5. Thelonious MonkUgly Beauty

I love Thelonious Monk so much! He was on the cover of Time magazine when I was little, and I loved his unique, angular, discordant songwriting and playing. I heard the title ‘Ugly Beauty’, and just loved that idea. When I directed this short film, Little Surprises, my good friend Bennie Wallace, a great saxophone player, scored it. He said, "I’m going to write something for you like Monk’s ‘Ugly Beauty’.” And he did, and I love it as much as I love Thelonious Monk’s original.