EVERYONE’S A WINNER AT MONK COMPETITION
By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer

Washington Post
Monday, September 18, 2006; Page C01

But Pianist Hamasyan Takes Top Prize

For a music that usually flies beneath the radar of public notice,
jazz has had some rare visibility in Washington this past week,
and even a touch of glamour.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute
of Jazz, festivities began Thursday with a White House celebration
of America’s indigenous musical art that included an East Room
performance taped for PBS. It even had President Bush bobbing his
head to spirited versions of "Kansas City" and "It Don’t Mean a Thing
(If It Ain’t Got That Swing)."

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On Saturday, 12 pianists faced off in the semifinals of the annual
Monk competition at the National Museum of American History’s Baird
Auditorium. And last night at a sold-out Eisenhower Theater at the
Kennedy Center, three finalists competed for $35,000 in scholarships
and the exposure that goes with winning what has become, without
question, the most prestigious jazz competition in the world.

The annual contest, which rotates from one instrument to another each
year, has launched the careers of such young jazz stars as Joshua
Redman, Jane Monheit, Jacky Terrasson, Lisa Henry and Gretchen Parlato,
all of whom performed before and after last night’s competition.

There was other star power on hand as well, from presenters Quincy
Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Billy Dee Williams. But amid the celebratory
back-patting, there was a larger lesson to be learned than just
having a jazzy good time. The Monk Institute has a genuinely global
educational mission, which was embodied in this year’s 12 piano
semifinalists — who hailed from different countries. The annual
composition prize went to a Hungarian, Kalman Olah.

"The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion,"
said Thelonious Monk Jr., who helped found the Washington-based
institute in 1986 and is its board chairman. "That’s what America is
about. The music reflects that."

For Monk, the institute is a way of "taking care of my father’s
legacy."

His father, of course, was one of the guiding spirits of modern jazz,
a fiercely original composer and pianist who didn’t have megawatt jazz
competitions or college jazz programs to advance his career. Instead,
he came of age when jazz knowledge was passed from hand to hand and,
sometimes, from father to son.

"That music was part of my DNA," said Thelonious Jr., 56, in a
pre-competition interview. After playing drums with his father in
the 1970s, the younger Monk had a career in R&B and rock music before
putting down his sticks in the mid-1980s.

Somewhat to his surprise, after founding the institute, he began to
reconnect with his jazz past, became absorbed in his father’s music
and formed a sizzling sextet that is one of the premier hard-bop
groups in jazz today.

He also settled into a role as the loquacious frontman for the Monk
Institute.

"I realized I could talk about this music," he said, "because my
father had taken me everywhere and because he was like the oracle of
Delphi. I said, man, that’s a little gift. And gift is only a gift
if you use it."

In 20 years, the Monk Institute has grown into a $5 million entity
that, against all odds, has put jazz into elementary and high school
curricula across the country. It sponsors a two-year fellowship
program for young musicians at the University of Southern California.

And, with his powers of persuasion, the younger Monk has helped bring
such distinguished musicians as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Wayne
Shorter — all of whom performed at the White House and at last night’s
post-competition Kennedy Center jam — to schools from Miami to Alaska,
and overseas from Egypt to Vietnam.

"We’ve been very instrumental in changing the paradigm in jazz
education," Monk says. "The Monk Institute is about re-creating that
interface between the older musician and the younger musician."

Which brings us back to last night’s slickly produced finale,
underwritten by General Motors and Northrop Grumman. With Hancock,
Andrew Hill, Danilo Perez, Renee Rosnes, Billy Taylor and Randy Weston
judging the piano competition, the three young finalists added their
voices to a century-old jazz tradition.

The clear audience favorite was a Dutch-born Californian, Gerald
Clayton, who deftly combined the second movement of Beethoven’s
"Pathetique" Sonata with John Lewis’s "Django."

But the judges were more impressed with Armenian-born Tigran Hamasyan,
who offered rhythmically dynamic readings of Ray Noble’s "Cherokee"
and Miles Davis’s "Solar" to take the top prize of $20,000. Clayton
won second place, and American Aaron Parks came in third.

Whether any of these pianists develops into a star remains to be
seen. But after 20 years of career-making competitions, the Monk
Institute can rightfully lay claim to being biggest buzzmaker in the
jazz world.