Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

Even though I knew enough about Thelonius Monk before watching Straight, No Chaser- mostly from the Ken Burns Jazz documentary- I never would have expected the guy to be like this. He's almost in his own sort of world, but one that can tune into things that most musicians would never ever think of tapping into. His genius was that of a kind of strange maverick who used the piano like one of the surrealist painters, in a style that would be furthered along in the horn section by Coltrane and the avant-garde jazz scene, where the tempo is not one easily distinguishable. As a jazz fan, it's like seeing a figure who intuitively knows the beats, the rhythms, and lays in his own interpretations of where and how these rhythms can be changed and modified for a particular, unique form in the realm of music.

So his appeal, really, doesn't need to be totally squared away; this is one of the pleasures of Charlotte Zwerin's work (previous collaborator with the Maysles brothers, with a similar sight for detail if not the sharpest eye in documentary film), as she can peer into what Monk is about in the recording studio and in concerts, and still remain something of an enigma. He's not as volatile as Miles Davis was, nor as gentleman-like as Duke Ellington, but he has a way with people, as evidence here, on a wavelength all his own, topped off with a really cool hat and a speaking voice that wanders off like his music. If you're already a fan do seek it out post-haste, but also if you've never heard of the guy and pass by the DVD in the music-section, it might turn some over to the craziest madman-genius of the jazz piano. Grade: A