Timeless Advice to Musicians from Thelonius Monk
April 22nd, 2009 by Ivan Pena in Bombardier ManifestoMy buddy Wes Price from Polysound Studios sold me on the fact that this handwritten note was created by Jazz God Thelonius Monk in 1960 as an advice sheet for his new drummer. I think that most of the advice here is valid for anyone in the music business. This is a great companion piece to Quincy Jones’ SXSW Keynote speech. Enjoy!
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 pm
that’s awesome..
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 am
Good stuff…Here’s another companion piece from Thelonious Sphere Monk that everyone suffering from “Cover Band Mentality” should read:
“Don’t play what the public want-Play what YOU want, even if it takes the public 20, 30 years to catch up.”
April 26th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I’m pretty sure this wasn’t meant for his drummer — it begins “just because you’re NOT a drummer — but it’s still cool stuff. I’m going to speculate that is was either for his tenor player Charlie Rouse, who joined the group in ‘59, or it was for his entire band. Nice find!
April 28th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
That’s what I thought Eric, but he swore he did that to the guy on purpose to mess with him. I dunno…