Books by Yusef Komunyakaa

I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head / Dien Cai Dau / Magic City / Neon Vernacular / Toys in a Field

Thieves of Paradise / Talking Dirty to the Gods  /  Pleasure Dome /  Jazz Poetry Anthology  /  The Second Set  /  Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy

Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews, and Commentaries

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Thelonious Monk CDs

Monk's Dream / Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane / Brilliant Corners / Straight No Chaser

Essential Thelonious Monk  /  Best of the Blue Note Years / Live at the Five Spot / Monk Alone

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"Thelonious Monk, first of the many standout piano stylists of the era, is generally recognized as belonging with [Dizzy] Gillespie and [Charlie] Parker in a Big Three of bop innovators. Like Dizzy, 'T' is famous for real or fanciful eccentricities. He is also noted as the composer of original (and quite lyrical) melodies, in contrast to the more unusual practice of building from the chord structure of standard popular songs. Monk, like Bud Powell and many others, first gained prominence through recordings on the Blue Note label--now one of the few survivors among several independent companies who first dared promote this strange new music" (A Pictorial History of Jazz, 1955).

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update 11 August 2008