On the Jewish holiday ofShavuot, Bay Area guitarist and composer John Schott plans to lead an all-star group of musicians through a continuouseight-hour interpretationof jazz pianist Thelonious Monk’s best-known composition, “ ‘Round Midnight.”
The concert is set for June 4 at Light Rail Studios in San Francisco and will be streamed online as the centerpiece of an event hosted byReboot,a nonprofit organization that reimagines Jewish thought and traditions through arts and culture.
The choice of “ ‘Round Midnight” was inspired by “multiple correlations,” according to Schott.
“Midnight, and its precise determination, has deep significance in Jewish scripture; by tracing the word midnight through Jewish writings, you can learn a lot about rabbinic thought,” he explained. “There is a celebrated recording of Monk practicing ” ’Round Midnight” for 25 minutes, putting it under a microscope, so to speak, even though he had already played it thousands of times. The message is: There’s always more to discover.”
David Katznelson, CEO of Reboot, said the idea of building the evening around that song was even more straightforward: “It’s one of the greatest musical pieces of our time.”
On Shavuot, religious Jews traditionally stay up all night studying holy texts. For this performance, more than a dozen musicians are expected to bring a similar approach to Monk’s jazz standard, treating it“as an overnight study session” as they riff on the original compositions from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
Each of the song’s 48 measures, which typically take a couple of seconds to perform, will be stretched to 10 minutes in length to fill out the marathon performance.
“John has a notebook and created a page for every 20 minutes of work he’s doing,” Katznelson said. “It includes the notation from ‘ ’Round Midnight’ plus all these quotes around it.”
Schott added, “The 48 measures of the piece are laid out over 24 pages, surrounded by pictures, musical analyses, and passages from the Torah and Talmud. Some pages are pretty dense, others spare. I sense that I could keep layering on this ‘commentary’ for a long time because ideas and music both have a tendency to proliferate.”
Each section of the song “will be treated as an object for contemplation and commentary,” according to the event description.
“Modern life is dominated by ringtones and tweets,” Schott said. “I’m searching for the kind of time experience you’d have listening to an ancient bard of epic oral poetry, spinning ‘The Iliad’ or the ‘Mahabharata’ or the Book of Lamentations all night.”
The Grammy-nominated Schott is known for his work as a member of the Bay Area jazz improv ensemble T.J. Kirk with Charlie Hunter.
He will be joined for this performance by vocalists Aurora Josephson and Cecilia Engelhart, woodwind players Nikita Manin and Cory Wright, cellist Crystal Pascucci, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, trombonist Scott Larson, bass player Jason Hoopes, and percussionists Suki O’Kane, Jason Levis and John Hanes.
“I don’t know anywhere else something like that is being done,” said Katznelson.
“’Round Midnight Reconsidered”:9 p.m. June 4-5. $36, which includes two drink tickets with a taco truck dinner and additional snacks. Proof of vaccination required at the door. Light Rail Studios, 672 Toland Place, S.F.rebooting.com/article/round-midnight