Duke to host 6-week, 18-event tribute to jazz’s Thelonious Monk

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jazz genius Thelonious Monk, whose North Carolina roots were evident in his music and his accent long after he moved to New York, will be celebrated next month during an 18-event tribute at Duke University.

“Following Monk” opens in Durham on September 15th with the Kronos Quartet performing music commissioned by the festival, including three world premiere arrangements of “Round Midnight.” The tribute ends October 28th with a solo piano performance by Barry Harris, who lived in the same apartment with Monk during his final years. Monk died at age 64 in 1982.

In between, the Following Monk Institute will offer guided tours of Monk’s birthplace in Rocky Mount, and the plantation in Newton Grove where his ancestors were slaves and where his relatives still live.

Monk’s son, T.S. Monk, will participate in that event. T.S. Monk says the acclaim would surprise his father, because even though he was told he was a musical genius, the world didn’t treat him that way.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)