monk in london...

 Sonny Rollins: “I remember guys would look at Monk's music and say: ‘We can’t play this’, but by the end of the rehearsal everybody was playing it anyway.”

T.S. Monk III:: “When I was 15, I told him I wanted to be a professional drummer. He immediately made two phone calls—which was usual for him to make consecutive phone calls: one to Art Blakey, who gave me my first drum set, and one to Max Roach, from whom I took lessons. For the next five years, my father let me find my own way and finally invited me to join his band.” The senior Monk was not primarily motivated by monetary reward, according to his son. “He was not overly impressed with himself and has been described as ‘very unpretentious.’ His best year financially was 1964 when he made $45,000. I will make more in the next seven days than he did in that entire year.”

Thelonious Monk performs in London in 1970.