John Beasley's MONK'estra & The Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Ensemble

It’s a DOUBLE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION for Thelonious Monk and John Beasley featuring John's MONK'estra and The TMIJ.

“Beasley has taken all the Monk compositions, rendered them new without reducing their Monkishness one iota. The result is thrilling! — State of the art jazz that never gets bogged down by art…”  —Brick Wahl, International Review of Music

“Beasley’s arrangements… expanding and elaborating on the Monk originals… capture Monk’s unique quirkiness, his offbeat accents, punchy dissonances and surprisingly soaring melodies…with stunningly atmospheric ensemble textures. John’s extraordinary orchestrating abilities, combined with superb individual soloing from virtually every musician, result in a definitive display of what a Big, Modern Jazz Band can be!” —JazzTimes

. . . . . . . . .

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz class of 2016

Named for pianist/composer Thelonious Monk, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is dedicated to nurturing and acknowledging musical excellence. Since the fall of 2012 it has been housed at UCLA as part of the Herb Alpert School of Music.  

The class of 2016: Alex Boneham -bass, Christian Euman -drums, Michael Mayo -vocals, Ido Meshulam -trombone, David Otis -alto saxophone, Daniel Rotem -tenor saxophone, Carmen Staaf -piano