Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. This is the sixth studio album cut by Thelonious Monk under the production/direction of Teo Macero for Columbia and as such should not be confused with the original motion picture soundtrack to the 1988 film of the same name. He was also a family man. The music is great, free-spirited and liberating, but in the person of Monk there is a shadow of some kind, a vagueness, a disinclination to connect. Right before I sat down to write this review, I put on the 1956 album "Brilliant Corners" by Thelonious Monk. "I Didn't Know About You" is brush drums, bass and piano and is smoothly atmospheric. And throughout the movie, when Monk talks, it seems to be in a kind of code, and when he looks at the camera, he doesn't quite look at the camera. Like the title says, straight music without much detail, but enjoyable for that, The life and times of not just one of the greatest pianists but also an amazing time in Jazz history. [font=Century Gothic]"Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser" is an interesting and entertaining documentary about the innovative jazz musician, Thelonious Monk, and his music. There is no mention of the 1959 Town Hall Concert, painstakingly reconstructed in 2009 by MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran. The musical crosstalk between Monk and Charlie Rouse (tenor sax) is vividly captured. There was one shot of him where he was spinning around and his eyes momentarily went dull for half a second as if he had a mild stroke or seizure. If you want to know what it is like to live be a jazz musician, it is important that you see this movie. A documentary not just about Thelonius Monk and what made him tick, but also the bands he worked with and other famous musicians. Monk is one of those artists that even the very casual jazz fan knows – a group which I very much include myself in. Straight, No Chaser is an album by jazz musician Thelonious Monk, released in 1967. | Apart from typical format of 'talking heads' of the genre master (John Coltrane), collaborators, figures from music business and Thelonius, Jr., there is shown small but intense piece of the musician's life: in the studio, on the road, during live concerts. Thank you so much, Charlotte Zwerin, for making this paean to Monk. I knew nothing of this musician before seeing the documentary. What the film gave me was an opportunity to see Thelonious Monk creating some of it, and, just as importantly, an opportunity to see how those who knew him loved him. It is simply sublime, actually. The film I will be reviewing is the documentary Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser. Monk's angular, overtly logical piano playing can come across cold or distant at times. He did not play jazz anymore, but when friends would come over to play, they knew he could still listen, because he would leave the door of his room open. About fifteen years ago, I first saw "Straight, No Chaser." Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser at Amazon.com. We See 5. the title itself is a good summary of the film, More Of A Concert Than A Documentary, But That's Fine, super-cool and super out there, this is unfiltered Monk, This is a great movie and a great musician, The standard by which all documentaries should be judged. | One of the best films on Jazz to date. Throughout the late ’40s and early ’50s pianist, Thelonious Monk recorded a series of sessions for Blue Note Records to be released as 78-rpm singles. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser ... 2014: Sell This Version: Reviews Add Review [r15512557] Release. Clint Eastwood presents: a documentary about jazz genius. This first full-length biography of the legendary pianist/compos... Straight, No Chaser book. With Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Jimmy Cleveland, Harry Colomby. Straight, No Chaser by Thelonious Monk. Straight, No Chaser book. 1-6 originally issued in 1967 as the LP 'Straight, No Chaser' 3 was shortened by 5:41, 5 by 2:47 and 3 by 56 seconds. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea Only six tracks long, the album is almost therapeutic in its relaxing effect. If for no one else the film is a must for jazz fans and musicians (it was produced by Clint Eastwood). Two decades passed before the by-now forgotten footage was mentioned by Blackwood to Bruce Ricker, whose "Last of the Blue Devils" (1980) was a landmark documentary about Kansas City jazz. The makers were able to grasp tension coming from creative process (songs being written on the run, then played in front of huge audience without proper rehearsal), routine of life on tour with ever-tendering wife Nellie by his side, biased or just silly questions from journalists, more or less visible symptoms of mental illness (which might have been confused with artist's mannerisms, stage antics or eccentricities at most). And trademark exotic hats (could anyone else in the 20th century look cool in that historic Polish head thingy?). Luckily, there is plenty here of the latter. