#4 "evonce" for johnny metcalfe this is not a monk tune either, but he probably named it— like, evonce, baby, you dig? —oak park, mi may 30, 1984

#10 "introspection" ("playhouse") for bob "righteous" rudnick i remind my mother of all the men she couldn't stand: the unknown man who molested her as a girl— her brother lyle, the playboy exgangster ex-con— my father jack who left her at 60 for a younger woman— but it's exactly the same way for me: everything i hate in women always reminds me of my mother —kalamazoo, mi december 6, 1984

#12 "monk's mood" ("why do you evade the facts?") for melba boyd & sadiq muhammad what would piss you off if you were monk but the superficial gesture, the appropriation of the formal weirdness without the content or any intent to keep the code of manly conduct, that what one says & what one does must be one & the same or either bullshit reigns & walks & talks like a man, but no man is there to be found in the action, like hats & beards & funny names, or dreadlocks & canes, the constant iteration of the sainted litany of the great masters as a form of intimidation—the pointed finger, the crooked tongue, the phony shit that monk despised & not the word made act, no pose but for real, no crooked intention or weird overlay, like this cat is a chump, let's set him up, we can get the money out the bank without him knowing about it & not pay the other musicians for the concert & blame it on him, that they never got paid & put some crow jim shit in the game too, like it's about color or anything else but sincerity of expression, depth of soul, intelligence, it's not about race it's about culture, motherfucker, like what you learn from constant exposure to what people be doing, it is learned or acquired, from birth on or from when you be born into it, like the way the music can be studied, & the life & the code of behavior can get in to the sound, like monk & james p. johnson, willie "the lion" smith, the cats in his neighborhood & in harlem where monk was well known the piano players hung out together, they bought each other drinks & meals, or a place to stay, but they took care of e ach other with no hand in the other cat's pocket, no knife in the back, no phony shuck & jive, twisted, super hip sneer on they jibs, straight-ahead cats with the ethics that made them for real men of music we worship & study long after they have passed from this sphere —detroit august 1 /september 15 /december 18 -23 , 1985/ july 7 , 1989 edit for steve gebhardt wvxu-fm, cincinnati may 14, 1991

#20 "i mean you" for penny it's not just a case of wanting to be in love as if it didn't matter just who you are or the particularities, like the way you make my blood race, the certain taste of your skin, or just how soulful you are in every way, & how deeply & completely you understand me in all the nutty complexity of my being—it's your intelligence, your exquisite taste in music, & the warmth of you i want, baby, the warmth of you i want like i've never wanted anyone else —detroit september 18, 1984

#19 "epistrophy" for roy brooks there is no such world as that which exists in books, or such con tractions & expansions as we may devise for ourselves, out of the endless chaos of real life, nothing is so ordered as we would make it, mere trophies of epistemology brought back from the battle to make sense out of something which makes no sense whatsoever except what registration of feeling & experience we can make in song & keep singing it like monk all life long —new orleans march 4, 1984/ detroit may 24, 1984