John MacDonald (and Monk)

 Tonight as we turn back to winter I'd like to post John MacDonald's poem in the fall/winter contest.   

Those Parties We Talk Shit about Monk

"I didn't like his comping," she said to the gray yellow

light

that settles in

about 2 am,

"Too much stabbing…"

Here

she made stabbing motions

– STAB STAB STAB –

with piano-leg-claw hands, with mad

hair

tangle glistening

flare

of sanpaku eyes.

It made us

all

laugh (especially her)

, and a bottle of ginger vodka Doug made went round and

round,

sweet and sharp

and so=o=o=o dangerous, like...

"… those chords…

they were so pointy,"

somebody said (maybe me), "… wouldn't

stand up like

some pretty white vase,

with

curve of red rose

, he (Monk) had to grab 'em and

POUND 'EM

about a foot apart, maybe, kinda

wabi-sabi,

kinda perfect,

so

he could string melody

around.

He wanted

a fence

for everyone to c-l-i-i-m-m-m-b

up so

carefully through,

so carefully down…"

but here

am I tangled in that fence

again

, at least until the B

side's finished

(what would you do?)

I laugh

about that poor

fool,

put up a struggle in the

barbed wire, watching

the moon over the the ruined castle,

until the blood flowed over

the keys and down the black varnished legs onto

the floor

where

I slept

for the night.

Oh right.

That was me...

… and that bottle of ginger vodka Doug made

goes round and round like

an emery grinder,

dulling

the knife note edge,

dulling the barbed wire

melody into end-

of-party iron filings piling on the

carpet.

The picture above is certainly not John's party.  It's from 1947 and depicts Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Jones, Thad Dameron, Mary Lou Williams, and Milt Orent.  However, I like this picture with John's poem.

I've posted so many of Monk's songs here, so I hope that these are not duplicates.

Here is "Let's Call This" with Sonny Rollins as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKx82FEyjfE 

Although it sounds similar to some other songs, this is "Hackensack":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3NKHCkwKjc

"Friday the 13th" also features Monk and Rollins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9xGJvW13c

I'll finish with their version of "The Way You Look Tonight":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0fPYzyB2AQ