Monk Schools Trane
There was a time, back in 1957, for about a year, when John Coltrane played regularly with Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot in New York. Hard to say if Monk ever learned anything from Coltrane. (When asked once who influenced his playing, Monk replied, “Well... me!”) But if this little story is true—and I trust it is, though I can’t find any documentation of it, nor do remember where I heard it—Coltrane learned from Monk.

Here’s the story, as I recall it.

At the end of a set one night, Coltrane had a question for the pianist/leader: “On that last tune, in the 14th bar, isn’t that supposed to be a G-minor {or whatever}?”

Monk: “Yeah.”

Coltrane: “But you didn’t play that. You just played the G and the D and left out the B-flat.” {The G-minor chord is G, B-flat, D.}

“I didn't need to play the B-flat”

“Why not?”

“Because you know it’s in there.”

—Terry MacDonald