performed here by Augustus Arnone right-click here to download (or hold the control key and click).
While never quoting Thelonious Monk directly, Chez Monk is made of gestures and chord voicings that I find characteristic of his pianistic style. I started playing around with “Monkisms” while taking Paul Merril’s jazz arranging class at Cornell in 2004, and an early attempt at this piece was premiered by Xak Bjerken in the spring of 2005. Unsatisfied with my efforts, I consigned that piece to the garbage can, but saved the materials; it wasn’t until my residency at Aaron Copland’s house in the summer of 2008 that I tried to use them again, the results being Chez Monk, composed at chez Aaron.
