“The film is full of fascinations.” (The New Yorker)

When producer Bruce Ricker found a trove of 1967–68 footage of pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his band “just sitting there like the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz,” he knew this movie had to be made. With scenes of the brilliant and eccentric “high priest of bebop” on tour, in the studio, backstage, and in performance, this compelling documentary gives us a close-up look at Monk and the people around him who learned to cope with his increasingly erratic behavior. (First screened, Jazz Sessions 2011)