Thelonious Monk - Modernist Pioneer

Join to commemorate the centenary of the birth of iconic jazz composer Thelonious Monk in an evening of live performance and an illustrated lecture that will bring a new dimension to classic tunes.

Epitomising artistic originality, candid eccentricity and indifference to conventional rules of performance, Thelonious Monk emerged in the 1940s as one of the high priests of bebop.

Regarded as one of the most enigmatic and unusual jazz composers, Monk, whose unique improvisational style, with rigorously structured and surreal themes, created some of the most innovative and unsentimentally beautiful music in the history of jazz.

The event will feature performances by Peter Edwards on solo piano and Filomena Campus on vocals, followed by a discussion led by Errol Francis, artistic director of Culture&. Analysis, prose poetry and biographical commentary will be interspersed with interviews and conversation with the performers.

Thelonious Monk: Modernist Pioneer is a trailer to the Monk Misterioso: A Journey into the Silence of Thelonious Monk by Theatralia at the London Jazz festival at Kings Place on 18 November.