Laurent de Wilde : “Monkologue” & “Monkophile”

Laurent de Wilde tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Thelonious “Sphere” Monk, but were afraid to ask.

“Monkologue “and Monkophile”, the pianist/composer/conductor/writer/radio host/producer/teacher and now storyteller returns in “Monk – Quand un jazzman raconte un génie” (when a jazzman tells the story of a Genius (Frémeaux & Associés) on the extraordinary career of one of the most enigmatic – musically and personally speaking – musicians and jazz geniuses of the 20th century.

In the course of over seven and a half hours of listening (in MP3 format) and two CDs – and if you’ve been paying close attention! – you’ll find out all you need to know about this extraordinary and unusual personality, a much-protected icon of the benefactress and patroness Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter (née Rotschild) in the 1950s/60s.

From one end to the other of thirteen chapters, Laurent de Wilde, multi-awarded for his long and brilliant career, which began in New York after studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (philosophy section) and author of two books, including one on T. Monk (1996), retraces the complex personal and musical career of an iconoclastic legend of one of the richest periods of jazz, the bop years, in a style that is as original as it is recognizable.

©Photo Sylvain Gripoix

Using cult compositions – some of which have become jazz standards, such as “‘Round Midnight”, “Blue Monk”, “Epistrophy”, “Straight No Chaser” and “Well, You Needn’t” – and a wealth of anecdotes, the pianist explores the rich and unique existence of a myth far from being merely eccentric, with brio, rigor, devotion and veneration, coupled with an absolute sense of narrative.