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1967 Vinyl release of Straight, No Chaser on Discogs. User Ratings In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. He played the piano as if he knew exactly what every note should mean and be, and had known it for a long time. Straight, No Chaser: Thelonious Monk is a fine primer as well as audio documentary. As a documentary of little value. The TV Homages of WandaVision are an Amusing, Unfulfilling Distraction, On the Disempowerment of Promising Young Woman, Entertaining 30 Coins Examines Depths of Evil with Style. This particular song is a happy one, but it is not mood that carries the stamp of Monk, it is authority. ... and i love thelonious monk. That is why "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" is vaguely disturbing right from the opening scenes. At the same time, he drifted into himself. comment. I suggest music lovers of all kind to watch this movie. Constructed around pre-existing footage of the legendary jazz pianist and composer, THELONIOUS MONK: STRAIGHT NO CHASER is a lively and loving tribute to the genius of Thelonious Monk. Read the Empire Movie review of Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser . 5.0 out of 5 stars "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" Portrait Of Artist Reviewed in Canada on February 11, 2001 This documentary captures Monk as an artist probably better than any jazz musician has ever been captured on film. He was locked inside. At some point he withdrew and wasn't there anymore for his friends. Directed by Charlotte Zwerin. Add to Collection Add to Wantlist Remove from Wantlist. This documentary is not an invitation to join them, it is absolutely not meant for 'outsiders'. Read 6 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. He is the greatest composer and the most influential musician of the jazz era. Perhaps interesting if you like the music. Straight, No Chaser: Thelonious Monk is a fine primer as well as audio documentary. No one in the movie actually admits he was schizophrenic, but it seems pretty obvious and to me, makes him even more of a genius--that he could write and perform despite his disability. 3. The mental illness, whatever it was, must have begun many years earlier. Here, that's not the case, despite the playing being as brilliant as ever. Discover releases, reviews, track listings, recommendations, and more about Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser (Music From The Motion Picture) at Discogs. Thelonious Monk might just be the greatest jazz composer who ever lived, and this film is a tribute to his entire career. How important it is to the fans is shown by the high average vote it got before I voted. Metacritic Reviews. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (Straight, No Chaser ) Reviews. AllMusic Review by Lindsay Planer [+] This is the sixth studio album cut by Thelonious Monk … Thelonious Monk is the most important musician ever produced by this country. And a must not just for "jazz purists" but music lovers in general. It is both a good and a bad thing that this film doesn't do that particularly, since it is not really a documentary in terms of having lots of facts and insight thrown at you. As a documentary it has no universal appeal. But the film has a serious flaw. The musical crosstalk between Monk and Charlie Rouse (tenor sax) is vividly captured. Released 20 March 1967 on Columbia (catalog no. Combine that with the fact that these bands and musicians represent the most important and significant change in Jazz, perhaps in all music, and you get some idea of how colossal this film is. 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. There is a shot in this movie of Monk in an airport somewhere, turning around and around in the same place, engrossed in this repetition as if it were some kind of meditation. Japanese Folk Song 6. His reveries must have become seductively comfortable to him. Movie Reviews By Reviewer Type. Thelonius Monk is portrayed as an artist both blessed and cursed just by his genius. "I Didn't Know About You" is brush drums, bass and piano and is smoothly atmospheric. If you were ever curious about Thelonius Monk, the incomparable and (really) inimitable jazz pianist, this should answer most of your questions, at least about his mature years. Straight, No Chaser by Thelonious Monk (Album, Post-Bop): Reviews, Ratings, Credits, Song list - Rate Your Music Straight, No Chaser, an Album by Thelonious Monk. | It looked much more ominous than his description. We can sense there is something wrong here, and unless we know the life history of Monk we don't know what it is. The song, a traditional blues with a wobbly melody that loops… This is a documentary but almost a straight concert, featuring jazz pianist who performed mainly in the 1950s and 1960s and is a legend in music circles. Afterwards I felt very strongly how closed the circle of jazz-lovers is, I learned