[Dixielandjazz] Ghost Monk

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I should imagine Monk is more difficult than most because his fingering is 
pretty well unique. He may well have started along lines similar to his amateur 
barrelhouse pianist father, but I know at least one veteran classically trained 
professional whose reverence for Monk is tempered by a preference for Bud Powell 
doing the piano-playing. 


Genuine blues and barrelhouse pianists are the easiest to misrepresent, with the 
exception of the venerable and glorious Bob Seeley, who spent his youth in 
prudent association with Meade Lux Lewis.   Just in case anybody hasn't heard of 
the upright grand old man. 

His phrasing isn't stiffened by stock legit fingering. 

The problem with playing notes off a page is missing the timing and phrasing and 
staying closer rather to the page than the musicm and it's all intensely complex 
far beyond visible registration. It has to do with anatomy too, and to look at 
Louis' medical history is to suspect that some of his inimitability derives from 
his having done a few things wrong. 

And they weren't wrong because unorthodox but because they harmed his health.
Of course a more approximate version of Louis' timing and phrasing is generally 
called jazz.