Billy Taylor's "The Mad Monk"

[medjuck]

I was listening to a Jubilee show from June 1944 which had the Eddie South Trio with Billy Taylor on piano playing a Taylor composition entitled "The Mad Monk". With a bit of internet research I learned that Taylor later recorded the piece with his own trio sometimes with an alternate title "Monk's Mood" (not to be confused with....).

The composition has some Monkish qualities and I presume it is an homage to Thelonious. The broadcast was made before Monk's first recording session but according to Taylor's web site he headed to Minton's as soon as he had arrived in New York. I guess he heard Monk there but I've certainly never thought of Taylor as a Monk acolyte. Was I just

missing something?

Edited October 5, 2013 by medjuck

[JSngry]

Mary Lou Williams was a big Monk advocate early on, and as I understand it, many people paid attention to what Mary Lou had to say about things like that. Taylor might well have been one.

Either way, there's a certain "jazz piano-centricity" to Monk's work from the beginning that I think would get anybody's attention who had the chance to hear it and who was thinking that way to begin with (having a "jazz piano-centric" POV).