Thelonious Sphere Monk

[Lowbacca]

I like vocal jazz but free/improvised music really bores me. Its an academic genre because it lacks immediacy. Classical too is like that. Maybe its because i know a lot academics/snobs listen to those two genres...

Jazz oftentimes wears the appearance of being free/improvised. Most of the time that's a fallacy, although one steered by the musician(s). And again, it differs from genre to genre. Can't talk about 'Jazz' in general, really.

[Theydon Bois]

I like vocal jazz but free/improvised music really bores me. Its an academic genre because it lacks immediacy.

Improvised music is the most immediate music of all.  It is literally a response to what's happening right now!  Go and see some live jazz by a good ensemble, especially something that involves some group improvisation in a small venue.  Everything from the response of the crowd to the acoustics of the venue to the emotional state of the musicians can have an impact on what happens, and at its best the audience and musicians can enter into a symbiotic relationship with the best soundtrack on the planet.  Much more immediate than a pop concert with a band on autopilot playing identical-night-after-night arrangements of some songs that they wrote years ago!

NB I love the Beach Boys too.

[Loaf]

I've been reading Stanley Crouch's new bio of Charlie Parker and so i've been listening to a lot of Bird recently. The bio only goes up to 1942. I don't have much by Charlie Parker, but i do have Bird & Diz from 1950 which has Monk on piano, and i love this album.

I'm pretty sure it was the only time the 3 of them played together (on record at least), but does anyone know if there are any other recordings with Monk & either Bird or Dizzy?

A bit more digging online and i've found some mention of jam sessions from Minton's Playhouse that have allegedly Parker and Monk, but i can't find how to hear them.

On a related note, i did find some Charlie Christian & thelonious Monk recordings from Minton's 1941. Some of Charlie Christian's stuff is excellent. I have a couple of CDs of him with Benny Goodman, but he's very much hidden. I had no idea he was this good.

[the captain]

There are Diz big band recordings from the 40s with Monk on piano, though not in any kind of featured role. I reference them somewhere in this thread--'Round Midnight, I think--so you can check there for the title. That's what comes to my mind as another example