A few years ago I read the Monk biography and it was great. He had a really interesting life and was really out there (in a mostly good way) himself. One thing I noted - he was happy to bring in new players all the time, since he was kinda hard to work with and people tended to move on over time. Not Charlie Rouse though. Charlie (who deserves to be more well known, IMO) played with Monk for many years around this time in the 60s.

Thanks for the link, Kudler.