The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Plays Monk at The Appel Room

Thelonious Monk’s music is a playful, profound, and universally loved jazz canon. Its deceptive simplicity unites musicians of all backgrounds and offers endless opportunity for interpretation and improvisation. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis has been performing a steadily growing Thelonious Monk repertoire since its inception (now totaling over 40 songs), and the JLCO will one day become the first big band ever to play all 72 original Monk compositions. Tonight you will hear the latest additions to their Monk songbook.                In addition to new versions penned by renowned members of the JLCO, you will also hear arrangements written exclusively for this event by some of jazz’s most promising young composers, including Joe Block and Matt Wong, who won Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Composition/Arrangement competition when they were in high school...

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Thelonious Monk’s music is a playful, profound, and universally loved jazz canon. Its deceptive simplicity unites musicians of all backgrounds and offers endless opportunity for interpretation and improvisation. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis has been performing a steadily growing Thelonious Monk repertoire since its inception (now totaling over 40 songs), and the JLCO will one day become the first big band ever to play all 72 original Monk compositions. Tonight you will hear the latest additions to their Monk songbook.                In addition to new versions penned by renowned members of the JLCO, you will also hear arrangements written exclusively for this event by some of jazz’s most promising young composers, including Joe Block and Matt Wong, who won Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Composition/Arrangement competition when they were in high school. Thelonious Monk himself was only 18 years old when he wrote the masterpiece “’Round Midnight,” and this performance is a chance to hear the next generation’s brightest minds reinterpret his music for a band that can play anything.

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