A New Look at Thelonious Monk
It’s more than little ironic that I was introduced to my favorite book about jazz in the past 10 years by an author interview in a comic book website. But I suppose it might be expected, with the little serious writing about the music with which Mosaic fans are obsessed.
“Here is the book I never knew I was waiting for,” says rapper Saul Williams, on the cover of Youssef Daoudi’s fantastic graphic novel “MONK! Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution” (from First Second Books). An exhilarating break from the same old same old conversations about music we know by heart reawakens the familiar as if it’s brand spankin’ again. And for me, treating Monk as a human being rather than a deity (though he does a bit of that too) is totally restoring. My favorite pages are where Daoudi treats Monk’s famed dancing as joyous, marvelous moments instead a cliched eccentricity.
Not for nothing, for those who might care, the book itself –the physical object– is beautifully produced, with gorgeous paper and printing.
New, young fans of jazz are bursting out all over the place, introducing and re-introducing music even to old buzzards like me (and hopefully, you). Read the interview with Youssef Daoudi and be energized.
–Fred Seibert
Read the interview…
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