I know some of you folks were disturbed by the fact that Guy said that Mr Bob didn't talk to any members of Mark's band during the tour, so I thought I might pass this on to you. I caught just a brief part of a documentary about Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist, on TV this morning. I shall have to look out for a re-run in order to catch the whole thing, so I hope I've picked this up correctly.
One musician said he joined the group for a six-week run and Monk didn't speak to him until the very last day! Soon after, he was called to a Monk recording seesion and, again, Monk didn't speak to him until the very end, when he made sure the musician was being paid. The musician suddenly realised that, as far as Monk was concerned, he was one of his musicians now. Monk then asked, "Do you have a passport?. The musician said not. Monk replied, "We leave for Europe on Friday". This was a Monday. Another musician, around at Monk's house, asked him questions for about an hour but Monk never replied. The musician stayed while all Monk did was play the piano for hours. I guess genius works in unusual ways.
I should add that I saw Monk live in March 1965 and it was one of those concerts where you just got sucked into the music, so that it was like there was just you and him in the hall and no one else. Mesmerising!
His real name was Thelonious Sphere Monk, by the way. That really is some moniker!