COMING up at Cafe Oto, Dalston, east London this week (20-22 January) are three nights celebrating the music of the great pianist/composer Thelonious Monk. Playing his works are a quintet led by two powerful Monk enthusiasts: veteran virtuoso pianist Pat Thomas and the young Birmingham-born alto saxophonist Xhosa Cole, whose latest record is his contemporary tribute album to Monk: On a Modern Genius: Vol. 1.

Monk had a more than complex life. Born in North Carolina — Jim Crow country — in 1917, he grew up in New York, started on piano at five and was much influenced by the Harlem stride pianists, particularly James P Johnson, who was his neighbour. Gradually recognised as an eccentric and original musical genius, he developed a uniquely angular and melodic jazz approach which found its brilliant expression in his 1956 album Brilliant Corners and his quartets with saxophonists John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin and Charlie Rouse.

Monk found intense racism in northern cities too, especially in Baltimore, where the police battered his magically musical hands against his car’s driving wheel with their nightsticks. No wonder he called one of his most compelling tunes “Evidence,” with its alternative title “Justice” — something he always sought with his music.

So come and hear his sounds some 44 years after his passing, played by a quintet that also includes septuagenarian Ohio drummer Jeff Williams, young Bedfordshire bassist Josh Vadiveloo and tenor saxophonist Tom Challenger.

Xhosa says of Monk: “Through his recordings and studying his writing I’ve learnt so much about the infrastructure that holds melody and groove together, and through his improvising I’m learning about the intersection of authenticity, identity and expression.”

Don’t miss it!

Xhosa Cole presents Freemonk will run at Cafe Oto, January 20-22. For tickets and informations see: cafeoto.co.uk