Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) was one of jazz's greatest and most enigmatic figures. As a composer, pianist, and bandleader, Monk both extended the piano tradition known as Harlem stride and was at the center of modern jazz's creation during the 1940s, setting the stage for the experimentalism of the [...]
A musical practice used for centuries the world over, improvisation too often has been dismissed as either technically undissectible or inexplicably mysterious. Approaching musical improvisation from the fields of ethnomusicology, education, performance, historical musicology, and music theory, the [...]