Band Plays Tribute to Genius of Thelonious Monk at Local Cafe

By Dmitry Kiper

Every other Monday since 1999, Simple Pleasures cafe has hosted Monk's Music Trio, which, according to trio drummer and band leader Chuck Bernstein, is the longest running Thelonious Monk repertoire band in the history of jazz (as indicated by recordings).

"Monk's music demands 100 percent of you. He will bust your ass," Bernstein said. "We have recorded a lot of tunes that (musicians) wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole - because of the difficulty involved," he said.

Monk, one of the greatest jazz pianists of the 20th century, stressed two things, Bernstein said. First, the music "got to swing" (Monk would sometimes step away from the piano to dance when his band was playing); second, the melody is supremely important.

According to Bernstein, instead of using sheet music, Monk taught it instrumentally to his band members, sometimes at live venues. Keeping with the tradition of rehearsing in front of a live audience, Monk's Music Trio often uses Simple Pleasures to break-in new material - which is "the best way to break it in," said Bernstein.

The audience enjoys the music, often without knowing that it is witnessing an ongoing process, the seamlessness of which is made possible by the individual virtuosity and compatibility of the three players.

The group's third and most recent album, "Monk's Bones," features trombonists Roswell Rudd and Max Perkoff (son of pianist and musical director Si Perkoff). Using two trombones for those tracks has never been done before, Bernstein said. And, at the beginning of a track called "Friday the 13th," Bernstein plays a berimbau, an old African instrument that looks like a big bow. The sound is somewhere between Indian sitar music and Mississippi Delta blues.

"It's taken time for me to get my own slant on Monk," said Bernstein, for whom the question is: "How do I keep the essence of Monk and still do what I want to do?"

At its peak, "Monk's Bones" was the 10th most played jazz album on the radio, according to Bernstein. Si Perkoff is the only member of the trio who actually met Monk.

"One of the first memories I have of being with Monk is here in San Francisco (in the early '60s)," Perkoff said.

"He came to one of the after-hours jazz places where I was playing and he was at my house at least once or twice. At my piano, he showed me the correct chords to a couple of his tunes. It was just the two of us," he said.

When Perkoff was hanging out with Monk, Sam Bevan, the trio's bass player, was not born yet.

Bevan is in his 30s. His musical training began at an early age with classical and jazz piano, but he swung his attention toward the bass after attending a reggae concert. Bernstein and Perkoff are both seasoned jazz players in their 60s who still manage to grow as musicians.

Perkoff has studied classical piano since the age of 7 and jazz keyboard harmony since his 20s.

Bernstein sang in a junior choir in his synagogue. He then took up drums as a student at George Washington High School and became immersed in jazz.

Beside Monk, jazz pianists like Bud Powell and Horace Silver have greatly influenced Perkoff. The drummer Shelly Manne was the biggest influence on Bernstein.

As a writer for "Modern Drummer" magazine in the early '80s, Bernstein got a chance to interview his hero. Manne died a week later. In the late '60s, while Bernstein was performing as a rock drummer, he became increasingly influenced by Mitch Mitchell, the drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Bernstein said Monk's piano playing taught him the proper use of space and time. He learned how to use the space between notes instead of trying to fill in every possible crevice - not that Monk didn't sometimes overwhelm the listener with "a mountain of 16th notes."

In the mid-'80s, Bernstein began to develop a deeper fascination with Monk after watching Perkoff play Monk's music at Dizzy's, a Geary Boulevard bar.

"He has Monk ingrained in his soul," Bernstein said of Perkoff.

Bernstein said he eventually began to wonder: "What would it be like to play a whole set of Monk?"

After more than a decade since their initial meeting, Bernstein approached Perkoff about making a trio dedicated to Monk's music. That was seven years ago.

One day at Simple Pleasures, somebody accidentally spilled a drink on the piano, making it unplayable. Perkoff had to put up with a poor substitute for a few months until Bernstein's mother bought a better one.

"Monk's music communicates the high purpose of total honesty and bravery to express yourself, regardless of the odds," Perkoff said.

"It's all about the music," Bernstein said.

Monk's Music Trio performs free of charge at Simple Pleasures, located on Balboa Street between 35th and 36th avenues, every other Monday after 8:30 p.m. The trio's CDs are available at cdbaby.com and at performances.