Like many people, I go through obsessive periods in my music listening — all Bach, all Jon Foreman, all Sufjan Stevens and most recently all Radiohead. Today, I ran across this video of T.S. Monk playing “Don’t Blame Me” and realized that I hadn’t listened to him for a long time. I was taken aback (again) by how amazing he is. For me, it so brilliant how Monk mixes the satisfyingly predictable patterns of stride with his unapologetically modern stream of consciousness. I think I may be ending my all Radiohead all the time period — Thom and the boys are going to have to share time with T.S. Monk.
Note: If you liked Monk’s solo piano playing, you might check out “Monk Alone: The Complete Columbia Solo Studio Recordings of Thelonious Monk (1962-1968)” as a good place to start.
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