05 Sep 2016
John Beasley presents MONK'estra Vol. 1
There is so much hep stuff happening in these new big band arrangements of tunes by Thelonious Monk that I was transported to another realm, one where the car seems capable of driving itself.
2017 marks the centennial of Thelonious Monk’s birthday. The Brussels Jazz Orchestra will celebrate this with MONK’estra, a smashing big band project that captures the spirit of Thelonious Monk’s singular music with fresh arrangements by John Beasley. Off-beat melodies and humor, strange beauty and unbounded swing with New Orleans spirit, hip-hop, Afro-Cuban rhythms and atmospheric colors.
MONK’estra is conducted by GRAMMY® Award-nominee John Beasley. MONK’estra re-imagines Thelonious Monk’s compositions with an eye to the future; a killer contemporary big band that pays loving tribute to the master’s music while infusing it with contemporary harmonies, unstoppable grooves, and a contagious sense of fun.
Note: John Beasley released the CD 'MONK'estra Vol.1' in August 2016. Volume 2 was released in september 2017. You can read some reviews below on this page. The orchestra playing on the CD is not the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, but Beasley's own big band.
John BeasleyBrussels Jazz Orchestra, John Beasley
Previous dates
From the press
05 Sep 2016
John Beasley: Monkestra Vol 1 review – Thelonious Monk boldly reimagined
He lifts Monk’s melodies away from their native idiom of bebop and replants them in the musically cosmopolitan 21st century (...) Monk’s themes emerge as strong as ever.
05 Sep 2016
John Beasley: Presents MONK’estra Vol. 1
Beasley does some real clever work on these vintage pieces (...) The entire album just bubbles over with joy, adding new colors and styles as fresh as the hats on Thelonious Monk’s head.
16 Jun 2016
MONK'estra
Some of the most mesmerizing big band music of recent memory (Don Heckman)