Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser
by Charlotte Zwerin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Barry Harris, Bob Jones (IV), Johnny Griffin, Nica De Koenigswarter, Thelonious MonkDirector: Charlotte Zwerin
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-01-30
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser
Movie Review: A Decent Documentary About Monk
Summary: 2 Stars
"Straight, No Chaser" is a decent documentary, but what it fails to do is talk about the music and even less about the history of Monk. Yeah, it has rare performances never before seen, but this doesn't constitute a good film. It's only icing for the cake, but there's not a cake here. I felt it was a rather empty look into his history. I mean everybody who listens and are fans of Monk know where he was born at and how he started playing at a place called Minton's where he met and played with Dizzy and Parker. I would have liked to hear more about his own compositions and how they changed the history of jazz. Interviews with people like Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Ben Riley, Art Blakey, and other musicians who were more involved with the music making process would have been much more informative than simply interviewing family members and road managers. This may be okay for some people, but it didn't really sit well with me. I actually found these interviews really boring and lacking any kind of character.
I will also say the documentary wasn't really well thought out. It seemed really scatter brained for lack of a better term. At one point, Monk is laying in bed asking for chicken livers, then the next he's playing out live. It's just really a mess of a documentary that really makes no sense. The historical value of the whole thing is incomplete. There is also no focus on his music of the 50s. It seems that his 60s quartet is getting all the press and unfortunately this is what makes this so frustrating, because Monk has made alot of music before he met Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales, and Ben Riley. As great as those musicians are, Monk was blazing trails way before he met those guys.
There are some parts of this film that are priceless like the scenes where he is in the studio recording "Ugly Beauty" for his album "Underground." That to me is something that was unique and different to see, but for me there wasn't enough of this kind of footage to make it worthwhile.
I will only recommend this documentary to hardcore fans of Monk, but if you're new to his music and want to hear more about his music or see him pick up the DVDs "Thelonious Monk: American Composer" or "Jazz Icons: Live in '66."
Summary of Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser
Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser. Filmmaker Bruce Ricker couldn't believe his luck. Michael and Christian Blackwood's extensive 1968 footage of the groundbreaking modern jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk including the only footage of the very private Monk off stage was in excellent condition. The reels were in Ricker's words "just sitting there like the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz." Ricker as co-producer joins director and fellow producer Charlotte Zwerin (Gimme Shelter) executive producer Clint Eastwood and others to bring these scrolls to astonishing life. Their Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser combines the Blackwood's rare footage of Monk in studio on tour and behind the scenes with new interviews archival photos and more to create a landmark aural and visual treat.Tunes in order of appearance: Evidence; Rhythm-a-ning; On the Bean; Round Midnight; Well You Needn't; Bright Mississippi; Blue Monk; Trinkle Tinkle; Rhythm-a-ning; Ugly Beauty; Ask Me Now; Just a Gigolo; Crepuscule with Nellie; I Should Care; We See; Osaka T.; Evidence; Epistrophy Don't Blame Me; Ruby My Dear; I Mean You; Lulu's Back in Town; Off Minor; Pannonica; Boo Boo's Birthday; Misterioso; Monk's Mood; Sweetheart of All My Dreams; Round Midnight. Year: 1988 Director: Charlotte ZwerinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 085391189626This exemplary documentary about seminal jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk reaps the benefits of multiple blessings, including the skilled editorial hand of director Charlotte Zwerin and the patronage of executive producer (and erstwhile jazz pianist) Clint Eastwood. Most vital is the use of extensive 1968 footage, shot by Michael and Christian Blackwood, documenting the sometimes moody, sometimes puckish Monk in the studio, on tour, and off stage, which on its own would make this essential jazz viewing.
In post-World War II America, few cultural upheavals matched bebop for sheer exhilaration. Spawned by jazz musicians whose paydays typically came with larger swing ensembles, bop was as much bastard as stepchild, refining the technical ambitions of its parent while breaking free of swing's formalism to play fast and loose with harmony, melody, and tempo. That mercurial spirit made heroes of high-flying, technically flamboyant players like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. Monk, by contrast, was as distinctive for his silences, crafting often skeletal melodies distinguished by unexpected, skewed harmonies. At one point dubbed the "high priest of bebop," he was more Zen archer, threading notes, warping chord structure, or stabbing "wrong" keys with a seeming looseness that in hindsight sounds as precise as haiku.
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser provides an intelligent portrait of this often reclusive, sometimes difficult artist, including telling glimpses of his volatility. A stormy studio session with Teo Macero, then Columbia Records' preeminent jazz producer, speaks volumes about Monk's very private approach to his muse. Perceptive interviews and glimpses of Monk's sunnier moments provide added depth, yet the real triumph is the generous catalog of classic Monk songs captured on camera. --Sam Sutherland
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