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starring: Thelonious Monk, Nica De Koenigswarter, Barry Harris, Bob Jones (IV), Johnny Griffindirected by: Charlotte Zwerin
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301810616
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6301810619
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: January 30, 2001
Running Time: 89 minutes
Sales Rank: 23237
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: July 01, 1991
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
This exemplary documentary about seminal jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk reaps the benefits of multiple blessings, including the skilled editorial hand of director Charlotte Zwerin and the patronage of executive producer (and erstwhile jazz pianist) Clint Eastwood. Most vital is the use of extensive 1968 footage, shot by Michael and Christian Blackwood, documenting the sometimes moody, sometimes puckish Monk in the studio, on tour, and off stage, which on its own would make this essential jazz viewing.
In post-World War II America, few cultural upheavals matched bebop for sheer exhilaration. Spawned by jazz musicians whose paydays typically came with larger swing ensembles, bop was as much bastard as stepchild, refining the technical ambitions of its parent while breaking free of swing's formalism to play fast and loose with harmony, melody, and tempo. That mercurial spirit made heroes of high-flying, technically flamboyant players like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. Monk, by contrast, was as distinctive for his silences, crafting often skeletal melodies distinguished by unexpected, skewed harmonies. At one point dubbed the 'high priest of bebop,' he was more Zen archer, threading notes, warping chord structure, or stabbing 'wrong' keys with a seeming looseness that in hindsight sounds as precise as haiku.
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser provides an intelligent portrait of this often reclusive, sometimes difficult artist, including telling glimpses of his volatility. A stormy studio session with Teo Macero, then Columbia Records' preeminent jazz producer, speaks volumes about Monk's very private approach to his muse. Perceptive interviews and glimpses of Monk's sunnier moments provide added depth, yet the real triumph is the generous catalog of classic Monk songs captured on camera. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Monk
Done with class, Clint has done it again. It even has spot shot of Rasham Rollin Kirk. Nice Documentary
Rating:  - Portrait of an Artist
I don't think the filmmakers who shot this footage set out to make this film. I think they set out to make another film, but they made this one for better or worse. Thelonious Monk's "eccentricities" were well known to his fans, but this film shows more than just eccentric behavior.
In the vein of eccentric behavior, a friend of mine told me about seeing Thelonious Monk live at Shelly's Manne Hole in Hollywood back in the late 1960's. It was a rare appearance for Monk in L.A. ... Read More
Rating:  - A Decent Documentary About Monk
"Straight, No Chaser" is a decent documentary, but what it fails to do is talk about the music and even less about the history of Monk. Yeah, it has rare performances never before seen, but this doesn't constitute a good film. It's only icing for the cake, but there's not a cake here. I felt it was a rather empty look into his history. I mean everybody who listens and are fans of Monk know where he was born at and how he started playing at a place called Minton's where he met and played with Dizzy ... Read More
Rating: - Thelonious Monk - Straight no Chaser
For all Jazz aficionado this should be part of their library. To understand one of the most complex minds from Jazz Music.
Rating: - Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
It's hard to imagine a more fitting tribute to the late, great Monk, an innovative stylist who penned "Round Midnight" and exerted a tremendous influence on Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, and others. That's largely due to the copious rare footage of Monk, whose bizarre antics we witness on the road and in recording studios. His mumbling musings and anxious tics leave the impression of a mentally unstable man, and it is likely that his tempestuous nature was due to manic depression. ... Read More
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