It was absolute music: you can take Bach and play his music with a steel-drum band and it will sound like Bach. And you can orchestrate Monk’s solos and accompaniments for a salsa band and it will sound like Monk.
From a good article on Thelonius Monk and his music by jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch on the Paris Review blog. It made me want to listen to Underground.
I guess I’m officially a bougie 30someting now.
Thoughts?