Duke University to Honor Anniversary of Monk at Town Hall With NY Concerts

By I Feb. 19, 2009

Duke University will present concerts on Feb. 26 and 27 at New York’s Town Hall to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall, the first time Monk’s music was ever played by a big band. These concerts are produced by Duke Performances and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Two generations of musicians will pay homage to Monk. On Feb. 26, Charles Tolliver and his tentet play note-for-note arrangements of Monk’s 1959 show. On Feb. 27, Jason Moran and his octet present his mixed media concert that incorporates recordings and images captured during rehearsals and arranging sessions by photographer W. Eugene Smith, who lived in the “Jazz Loft” building, where, in 1959, Monk and his tentet rehearsed for the Town Hall concert.

WNYC Radio (93.9 FM and wnyc.org) is the exclusive broadcast partner of Thelonious Monk at Town Hall. WNYC will air a live broadcast of the Tolliver concert on Feb. 26, and will tape the Moran concert on Feb. 27 for later broadcast. Later this year, WNYC, in partnership with the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, will broadcast a 10-part series documenting stories from the Jazz Loft, drawing on thousands of hours of material taped there, including highlights of the rehearsal sessions for the original Thelonious Monk/ Hall Overton 1959 Town Hall concert.

Details: the-townhall-nyc.org.