Thelonious Sphere Monk: there's not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name.

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.

Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.

The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.

I like people not being able to be pigeon-holed.

His name, even, is part of the marketing scheme, I mean, Thelonious Sphere Monk - how can you think of a better name to fit his style of playing?

I can imagine an utter hatred for the jazz avant-garde.