MISTERIOSO - A JOURNEY INTO THE SILENCE OF THELONIOUS MONK To 8 November.
London.
MISTERIOSO – A journey into the silence of Thelonious Monk.
by Stefano Benni monologues by David Walter Hall.
Riverside Studios Crisp Road HammersmithW6 9RL to 8 November 2009.
Wed – Sun 8pm.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.
TICKETS: 0208 237 1111.
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
Review: Geoff Ambler 23 October.
Live Jazz, jamming and the silence of Monk.
I’ll come clean early on - I am a jazz agnostic. I don't believe this niche style is truly knowable and rarely find it enjoyable, specifically the form I now know to be Bebop, a faster, complex, erratic style that negotiates the fine line between nursery school, raucous percussion and chaotic jamming, and which occasionally shifts imperceptiblyinto something cool, rhythmic and quite beautiful. Few get it right; fortunately the few were in Hammersmith tonight, by the Riverside.
Thelonious Monk, a founder and master of this style, struggled to establish his music during the Fifties and Sixties through the segregation and unrest that hounded the lives of black Americans. An early minor possession charge left him without a performer’s licence, leaving him unable to work in NY, the city he loved, for six years. Here he's is befriended by the improbably monikered Pannonica ‘Nica’ Rothschild, who becomes his patron and friend for the rest of his life and narrates his story through actress Tamsin Shasha.
Nica appears in between the music dancing in the midst of the musicians and tells of her time with Monk. These narratives are enlivened by Shasha's energy, but are too brief to give more than a brief insight into Monk, his inspiration, his music and the silence he descended into, a silence that interrupted and ended a career filled with innovative, sublime sounds.
Without a doubt, even taking into account Shasha’s spectacular gravity-defying danc,e hanging between silk sheets high above the stage, Misterioso is as much about the musicians and their live music as the man, Monk. Featuring various guest musicians throughout the run, such as Toni Kofi on sax and Orphy Robinson on Vibraphone, (a serious Xylophone with an incredible jazzy sound) they conjure unexpected delights out of the seeming chaos that is Bebop.
Thelonious Monk undoubtedly created some fine, ageless music and suffered for his art, leaving him withdrawn. Misterioso never quite illuminates why this happened, remaining more a jazz gig with occasional theatre. However, it does introduce another interesting character in Pannonica, Jazz Baroness and the friend who looked after Monk during his final silent years.
Pannonica: Tamsin Shasha.
Billie Holiday and Nellie Monk: Christina Oshunniyi.
Voice of Thelonious Monk: Cleveland Watkiss.
Musicans:
Vocals: Filomena Campus.
Piano: Pat Thomas.
Double Bass: David Leahy.
Drums: Winston Clifford.
Sax: Toni Kofi.
Vibes: Orphy Robinson.
Director: Filomena Campus.
Projected Artwork: SDNA.
2009-10-25 19:06:16