very little. I had heard the music before. So many of us would instantly put a name to it when we hear Round Midnight for example, but really wouldn't be able to talk much about the man himself as "proper" fans would. This is a new movie, but the footage of Monk in it is more than 20 years old, shot for German TV by Christian Blackwood in 1967 and 1968. It shows the deep devotion of his wife Nellie, and others who helped him, and finally, how he sank into his illness before he died. [Some reissues add a studio take of "Straight, No Chaser" as a bonus track.] User Reviews ↓ ... Monk's Moods: Straight No Chaser. Chamber, suggestive film in black and white about an extraordinary man. When people are still listening to him hundreds of years from now, they can see him in your wonderful movie. Complete your Thelonious Monk collection. https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/thelonious-monk/straight-no-chaser-1 The band featured here includes: Monk (piano), Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), Ben Riley (drums), and Larry Gales (bass). Thelonious was an American jazz pianist and composer, widely considered one of jazz's biggest figures and the founder of bebop. This film is a documentary of the late Thelonious Monk born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, who moved to Manhattan, New York, at the age of four. No copyright infringement Addeddate 2020-11-04 11:51:28 Identifier straight-no-chaser_202011 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. It portrays the great and legendary playing and composing of Thelonious Monk and also his hard time during his life. They included the track “Straight, No Chaser,” which was put on wax on this day (July 23) in 1951. They all seem to remember more or less the same man; there are not a lot of different versions of Monk in this movie. The latter scenes give this otherwise straightforward portrait its most revealing moments, showing how complex and exacting the work of jazz composition and arrangement can be. "Straight, No Chaser" was released on Columbia Records in 1967. | Japanese Folk Song 6. This was sort of what attracted me to this film because I was interested to know a little bit more about the guy. 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. Publication date 1967 Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International Topics Jazz Language English. "The high priest of bebop," one of the most brilliant jazz composers of all time, Thelonious Monk absolutely gave no fucks whatsoever about what you wanted his music, performance, or look to be. Proper Records: 2:57 By mid-film — no doubt as a conscious parallel to real-life events — Monk's illness has taken over Straight No Chaser, to the degree that the viewer watches him play the piano in a state of utter suspense: The music itself sounds like it's about to go off the rails. This movie is so incredible because I had not been lucky enough to have seen him before he died, and when I saw the movie I was moved to tears. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser was first shown at the New York film Festival in October 1989 and opened to strong reviews. External Reviews 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. Although I love Monk's work with John Coltrane, I believe that this is his warmest, most accessible album. 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. What amazes me about Monk besides his brilliant musicianship was the fact that he wasn't the person the media made him out to be. It was a shock to see Monk doing what my friend described so long before. Track listing. The film I will be reviewing is the documentary Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser. Another memorable thing is Monk's diction and his simple, street-like way of talking, being in contradiction with the kind of a man he was (supposedly extremely complex one) and with undeniably sophisticated music he composed and performed. One of Monk’s greatest works. A New York Times review claims it as "some of the most valuable jazz ever shot" as the close up shots of Monk's hands on the piano reveals his unusual technique. Song information for Straight, No Chaser - Thelonious Monk on AllMusic He could see the clear line through to the end of a composition that baffled other people, and his squiggles on a piece of paper, interpreted by Monk as if anybody should have been able to understand them, often turned out to be immortal works of jazz. If you want to learn about a great musician, the life of being a jazz musician or even just how to make a good documentary, you must see this film. Straight, No Chaser 4. A recurrent image in Charlotte Zwerin's remarkable documentary, ''Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser,'' is of the jazz pianist slowly spinning around in … Down to write this review, I believe that this is an iconic film a., most accessible album, and this film is a tribute to his entire.. 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