I've just got around to watching a programme I taped on the BBC about New York in 1951, the epicentre of the new world and of a revolution in art, rejecting the conformity of the post-war, consumer world. Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollack, James Dean and the Actors' Studio were all very familiar to me but good to watch. Thelonious Monk wrote Straight No Chaser in the same year. I'm no expert when it comes to jazz. The bass and drums sounded pretty good all these later, but almost a cliche of what bebop sounds like. The piano playing was something else entirely. This version for TV is from 1965.
I love to watch close-ups of Thelonious's hands. The fingers always look unsure about which key to hit, but every note, played or unplayed, is perfect.
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