bandleader, he steps away from the piano and lets the rest of the players carry the piece through to the end. Monk just joyfully shuffles around the stage as the music fills him, in a spiritual type of way. I always thought that footage was very compelling.

It's heartening to watch the music lift Monk's shoulders and his spirits, and equally disheartening to watch him deflate away from the piano. Brilliant music, and his struggles seem to infuse every note.

Monk just joyfully shuffles around the stage as the music fills him, in a spiritual type of way.

I love that part.

Is this the film where they show Monk and his band playing live and he gets up from the bench and the music just overcomes him? Considering he was the bandleader, he steps away from the piano and lets the rest of the players carry the piece through to the end. Monk just joyfully shuffles around the stage as the music fills him, in a spiritual type of way. I always thought that footage was very compelling.
That's the one. In a way, Monk sort of reminded me of Steve Wonder (different music, of course) the way he just went to a different place when the music started. The way Monk would just stand there and spin in a circle ... there was something captivating and mysterious about it. I wondered if those eccentric antics were due to his mental illness.

I've had a fascination with so called "tortured" artists going back to my art school days. Van Gogh, Hemingway, Nick Drake, Monk... When I was younger I thought the art came from the illness, the power from the struggle, but now I don't think so.

I think that many of these artists create from someplace far deeper than that, and are attempting to create beauty out of darkness. To rage against it, and draw out something worthwhile in spite of it. Especially in the case of a creative genius like Thelonius Monk, I imagine that his music may have been the only way he could communicate; and once that was gone, no other way remained.

Interesting comments, fotno. The thing that was mysterious about Monk was, according to the documentary, he just all of the sudden stopped playing. His manager said he is certain that it wasn't because he didn't have the music in him anymore, but just one day said he didn't feel like playing anymore.

For a guy that was totally emersed while he was playing just suddenly choose not to play anymore is puzzling. But it could have been the mental illness playing a part as well.