Ben Franklin reported in his autobiography that he once spent the better part of a day sharpening an old ax, determined to return it to its original luster. He finally gave up, concluding that perhaps ...

This month we celebrate the birthday of one of the truly unique personalities in jazz: Thelonious Monk. Born on October 10, 1917, Monk created a style of improvisation and a repertoire of compositions ...

Some listeners operate under the misconception that pianist Thelonious Monk recorded his best work for producer Orrin Keepnews at Riverside Records, and the rest of his catalog is somehow considered a ...

A trumped-up drug conviction and draconian cabaret laws would rob Monk of his ability to perform in New York for several years following the Blue Note sessions. Greater exposure through associations ...

The greatest lost concert in American history almost never happened at all. It was Oct. 27, 1968, in Palo Alto, California. Outside of his high school, Danny Scher, a 16-year-old, bushy-haired, ...

A treasure chest of jazz is being rereleased this week: “The Complete Riverside Recordings” of Thelonious Monk, a fifteen-disk set of his recording sessions, in the studio and live, for that seminal ...

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two new interpretations of Monk's complete works: Monk's Dreams, by pianist Frank Kimbrough, and Work, by guitarist Miles Okazaki. This is FRESH AIR. Two new ...

Pop culture can be as forbidding as it is inviting, particularly in areas that invite geeky obsession: The more devotion a genre, series, or subculture inspires, the easier it is for the uninitiated ...