Thelonious Monkâs shadow still looms large in the music world some 35 years after his death. It wasnât until guitarist Elliott Sharp studied at Bard College in the early â70s that he really got to know the pianist/composerâs work, exploring it at the behest of his teacher, trombonist Roswell Rudd. And once he did, he was hooked.
âIâve always kept an ear toward Monk, no matter what else Iâve been doing,â Sharp says, speaking from his studio in Manhattan. âHe had such a reserved but very sardonic way of playing. The melodies were very simple and catchy in a childlike way. And the way he would user minor sevens for this percussive attack that would bend notes in a way that it no longer sounded like a piano.â
Since then, Sharp has used Monkâs compositions as practice pieces and performed them during live gigs. In 2003 he decided to record some for posterity, working out arrangements of five of Monkâs finest works and performing them on a stunningly resonant DellâArte Grande Bouche, a gypsy jazz acoustic, for the 2006 album Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk!
To celebrate what wouldâve been Monkâs 100th birthday, Sharpâs performing the focused live set âSharp Plays Monkâ this week at Classic Pianos. He plays âBemsha Swingâ and âWell You Neednâtâ with a feline interest, batting and clawing at the familiar melodies with his handpicked attack, and, at times, warmly curling around them.
âI wanted to stay true to my own vocabulary of guitar and to Monkâs compositions,â Sharp says. âI stick with the forms, but sometimes Iâll focus in on one chord or take one motif and explore it. Sort of like Sonny Rollins used to take one simple motif and tear it apart, then rebuild it over and over in this very obsessive compulsive way, [and] make sure heâs wrung out every single aspect of it.â