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Like the practitioners of other great improvisational genres such as Hindustani raga, jazz masters establish their own musical voice within a known musical rhetoric. An icon of the genre, Thelonious Monk made music both exemplary of and different from all other jazz. Using detailed transcription and analysis, this study examines one of his solo performances of the 1940s standard tune I Should Care, first by explaining the basics of jazz harmony, and then by viewing Monk’s approach alongside those of two rather more conventional pianist peers, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. The analysis expands to include Monk’s pianistic style, rhythm, and sense of time, concluding with assessment of his iconoclastic but distinguished jazz legacy, and his role as a model creative musician beyond genre.

Oscar Peterson was obviously indebted to the Nat Cole of the 1940s (when Cole was a jazz pianist) and to Art Tatum. Others may feel that Peterson's sophistication and class allowed him to fill out ideas that Cole suggested. Martial Solal was one of the best jazz pianists in the world who played in France. He was born in Algiers and started playing jazz in 1940. George Shearing was one of the musicians who popularized modern jazz to a mainstream success. Ahmad Jamal, a pianist, was a success: he had several selling LP's, an enormous following, and several direct imitators.

In this chapter, Clark describes his association with Norman Granz. Norman was one of the most important people in the world of jazz. While Clark was with Duke Ellington's band, Norman Granz booked gigs for them whenever the orchestra was off for a while. Norman was also one of Duke's great jazz associates, and from time to time he traveled with the orchestra band. He even pushed Duke to overcome his fear of flying. Clark's association with Norman, Oscar Peterson, and Ray Brown, all of who were great musicians, was like a family to him and it made him overcome his separation from his wife, brothers, and sisters. It was during one of the gigs with Norman that Clark met Count Basie again and they revived their relationship.

Audiovisual recordings of jazz performance provide opportunities to analyze musicians’ performances in detail. Techniques such as close-up, freeze frame, and rewind allow viewers to study musicians’ techniques and gestural languages at a level of detail that is unavailable in live performance. Thus, televised performances provide a specific viewing experience distinct from that of live performance with which it is often compared—usually to the detriment of television. Employing concepts of viewer intimacy, gratification, and empathy adopted from television and communication studies, this chapter correlates jazz performance, its mediatization, and the viewer’s experience, coupling gesture and empathy at the performance’s core and arguing that what singles out the experience of watching jazz performance on the small screen is the illusion of intimacy and direct presence that the medium cultivates. These ideas are illustrated through detailed analyses of televised performances by the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Dexter Gordon Quartet.