There is a new Thelonius Monk album, and the story behind it is almost as great as the music on it. In the late 1960s, a high school student serving as "social commissioner" at Palo Alto High School in Northern California was charged with booking entertainment for the high school auditorium. Instead of booking the local Beatles copycat band, he decided to book Monk. Pulling that off wasn't easy. First, because he was too young, he had to get his older brother to drive to San Francisco to pick up Monk and his band. They returned with the bass sticking out the window only to find the piano was out of tune. The school janitor agreed to tune the piano if Monk would agree to let him record the concert. It was all a crazy bit of kismet.

So that recording sat around for 52 years, but now we can all enjoy it (Apple Music)(Amazon). You can just tell Monk was having a good time. Monk had a lot of struggles in his life, ranging from getting his Cabaret Card pulled in New York (so he couldn't perform) to mental illness, but this concert toward the end of his career catches him brilliantly. My favorite track is “Epistrophy”. It is a great song, but this version is special because of the loping groove they start at the beginning and carry throughout the tune.

Regardless, I didn't think I would hear any new Monk music for the rest of my lifetime. Aren't little surprises like this delightful?