The Delaware Stop
Atlantic City, Oxnard and St. Paul carry the jazz weekend, and Andy Sheppard's Salt Catchers arrives on ECM with no drummer on it. Then Route 13 south of Wilmington, 1958, where a stop for a glass of water ends up in a court record.
LioraThree festivals run this weekend, in Atlantic City, Oxnard and St. Paul. A new ECM trio record lands today, made without a drummer. And a motel on Route 13, a glass of water, and a Delaware judge who took three years to explain it. It's Friday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Friday, September 11th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: Three festivals run this weekend, in Atlantic City, Oxnard and St
LioraToday, the festival weekend. Three of them.
The Atlantic City Jazz Fest opens tonight, its seventh year, at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's Sound Waves Theater, the 11th through the 13th. Kirk Whalum headlines tonight, with Marion Meadows, Alex Bugnon, Jeanette Harris and Tom Browne. Norman Brown headlines Saturday with Maysa, and Jeff Bradshaw opens.
In California, the Oxnard Jazz Festival is also in its seventh year, the 10th through the 13th. Saturday's bill: ConFunkShun, Rebecca Jade, Lin Rountree, Andrea Lisa and Donald Hayes.
In St. Paul, the Selby Ave JazzFest takes Saturday and Sunday on Selby Avenue. The main stage is free, eleven to seven thirty Saturday. Stokley of Mint Condition is on the bill.
LioraOne more date. The NEA holds its Jazz Masters tribute concert Tuesday at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, free. It was first set for April 18th at the Kennedy Center; the NEA moved it to the fall, and west.
Two. Listen to This: Salt Catchers, from Andy Sheppard, Rita Marcotulli and Michel Benita
LioraToday's record is out today. Salt Catchers, from Andy Sheppard, Rita Marcotulli and Michel Benita, on ECM, produced by Manfred Eicher. Eight Sheppard tunes and one by Carla Bley, "Lawns," cut in March 2025.
The tip. There are no drums on it. Sheppard says he enjoyed the very special challenge of playing without drums so much. So listen for what carries the time instead.
Now the release desk. Nate Mercereau's Fantastic Thoughts also lands today, on Leaving Records, with Carlos Nino on percussion and Aaron Shaw on saxophone. Mercereau calls it a look at Radical Possible Realities.
LioraOne more, pointing at tonight's story. Craft Recordings has reissued Thelonious Monk's Thelonious Alone in San Francisco, cut solo at Fugazi Hall in October 1959, no audience. Side B carries "Pannonica," Monk's tune for Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter.
Route 13, south of Wilmington, Delaware. October 15th, 1958. A car stops at a motel so a passenger can get a drink of water. The driver is a baroness, Nica de Koenigswarter. The passenger is Thelonious Monk. What happened next took a Delaware judge three years to explain, and it turns on why one woman's yes did not count. Sekou has the story.
Three. The Bridge: Route 13 south of Wilmington, Delaware, October 15, 1958: a stop for a glass of water
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Sekou tells it, I ask the questions. Sekou, where are we?
SekouRoute 13, south of Wilmington, Delaware. October 15th, 1958. A car stops in front of a motel. The driver is a baroness, Nica de Koenigswarter. One of her passengers wants a drink of water. That passenger is Thelonious Monk.
A state trooper appears and questions Monk. Monk does not answer. The baroness explains that he is sick. The trooper seems satisfied, and she drives on.
Then the trooper follows, and stops the car a second time.
LioraA second stop.
SekouA second stop. He orders Monk out of the car. Monk refuses, and asks, in the court's words, "why the hell" he should. He tells Monk he is under arrest.
More officers arrive, with handcuffs and weapons. They pull Monk out of the car by force and throw him to the ground. Nica gets out and begs them not to hit him, because he is sick. They tell her not to interfere. Then, in the court's own words, they "proceeded to use blackjacks on Monk."
LioraBlackjacks. That's in the court record?
SekouThat is the Superior Court of Delaware, describing the evidence. They put Monk on the floor of a police car. He will not draw his legs in, so the door will not close. The blackjack comes out again.
Careful here. Later accounts, TIME magazine in 1964 among them, say the baroness cried out about his hands, and that his knuckles carried the marks for years. The trial record does not say that. It says she begged them not to strike a sick man.
LioraWhat happens to her?
SekouPolice already hold her keys, her license and her registration. They hand the keys back and tell her to follow them to a magistrate. Monk pleads guilty to disorderly conduct and pays ten dollars and costs.
Two detectives arrive. Nica hears one of them mention a search warrant to the magistrate. No warrant is ever issued in this case.
More than two hours after they took her papers, they ask permission to search her car. She says yes. In the trunk, in her suitcase, they find what the State calls marijuana. She is charged with unauthorized possession of a narcotic drug. Monk is not. She carries it alone.
LioraShe said yes, though.
SekouShe did.
Three years, three months and four days later. January 19th, 1962. Judge Christie is in the middle of a jury trial.
He finds that when police took her license and registration, she was under arrest. She could not legally drive on without them. It was an illegal arrest. No felony, no offense in front of the officers, no warrant.
So the search needed her consent, freely given. The State, he writes, carries a very heavy burden there. Then he sets down what she had watched in the two hours before she said yes. Her companion, twice beaten, for passively resisting arrest on a minor charge. He writes that an atmosphere of duress was inevitable.
The evidence stays out. The ruling rests on Delaware's own constitution.
LioraSo she wins.
SekouOn the evidence, yes. Careful, though. The opinion sustains her objection and stops there. It does not dismiss the case. TIME reported in 1964 that she was acquitted after three years of legal maneuvering. What formally ended it, we do not have.
What we do have is a court, in 1962, setting down in plain language what being twice beaten with blackjacks does to the word yes.
LioraA man asks for a glass of water. It takes a court three years to say what that cost. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: Kenny Garrett takes Keystone Korner in Baltimore, with rooms working in New York
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket first.
If I had one ticket tonight, it's Baltimore. Keystone Korner has An Evening with Kenny Garrett and Sounds From the Ancestors, two shows, six and eight thirty. Seats forty five to fifty five plus fee.
LioraNow the sweep. New York has two rooms. The Blue Note opens a three night run with the David Murray Quartet featuring Francesca Cinelli, eight and ten thirty, twenty dollar minimum. Mezzrow stacks three, from the Dena DeRose Trio at six to Doug Wamble alone on guitar at five to midnight. In Chicago, the Green Mill has the Mike Jones Trio at eight for twenty, with Chris Foreman free at five fifteen and a Marquis Hill jam just before midnight. In Washington, Blues Alley has Diego Figueiredo in its Brazilian Jazz Series, seven and nine thirty, forty plus fees. In Philadelphia, Chris' Jazz Cafe has the guitarist Adam Moezinia and his trio with the organist Pat Bianchi, seven thirty and nine thirty, twenty five. In Detroit, Cliff Bell's has the Vlad Tovbin Trio at seven thirty, twenty five.
LioraOne room we could not read: Denver's Dazzle. Its calendar came back empty, so it stays out.
Five. One More Note: September 11 carries Joe Zawinul's death in 2007 and Harry Connick Jr.'s birth in 1967
LioraSeptember 11th, and two names.
DownBeat's report, dated September 11th, 2007, says Joe Zawinul died that Tuesday morning in an Austrian hospital, at 75. He played on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew and Live-Evil, wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" for Cannonball Adderley, and co-founded Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, which DownBeat dates to 1971.
Same date, 1967: Harry Connick Jr. was born in New Orleans.
Put on something with a keyboard out front.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Friday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.