Beste Fred
You wrote in your last letter : "Although we’ve never met, we have been now pen pals for four years, and now you invite me to France. It’s funny because I have already had the very same offer from somebody in Canada, and when in Japan I was hosted by a Monk fan too! All these people getting in touch just thanks to him, no doubt when he looks down at us from Heaven, I guess he must be laughing his head off!"

You're right Fred, sure he is laughing, but on the other hand, if Heaven does exist, God has to exist too (let's be logical!) and I would bet God is a magician AND a musician as well (otherwise, nothing would have any sense) Maybe is he also somewhat of a choregraph?

A lot of people have written about Monk, but there is one thing nobody has never spoken about : Monk’s arrival in Heaven. Of course, I wasn’t there, but as I’m a magician myself, I can imagine how the whole thing happened. You’ve got five minutes, Fred? I’ll tell you :

No doubt it was "Round about 4 or 5 a.m." during the small hours when everyone is hoping the sun will rise once again, without being really sure; the bloody time when the bosses of all jazz clubs have to throw out the last musicians who never really want to go back home. Once outside Monk was maybe a little drunk, as usual, and was looking for the last open place to have one last Bourbon. Suddenly, he found himself just in front of a club he had never heard about before. He knockned at the door, and presently, somebody opened :

Saint Peter, who, as every club doorman in the world, has to be fluent in english shouted at him :
- Come on, boy, here, we’re open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
Very surprised, Monk went in.

Saint Peter, who, like a doorman of every private club, owns a big book bearing the name of each member, asked Monk WHO he was. And as usual, Monk mumbled something like :
- Humph... mlkjdcjmonklkjsdkjniousphere.
And Peter was unable to find such a name in his book. Very embarrassed, he tought it would be better to call the Big Boss. As soon as God learned that Monk had arrived, he came down by the grand stairs to greet him.

And when God takes the time to come and greet a newcomer in person this really means something : The guy who is waiting was an expert at his job. Sometimes it can be someone who was right against the rest of the world, andnever failed in the way he had chosen. Most often, he is an Artist, with big "A".

But God is not only what he is supposed to be, he has also a very big memory (something lije 200 giga octets, or maybe more, according to Bill Gates…) and as a lot of managers of the biggest World Companies, he has to speak English, but does so with a rather rough accent, since his native-tongue is Jewish! However, he remembered immediately :
- Tell me son... didn’t you begin playing Gospels on the wheezy harmoniums of black churches?
- Bye-Ya, muttered Monk, but it was a long time ago, and to be honest, maybe more than 50 years have passed since I last set foot into a church… You know, the only thing I’m still believing in now is Music.
- But son, I AM Music, and your name is MONK, don’t worry, you’re part of the family.

And while the angel choir began the well known "For he’s a jolly good fellow", God thought : "By-Myself, we do have here an organ in working order that nobody uses anymore, this guy could do for the job!" And immediately he asked Monk :
- Could you play for us?
- This is the only thing I can do! But first, I feel a little bit thirsty… Any whisky around here?
- Sure son!

And God, who is really god magician (didn’t he coached Copperfield?), made a glass full of whisky appear!
- My God! You’ve poured four in one! but I’ll worry later, I’ll drink it straight no chaser, and Monk soon discovered that no matter how much he drank, the glass remained full. And it gave him the first idea of what the Heaven could be like, for those people who, very often without knowing it have done a lot for the rest of the world. This was the very moment God chose to bring him to the big organ.

It was a huge one with a lot of voices. Monk, who has only played on harmoniums, found there were too many of them to play it.
- Don’t you have a regular grand piano, he asked?
And God was wondering WHERE he could find a grand piano in Heaven, and to save time, snapped his fingers, and made a wonderful one appear. And as God has to be perfect in everything, the piano was perfect too : Deep black like Monk, and tuned to the A 440.

No sooner had Monk began to play that he stopped right away.
- Dat’s bullshit, he muttered, I can’t play this one : During all these years when I was playing for money, they never gave me such a piano. No sorry, I do regret, it just isn’t possible!
- If you wanna get Something Else, you'd better Ask Me Now, before I leave, God replied.
- Give me a GENUINE piano, insisted Monk.

And God, who is a perfection and found the piano perfect, just couldn’t imagine WHAT the hell Monk would have liked! Then, just like the previous times when he had had a problem about jazz, he called Rudy Van Gelder to the rescue! And as usual, Rudy knew what to do : he sent for a "piano-out-of-tuner", the best one available : The one who has been in charge at Riverside Records for so many years : a pro! and in a jiffy, the piano was ready! Then Monk sat down again, said :
- ùmlkd gmj dfgjand
And began to play the first bases of Something in Blue.

Needless to say, God was flabbergasted! You could have knocked him down with one of this angels’ feathers!

God is harmony, of course, but such chords! - so deep, so beautiful, their wrenching so right : chords which only own their existence to those that precede and follow. Well, God Himself had never heard anything quite like that before! And, in spite of Himself, he couldn’t help thinking of another of his guests, who was arrived in rather poor shape, and whom he had had to transplant a new liver and a new ear right away - a painter whose yellows existed only when they were next to his heavenly blues. A guy by the name of Van Gogh.
The way these two understood things was the same, it was just another medium. "I’ll have to introduced them to each other", He tought.

But He was already spellbound, and sat on the floor, listening attentively. And the more Monk played, the more God thought :
- This is incredible, I can’t believe it!
And folks, when God himself doesn’t believe anymore, we all know trouble isn’t far! Pretty soon, he asked :
- Son, do you give lessons?
- Only to Bud Powell!
- Listen, son, I have tried to be nice with you so far, but now, you’re beginning togetup my nose. Keep your whims for the Barroness of Koenigswarter, because in less than no time, I can vanish your self-filling glass! So listen : I’ll do my best : I bet you’ll be surprised to see how fast I learn…

Then, to keep his glass, Monk allowed God to sit on his left side, and respectfully, let him play the chords. Meanwhile, he was quite aware of and amazed at the care with which God was watching his right hand…
Two weeks later, God was able to play alone, and Monk, tongue in cheek, let him play more and more often, listening to him and thinking : Not bad for an amateur!

Then, God began to write a brand new repertoire for Heaven : every old hymn was replaced by God’s new hits : Between God and the big blue sea, Blue God, God is back in town, I surrender God, God’s dream, God’s Monk, Monk’s God etc… And the one in trouble now is no other than Orin GOODNEWS : as you know, he writes the comments printed on the back cover of each L.P. He cannot longer say what he thinks : he just doesn’t dare : he’s got the sad feeling that most of the numbers he wassupposed to comment were completely cribbed from you-know-who…

But God is so happy, He spends each day he makes sitting at the piano, and this is where the main problem comes from : He doesn’t take the time to manage and protect the world he has created : Watch the news on TV, you’ll see what I mean… Here, below, we’re quite a few to think that, for a better world, it is time God left the grand Piano and gave it back to Monk to resume His job! Otherwise, we’ll have to worry no end!

Fred, I told you all these things, because I know you can keep a secret: very few people know what’s actually happening, and should it comes to the ear of the public, nobody could say what would come to the world! Here we can only wait and hope for things to be better in a near future!

Chordially!
Jean.
____________
© Jean Merlin

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