Concerts Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Thelonious Monk at Town Hall in NYC

One night in late February 1959, jazz legend Thelonious Monk played an historic concert at The Town Hall in New York City. The event marked the first time that a big band orchestra played Monk's music.

Contemporary jazz artists Charles Tolliver and pianist Jason Moran will celebrate the 50th anniversary of this landmark moment in jazz history with two concerts on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. and Friday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. at The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street in New York City. The concerts are produced by Duke Performances and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. Tickets and more information are available here: http://www.monkattownhall.org/.

Tolliver and his tentet will play newly minted, note-for-note arrangements of the 1959 show at the concert "Monk at Town Hall, 1959: Reviving a Landmark" on Feb. 26. Moran and his octet will present a newly commissioned, mixed media concert titled "In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall 1959" on Feb. 27 that incorporates new recordings and images captured by legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith during Monk's rehearsals and arranging sessions.

WNYC Radio (93.9 FM and wnyc.org), will broadcast the Tolliver concert on Feb. 26, anchored by "Evening Music" host Terrance McKnight, and will tape the Moran concert on Feb. 27 for later broadcast.

Both concerts were commissioned by Duke Performances in 2007 as part of "Following Monk," a six-week, 18-event Duke-based festival celebrating the 90th anniversary of the birth of Monk, a North Carolina native. The Town Hall celebration also grew out of the ongoing Jazz Loft Project at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies.