1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,357
(Mellow piano and chatter)

2
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WOMAN: Good evening, everybody.

3
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This is Nica's Tempo and tonight we are
coming to you direct from the Five Spot Café...

4
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...and that beautiful music you hear...

5
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...Is coming from Thelonious Monk
and his quartet.

6
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:30,074



7
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THELONIOUS: Hi, everybody.

8
00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:39,677
Very glad to be here today.

9
00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:47,235
I would like to play a little tune I just composed
not so long ago, entitled Pannonica.

10
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It was named after this beautiful lady here.

11
00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,874
I think her father gave her that name...

12
00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,797
...after a butterfly that he tried to catch.

13
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I think he caught the butterfly.

14
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But, anyway, here's the number I composed
named after her - Pannonica.

15
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♪ Pannonica

16
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This is the story of a love affair
between a man and a woman

17
00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:55,314
whose backgrounds and experiences,
whose culture and class,

18
00:01:55,400 --> 00:02:00,315
were so different that the chances
of their even meeting was extremely unlikely.

19
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She was Pannonica Rothschild,

20
00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,753
a British-born heiress
from a powerful, wealthy, Jewish dynasty.

21
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He, Thelonious Sphere Monk,

22
00:02:15,640 --> 00:02:18,598
was the descendent of West African slaves

23
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and his only material advantage
was musical genius.

24
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After their first meeting in 1954,

25
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Monk and Nica were hardly ever apart

26
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and Monk lived here in Nica's house
for the last ten years of his life.

27
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(Cats meowing)

28
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She was my great aunt,
but I'd never even heard of her

29
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until I spotted her name in our family records.

30
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But no-one could, or would,
tell me much about Nica,

31
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except that she decided
that the life she was born info wasn't for her

32
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and she reinvented herself in another continent.

33
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From an early age,
I felt I couldn't fit info my illustrious family

34
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and would never live up to
their high expectations, real or imaginary.

35
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Was Nica a possible role model for me?

36
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Could her life show me some options
and another way to live?

37
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The first thing I had to do was to find out
more about the life that Nica was born into

38
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and what it was she was leaving behind.

39
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HOST: You have two minutes on the history
of the House of Rothschild starting now.

40
00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:48,078
Which Rothschild lent £4 million to Disraeli
for the purchase of Suez Canal shares?

41
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- Lionel.
- Correct.

42
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:53,433
Which Buckinghamshire château
did the French architect Destailleur

43
00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,478
design for Ferdinand Rothschild
in the late 1870s?

44
00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:58,551
- Waddesdon.
- Correct.

45
00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:00,790
Which part of the House of Commons procedure

46
00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:05,033
prevented Lionel, elected MP in 1847,
from taking his seat for 11 years?

47
00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,112
- The oath of abjuration.
- Yes, he refused to take it.

48
00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:10,635
In the 1880s, in which famous London street

49
00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,439
did the Rothschilds own
four mansions at the same time?

50
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:14,590
- Piccadilly.
- Correct.

51
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,833
Which vineyard in the Médoc region
did Baron James purchase in 1868?

52
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:20,274
- Lafite.
- Correct.

53
00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,996
It would be many years
before I could create a quiz about Nica.

54
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:27,798
How many cats did Nica own?

55
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,190
I think it was 306.

56
00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:33,989
Which legendary jazz musician
died in Nica's apartment?

57
00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:35,354
Charlie Parker.

58
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:37,750
What did Nica serve from a teapot?

59
00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:39,433
Scotch.

60
00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,639
When she was a child,
who taught Nica magic tricks?

61
00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:46,038
Einstein.

62
00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:54,715
How were the early Rothschilds portrayed
in an Oscar-nominated film?

63
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:57,679
And if anything should happen, all that money.

64
00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,115
- Ten thousand gulden.
-Eh?

65
00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,114
Who asked Nica's grandfather
for a significant loan?

66
00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:09,070
The royal family came to your grandfather
and said...

67
00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,596
and crying the blues and begging...

68
00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,718
and he lay the bread on
so he could beat Napoleon.

69
00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:17,438
Right?

70
00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:19,511
And threw in the Suez Canal.

71
00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,160
That changed... That changed the world.

72
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:24,197
Nobody's fault round here.

73
00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:25,873
But that was over here...

74
00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,554
I mean, I tell people who you are.

75
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:30,711
This is the United States. We don't need...

76
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,758
She's a billionaire. You know, the Rothschilds.

77
00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:38,710
Your aunt fell in love with my dad.

78
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:40,552
I have no doubt about that.

79
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I feel like he supplied impetus
for her to come to America.

80
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♪ THELONIOUS MONK: Dinah

81
00:05:55,480 --> 00:06:00,554
She was profoundly moved
by his music and his personality.

82
00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:03,758
<i>He was a good-looking cal. She was a hotly.</i>

83
00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:38,317
I didn't meet Nica until 1984.

84
00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,119
I cold called her from a phone box in New York.

85
00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,556
"Hi," I said nervously, "I'm your great niece."

86
00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:50,431
"Oh, hi," she replied,
in a most un-great-aunt-like kind of way.

87
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"Meet me at a club downtown at 1am."

88
00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:06,631
"How will I find it?" I asked.

89
00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:08,631
"Just look out for the Bentley."

90
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:10,677
And then she hung up.

91
00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:16,439
The car was badly parked outside a small club,

92
00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:19,433
and Nica sat alone at a table nearest the stage.

93
00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,909
I warned her there were some tramps
drinking beer in her Bentley outside.

94
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:25,798
"Oh, good," she said.

95
00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:28,315
"That means no-one will steal it."

96
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:30,357
<i>I Straight No Chaser</i>

97
00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:53,793
Realising that I knew nothing about jazz,

98
00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,669
Nica sent me albums, including this one,
Thelonica,

99
00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,673
a musical tribute to her relationship with Monk,

100
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,593
made by their mutual friend, Tommy Flanagan.

101
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:06,913
And here's another record.

102
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,312
Monk's Brilliant Corners,
composed shortly after the two met

103
00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,075
and containing musical tributes
to his new friend, Pannonica.

104
00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:21,515
There are over 20 songs composed for Nica
by different musicians.

105
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Real glamour, I reckon,

106
00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,833
isn't about Bentleys or fur coats or silver dishes.

107
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It's about being able to walk down 52nd Street

108
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and hear in one night

109
00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:33,838
So many great musicians

110
00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,230
<i>play tunes dedicated to you.</i>

111
00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,912
But four years after we met, Nica died,

112
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leaving so many unposed,
unanswered questions.

113
00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:53,917
<i>None of her five children
wished to talk to me about their mother,</i>

114
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:55,911
nor did other members of my family.

115
00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:00,395
ELDERLY WOMAN: What do you, Hannah,
want to achieve by your film?

116
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Is it just publicity?

117
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,479
MAN: Are you gonna be all right with the family

118
00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:09,392
if you endeavour to do this?

119
00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:13,360
I don't know if I'm going to be all right.
But I think it has to be told.

120
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,991
Should be, but I'm saying
that somebody's not gonna like this.

121
00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,676
But then the Rothschilds
had to be good at keeping secrets.

122
00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:29,039
Secrets kept them alive in the pogroms
and in the ghettos and during the Holocaust.

123
00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:31,873
And secrets helped them create a great fortune.

124
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,440
But Nica wasn't that secretive.

125
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She gave interviews.

126
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She wrote about her experiences.

127
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She tried to publish her photographs.

128
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And she appears in this documentary,
Straight No Chaser.

129
00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:53,796
(Mellow piano music)

130
00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:57,589
I wondered if there was one catalyst one event,

131
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that inspired Nica to leave everything familiar
and start a new life in New York.

132
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One day, a lost interview appeared,

133
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and sitting in a New York hotel room,

134
00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:14,759
I heard Nica telling the producer, Bruce Ricker,
about the moment that changed her life.

135
00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:19,076
HELEN MIRREN AS NICA:
It was in the late 1940s.

136
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I was on my way back to Mexico,

137
00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,436
where I was living with my husband
and family at that time.

138
00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:28,673
On my way to the airport,
I stopped off to see my friend, Teddy Wilson.

139
00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:32,438
He said, "Have you heard this record,
"Round Midnight?"

140
00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:35,114
Well, I'd never even heard of Thelonious.

141
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:37,996
He said, "You can't leave without hearing it,"

142
00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,959
and he galloped off somewhere
to get the record.

143
00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,190
♪ THELONIOUS MONK: 'Round Midnight

144
00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:07,790
I couldn't believe my ears.

145
00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:11,639
I'd never heard anything remotely like it.

146
00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,037
I made him play it 20 times in a row,

147
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,750
missed my plane
and never went back to Mexico.

148
00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,509
Driving around New York late at night,

149
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:40,879
I wondered how one track on one record could
have such a mesmerising effect on a person.

150
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:45,839
Is it that 'Round Midnight -
with its mournful, haunting chords -

151
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:51,313
captures feelings of loneliness,
of being away from home, of not belonging?

152
00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:53,789
Did it trigger something in my great aunt?

153
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,596
She wasn't alone in loving this record.

154
00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:05,072
'Round Midnight has become one of
the most recorded jazz standards of all time.

155
00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:13,672
MAN: This was the vinyl version
of a spell being cast on someone,

156
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,878
except that it's not a spell that arrives by itself.

157
00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,236
It's a spell that's assisted by you.

158
00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:23,200
So that, you know, you keep going back to it.

159
00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,114
She kept getting deeper and deeper into it
as she heard it.

160
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:29,840
And so from that point on,

161
00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:36,030
she had concluded that she was going to
have to meet the guy who played this music.

162
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:43,120
MIRREN AS NICA: But, you see, I didn't meet
Thelonious until two years after that in 1954.

163
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,476
I heard that he was playing in Paris,

164
00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:53,353
so I got on a plane and I got there just in time
to hear his first overseas concert...

165
00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:56,789
...and I went backstage afterwards.

166
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:58,871
And Mary Lou Williams introduced me to him.

167
00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:04,480
But we hung out
for the rest of the time he was there.

168
00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:06,995
We had a ball for about a week.

169
00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:12,155
Until Monk's death, 28 years later,
they were hardly apart

170
00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:16,512
CROUCH: If they brought a time machine out,

171
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:19,638
that's one that I would like to get in and go see,

172
00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:22,951
the time that they met,
because it had to be remarkable.

173
00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:25,512
And remarkable because...

174
00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:28,513
She was a complete European.

175
00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:33,231
Nothing about her
was anything other than a European.

176
00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:36,399
Monk, he wasn't...

177
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,075
He grew up in New York,
but he was from North Carolina.

178
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:42,353
Monk was a country Negro.

179
00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,434
NEWSREEL: The tenant farmers
and their families live on the plantation.

180
00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:51,390
Each family has a small house
which they rent together with a section of land.

181
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,958
A few tenants pay their rent in money,

182
00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,634
but most tenant farmers on the plantations

183
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,395
work their portion of land
in return for a share of the crop.

184
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:10,518
I found out that Monk - like Charlie Parker,
Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and others -

185
00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:12,079
was from the South,

186
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:17,075
and they brought their musical heritage
with them to the northern metropolis.

187
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,759
No-one knows which part of Africa
Monk's ancestors come from,

188
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:37,392
but it is known he was born in 1917
in Rocky Mount North Carolina.

189
00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:41,837
The church played a key role in his life

190
00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,357
and the strains of gospel blues and stride
suffuse all his music.

191
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,431
Monk's father was an amateur musician,

192
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,194
a difficult husband and a manic depressive,

193
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:13,513
who was incarcerated for the last two decades
of his life in a mental asylum.

194
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,672
Barbara Monk, a formidable matriarch,
kept the family together

195
00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:26,233
and in 1922 she took her children to New York
in search of a better life.

196
00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:32,794
<i>Monk lived with her until her death in 1955,
a year after he met Nica.</i>

197
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,832
Nica was born on December 10, 1913.

198
00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:53,719
♪ JOHANN STRAUSS II:
The Blue Danube Waltz

199
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:14,716
(Rattling)

200
00:17:25,360 --> 00:17:28,273
MONK JR: It seemed like it was another life.

201
00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:41,753
I remember she was telling me
that her father built a house somewhere on a hill

202
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:47,950
and the house was far away from the local town.

203
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,838
I mean, you know,
she would say so matter of factly.

204
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:53,911
And I would say, "What?"

205
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,677
MIRREN AS NICA: At Rothschild houses like
Waddesdon, no-one bothered to pick cherries.

206
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:13,592
It was seen as far more elegant

207
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,036
to have the gardeners
carry the actual trees around the table

208
00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:19,839
so we could choose which fruit we wanted.

209
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:21,638
At breakfast, guests were offered

210
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:26,157
a choice of Longhorn, Shorthorn
or Jersey milk with their tea.

211
00:18:29,360 --> 00:18:33,877
It was quite normal to have kings,
queens and world leaders to stay.

212
00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:37,870
Here is King Edward.

213
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:41,558
And former Prime Ministers Winston Churchill,

214
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,473
Anthony Asquith and Arthur Balfour.

215
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,551
And here is George V.

216
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,837
And on the opposite page,
Pannonica Rothschild.

217
00:18:56,040 --> 00:19:01,274
MIRREN AS NICA: My father, Charles, worked
diligently as was expected in our family bank,

218
00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:05,035
but was much happier
studying the lifecycle of insects.

219
00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:09,990
He met my mother hunting rare fleas
and butterflies in the Carpathian Mountains.

220
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,792
Rozsika was a famous beauty,

221
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:16,555
tennis champion and from
an impoverished Jewish family,

222
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,031
and we were all absolutely terrified of her.

223
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,193
According to Monk,

224
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:30,069
Charles Rothschild had called his daughter
after a butterfly that he caught.

225
00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:33,278
So there was a chance
that the original specimen

226
00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:36,512
might still be in the enormous
Rothschild collection

227
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,911
that used to be housed at Tring,
Nica's childhood home.

228
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:16,152
This was the gigantic collection
that Lord Rothschild amassed.

229
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:22,189
Collections that were comprehensive
and larger than our own.

230
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,390
Now this is roughly
where we want to be for Pannonica.

231
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,030
No. No, no, we've gone off beam again.

232
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:58,357
Getting warm.

233
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,229
Here we go, here is Pannonica.

234
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:07,993
There she is.

235
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:14,794
This was collected in 1913.

236
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,350
1913 the year of Nica's birth.

237
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:27,919
I'd been expecting something more dazzling,

238
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,150
not this delicate little creature,

239
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,711
whose pale yellow wings looked like
they'd been dipped in Château Lafite.

240
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:41,676
And what I certainly wasn't expecting
was to find out that it wasn't a butterfly at all.

241
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:43,717
It was a moth.

242
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:52,355
<i>As the daughter of an obsessive entomologist,
Nica would have known she was a moth.</i>

243
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,755
But perhaps she thought
"butterfly” sounded more romantic,

244
00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,754
or perhaps it suited her
not to give everything away,

245
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,674
to preserve the mystery, her version of secrets.

246
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:14,593
I asked my father
to tell me about those four children -

247
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,320
his father Victor and his aunts.

248
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,430
There was Nica who was eccentric

249
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:28,718
and developed this tremendous love of jazz

250
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:35,752
and was one of the great patronesses of jazz
in the 1940s, '50s and '60s and even beyond.

251
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,076
Then came my father, Victor,

252
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,595
who was a distinguished scientist

253
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:46,036
and ran a think tank
for the British Government.

254
00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:50,990
And then there was Liberty,
who was schizophrenic, I'm afraid.

255
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:58,918
The eldest was Miriam,
who was a great naturalist and scientist.

256
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,560
MIRIAM: We were brought up in great luxury,

257
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:19,273
but no liberty and a lot of discipline
and regular things.

258
00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:24,480
And dull food while we were in the nursery,
and so forth, though immaculately cooked.

259
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,112
Monday was the fish.
Tuesday was the egg.

260
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:34,793
Wednesday was the fish.

261
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:36,712
Thursday was the egg.

262
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:38,234
Friday was the fish.

263
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,233
Saturday was the egg.
It was always the same.

264
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,634
We would dress. First a vest.

265
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,234
And we had a thing called a bodice.

266
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:56,110
And there was a ribbon round the waist
which threaded in and out

267
00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,273
and I had blue ribbons
and my sister had pink ribbons.

268
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:02,829
And then we went along to see my mother.

269
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,117
Then we knelt down by her bed
and said our prayers,

270
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,159
which always ended,
"and make me a good little girl. Amen."

271
00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:13,794
And that was a ritual
which happened every day.

272
00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:20,432
We were kept very, very secluded
and sheltered.

273
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,474
And the lessons we had with a governess.

274
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,279
My father detested schools,

275
00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:30,034
which he thought
they were like David Copperfield.

276
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:33,636
So one had absolutely no education at all.

277
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:38,150
MIRREN AS NICA: We were moved
from one great country house to another

278
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:43,030
in the germless community
of reserved Pullman coaches,

279
00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:47,193
while being guarded night and day
by a regiment of nurses,

280
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:52,639
governesses, tutors, footmen,
valets, chauffeurs and grooms.

281
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,800
Unlike me, Thelonious was a child prodigy,

282
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:01,314
as his report shows,

283
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:05,519
winning a scholarship to
the prestigious Peter Stuyvesant school.

284
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:08,836
Musically, he was a genius,

285
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,914
a useful skill for an African American
whose options were limited.

286
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,399
I had to decide
whether I was gonna be a musician or a pimp,

287
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:19,993
one of the two.

288
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,553
When I was eight, nine, ten, 11 years old,

289
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:27,156
I used to... I shined shoes.
That's how I bought my first set of drums.

290
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,353
I'd go out on a Wednesday and Saturday
from school.

291
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,512
I'd stay out all day Saturday till I'd made a dollar.

292
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,997
In some respects,
Nica's own options were just as limited.

293
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:57,511
Youth for Rothschild women was just
a waiting room for marriage and motherhood.

294
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,750
They were barred from working in the bank

295
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:01,956
and university wasn't an option.

296
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,832
At 18, Nica was launched info society

297
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,879
at a whirligig of parties,
known to some as the London Season.

298
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:13,234
Her mission was to go husband hunting.

299
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,989
There were four dances a week -
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

300
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,232
And in a way it was just like
going to the office, I suppose.

301
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,231
You couldn't do anything else.

302
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,038
It was a full-time job.

303
00:26:25,120 --> 00:26:27,509
It was just what happened.

304
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,157
I loved it.

305
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,117
It sounds very bad of me.

306
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,033
My sister Decca even guiltily enjoyed it,

307
00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,670
although she was tremendously against

308
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,594
sort of what the French called
"signes extérieurs de richesse",

309
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,239
anything of that sort.

310
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,474
And she couldn't help rather enjoy it.

311
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,074
My sister Unity even went to dances.

312
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,117
She used to take a rat with her.

313
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,319
What did she do with the rat?

314
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,869
Well, it was her pet rat. It was always around.

315
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:04,029
From the word go, though,
Nica fell under music's spell

316
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:07,158
and her first love
was the band leader Jack Harris.

317
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,319
MIRREN AS NICA: There was a sax player
called Bob Wise taught me to fly.

318
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:14,834
But not navigation.

319
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:21,599
So I had to rely on roads and on railways,
which was cool if it was a clear day.

320
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,599
This horrified Jules, my future husband,
who was a stickler for the rules.

321
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,869
The couple met at Le Touquet
and conducted an airborne romance.

322
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,191
Jules was a mining engineer,
a banker and also Jewish.

323
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,230
He was ten years older and a widower,

324
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:48,190
but was so sure about his affections for Nica
that he proposed within three months.

325
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,549
<i>Nica ran away immediately to New York
to consider his offer...</i>

326
00:27:55,560 --> 00:28:00,509
...and it was the first of many times
that she would use the city as a refuge.

327
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,360
And here is their wedding certificate
from October 1935,

328
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,477
found in City Hall New York.

329
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:21,030
The couple set up home in France,
al the Château d'Abondant near Normandy,

330
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:23,111
where they started a family.

331
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,350
(Hitler shouting in German)

332
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:43,957
In the same year
that their first son Patrick was born,

333
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:49,319
the Nuremburg race laws,
stripping Jews of all rights, was passed.

334
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,760
And soon after Janka,
their first daughter, was born,

335
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,195
the Germans had entered Sudetenland.

336
00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,998
And on one single night

337
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,835
more than a thousand synagogues
were burned to the ground

338
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:09,711
and 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up
and taken to concentration camps.

339
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:22,879
MIRIAM: One of the aunts
was caught in the Holocaust.

340
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,076
She had a terrible time.

341
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,039
She was 80 and blind

342
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,715
and she was taken off into a death train.

343
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,918
And when they arrived in Auschwitz,

344
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:39,392
they were pulled out of the train
by guards with meat hooks and beaten to death.

345
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,597
As a member of the most prominent
European Jewish family,

346
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:51,913
Nica - by remaining in France -
was in increasing physical danger.

347
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:55,712
MIRREN AS NICA: When Jules went to war,

348
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,475
he left me alone at the château
with a hand-drawn map.

349
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,076
I managed to escape with the children
on one of the last boats.

350
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:05,151
Then I took them to America.

351
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,191
My mother-in-law refused to leave France.

352
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:15,071
She was captured and sent to Auschwitz...
where she died.

353
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:19,558
In England, the government
asked Nica's brother Victor,

354
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,472
as Head of the British Jewry,

355
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,837
to give his response
to the events unfolding in Europe.

356
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,873
VICTOR: The Jews will do something
they already do.

357
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,110
They will help this country to be strong

358
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,750
and able to resist anybody who tries to attack it.

359
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,950
In fact, they will do their bit
like all good Englishmen should.

360
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:46,035
MIRREN AS NICA:
I left the children in Long Island

361
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,953
and managed to smuggle myself
on a plane to Africa,

362
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,873
where Jules was fighting with the Free French.

363
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,597
I enlisted as a private, driving ambulances,
decoding and broadcasting.

364
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,956
Then we were sent to Germany.

365
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,837
I caught the last days of the Reich,
just before Hitler did himself in.

366
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,077
I had a luckier escape than many.

367
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:25,153
MIRIAM: One uncle survived in Hungary,
in a concentration camp.

368
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,950
When he left, he was a six foot, two man
and he weighed five stone.

369
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,036
So you can imagine what he looked like.

370
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:35,956
He came and lived with me in Oxford.

371
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,591
Now looking back,
I really didn't ask him many questions

372
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,993
because one was frightened of asking
people from concentration camps questions

373
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,675
because it was difficult for them
to speak of the horrors.

374
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,110
Meanwhile Monk,
along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker,

375
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,033
was cooking up a musical revolution
called bebop -

376
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,798
<i>music you couldn't dance
or sing or even swing to.</i>

377
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,474
Music that screamed of a new individualism.

378
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:10,110
In the days of swing...
♪ De bi u bee bee do

379
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:12,635
♪ She de da

380
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,280
♪ Shoo boo be be la

381
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:17,914
♪ Be de doo doo doo

382
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,434
Right? Bebop.

383
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,751
♪ Shoobydoopbupbopidoobpydup...
Right?

384
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:24,274
They're different.

385
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:26,874
(Laughs) So, that's the...

386
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:28,678
Basically, that's the difference.

387
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:28,880
♪ Hot House

388
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,712
♪ Hot House

389
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:56,997
MAN: People like Charlie Parker and Monk,

390
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:03,110
exemplified great artists
who didn't want to accept a lot of the things

391
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:07,717
that jazz musicians were forced to accept.

392
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,870
Bebop represented a change

393
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:20,479
from the show business aspect
of this great music.

394
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,076
Bebop, the people that played bebop

395
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:31,078
wanted to be accepted
as full-fledged human beings,

396
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,790
not just talented artists.

397
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,113
And there was something
about the way they played

398
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,999
that they didn't seem to care
what the audience thought.

399
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:51,037
You were there to listen.

400
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,236
They didn't cater to the audience too much.

401
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,076
MAN: America had just fought a war of freedom

402
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,154
and soldiers black and white
had gone to liberate Europe...

403
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,918
...and yet black soldiers returning to America

404
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,119
could not enter the front door
of the restaurant they were performing in.

405
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,955
They couldn't sleep in white hotels

406
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:17,113
when they performed on the bandstands
of those hotels.

407
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,032
They had to sleep in other hotels.

408
00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:25,599
There had to have been
a phenomenal amount of rage, dissidence,

409
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,832
and the artist's role is to call attention to that.

410
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:36,239
Nica, somehow, years before everyone else,
started to embrace it.

411
00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:41,155
Women had also fought for freedom

412
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:44,358
and were equally frustrated
by the lack of change.

413
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:48,991
NEWSREEL: Carol - now Mrs Bill Johnson -
took a general Home Economics course.

414
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,913
Not one which would lead
to professional employment,

415
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:57,678
but one which fitted her for that
very important career of being Mrs Johnson.

416
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:04,350
When the critic, Nat Hentoff, asked Nica
why her marriage went wrong, she replied,

417
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,592
"My husband liked military drum music.

418
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:12,550
He hated jazz and he used to break my records
when I was late for dinner.

419
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,314
I was frequently late for dinner."

420
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,199
She found more and more excuses
to visit New York.

421
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,476
And then she heard Thelonious Monk.

422
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,832
But who was this mysterious Thelonious Monk...

423
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,434
...a man whose first language was silence...

424
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:59,594
the pianist who seemed lo attack the piano
with every part of his body?

425
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:08,470
MONK JR: Thelonious was the high priest
of our tradition of bebop.

426
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,473
He was the father of modern jazz,

427
00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:19,431
because it's the harmonic possibilities
that Thelonious brought to the table...

428
00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:26,680
.that freed the Charlie Parkers
and the John Coltranes and the Dizzy Gillespies

429
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:31,470
from the chains of popular American music.

430
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,354
Monk's base player, he says,

431
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,512
"I've played with piano players
who play on all the white keys.

432
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:54,275
I've played with piano players
who've played on all the black keys."

433
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,274
"But," he says, "I ain't never played with no-one
who played in between the cracks."

434
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,397
He was talking about Monk.

435
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,236
- Yeah.
- (Applause)

436
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:15,789
You can never tire of listening
to someone like Monk,

437
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:20,033
because he's so imaginative
and so unpredictable.

438
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:22,791
He hits a note that you're not supposed to hit.

439
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,316
When he runs out of those, he bangs
the keyboard with his elbow, you know.

440
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:32,117
And I'm sure, you know, someone like Nica,
would have been having that feeling all the time

441
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:34,350
and that's enough to make you want to stay.

442
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:38,877
MIRREN AS NICA: What can I say?

443
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:43,591
If there are seven wonders in this world,
then I think Thelonious was the eighth.

444
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,711
He helped you see the music inside the music.

445
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:57,030
And his music itself helped me see possibilities
in life and ways of living that I never dreamed of.

446
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:02,556
She believed he was a genius,
the first day she heard him play.

447
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:08,356
And she never wavered from that...one iota.

448
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:21,151
She was there when the critics didn't get it
and half the musicians didn't get it.

449
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:23,954
But she got it.

450
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,759
And I think that that was very important to her.

451
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,117
And I think that was
very, very important to him, too.

452
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:33,632
He loved her for that.

453
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:47,352
Monk and Nica became a regular feature
on the scene.

454
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:53,669
ROLLINS: We used to hang out a lot,
you know, and...

455
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,479
Monk and Nica would come to my house

456
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,872
and we'd go out
and drive around after hours, you know,

457
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:05,557
and then they'd come by to my house
several times in the day time.

458
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,475
And he was the High Priest
and she was the Baroness.

459
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,034
It was funny. It was kind of a thing, you know.

460
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:20,069
- A million dollars yet?
- No. Not quite.

461
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:23,476
It's a beautiful message.

462
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,791
Get somebody that can decipher that for you
and tell you what it means.

463
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,957
And what were the dynamics
of Monk's marriage to Nellie?

464
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:34,390
MAN: Thelonious was a family man.

465
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,635
He loved Nellie.

466
00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:43,511
And I do remember one day with him,
we were sitting in a tea room...

467
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:51,397
We stopped on the way from London to Bristol
to get a cup of tea and a sandwich,

468
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,312
at about three o'clock in the afternoon,

469
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:56,438
and the sun was coming in the window

470
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,797
and it picked up Nellie's face,

471
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:04,477
and Thelonious turns and looks at her and says,
"You look like an angel."

472
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:09,873
One of the most beautiful things I ever saw
in my life, the way he said that.

473
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:11,917
Cos Nellie was not a beautiful woman.

474
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:18,713
She was a beautiful person
and that beauty came through in her character.

475
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,629
But she did everything for Thelonious.

476
00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:28,871
Whatever had to be done, she put up with
every single thing, and he appreciated that.

477
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,874
And did Monk and Nica have an affair?

478
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,793
MAN: There's no evidence at all
that they were lovers.

479
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,794
2ND MAN: I never saw any touchy feely stuff,
nothing like that.

480
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,190
I swear to God.

481
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,033
3RD MAN: I don't know and I don't care.

482
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,078
4TH MAN: Musicians would say,
"Man, are you sleeping with her?"

483
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:54,280
He'd get so indignant and he'd say,
"Man what's wrong with you?

484
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,830
I would never, never do that to my best friend.

485
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,753
Like, don't you even know
what friendship means?"

486
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:09,797
And Nellie needed Nica to help deal with
Thelonious' mental instability.

487
00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:14,597
He was bipolar, basically.

488
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,876
His condition was episodic,

489
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:22,080
and so there were times when Nellie
just could not take the weight of caring for him.

490
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:24,080
- Did Thelonious take drugs?
- Yes.

491
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,230
- Did Thelonious take drugs?
- Yes.

492
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,311
What kind of drugs did he take?

493
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:35,557
Thelonious would take.. . from marijuana -
which was not even considered a drug,

494
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:41,477
it was just something like a chewing gum,
you know - to heroin.

495
00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:45,277
I have to say that.

496
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,073
Whether snorted or injected...

497
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,071
I think he didn't do much injecting.

498
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,151
I think he did mostly snorting.

499
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:59,558
Not that much.
My guess is not that much but enough.

500
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:02,957
He would look at things.

501
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,749
He often look up into the sky and mumble
things.

502
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:09,559
And that sounds like schizophrenic behaviour.

503
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,359
With a rush of noise coming in.

504
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,038
Manic depression?
I don't think there was manic depression.

505
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:21,112
But sometimes mental illness
IS a cocktail of these things.

506
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,231
But when you see him, you know,
getting up, doing a little dance?

507
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:31,076
Nothing wrong with that.
He's dancing. Is it crazy to dance?

508
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,158
People dance every day all over the world.

509
00:42:35,240 --> 00:42:39,950
There's nothing crazy about dancing, is there?

510
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:47,479
- OK.

511
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,631
Absolutely not.

512
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,033
MAN: He would stay up.
He wouldn't go to bed.

513
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,999
He'd stay up three and four days in a row,

514
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,152
you know, and he'd be spinning around and...

515
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:04,959
you know, different things like that.

516
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:11,915
So people would stay out of his way,
cos Monk was a large person.

517
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:17,395
And I remember the Baroness
said something to me.

518
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:20,632
She says, "He will never hurt you."

519
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:28,074
And when she told me that, I never worried.

520
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:32,478
Because a lot of musicians,
they would disappear.

521
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:34,517
(Mellow jazz)

522
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:50,070
I began to see similarities,
rather than differences,

523
00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:52,595
between Nica and Monk's stories.

524
00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,752
Nica's sister Liberty had schizophrenia

525
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,754
and needed constant care and supervision
throughout her whole life.

526
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:04,437
And, of course, both Monk and Nica's fathers
suffered from mental problems.

527
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:14,674
My father certainly had serious depressions
when he was young,

528
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:17,238
and he had...

529
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:23,075
When he had encephalitis -
with his Spanish flu and encephalitis -

530
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:27,597
he also on top of it
had deep, serious depression.

531
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:29,478
Well, he might have done.

532
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,279
Anyone with that illness could get a depression.

533
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:35,749
When my father killed himself,

534
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:42,920
my mother decided that she would never tell us
that he'd committed suicide

535
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:45,640
and that he just died of a heart attack.

536
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,154
And she said to me -
the words she said to me -

537
00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:57,236
"This has been coming on for a long time,
as you know how ill he's been."

538
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,995
And I accepted that because,
my God, he had been ill

539
00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:03,151
and I could quite well believe that.

540
00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:04,958
I was 15.

541
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:09,989
My mother managed with her influence,
the influence the family had,

542
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:13,630
to suppress the fact that he committed suicide
in the newspapers.

543
00:45:13,720 --> 00:45:15,677
So it never appeared.

544
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:25,518
HANNAH: Did you ever talk about it
after it happened, as a family?

545
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,752
No, never.

546
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:35,671
And does this early heartbreak partly explain
Nica's incredible love for an ailing Monk

547
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,320
and her compassion for the other musicians?

548
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,075
MONK JR: I would be hanging with Nica
and we would get in the car.

549
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,630
She'd say, "Come on, let's go in the car.
We have to go somewhere."

550
00:45:47,720 --> 00:45:50,314
And I can't tell you how many...

551
00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:57,470
...mercy missions,
just short of ambulatory in their nature,

552
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:04,159
to save musicians' lives...
in every way you can imagine.

553
00:46:04,240 --> 00:46:07,870
Whether we were going to a pawn shop
to retrieve a guy's instrument.

554
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:11,590
Or going to buy groceries
because so and so didn't have food.

555
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:13,876
Or going to a rent office to pay somebody's rent

556
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,429
because they were about to be
thrown on the street.

557
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:18,431
Or going to the hospital to visit somebody

558
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,717
because they didn't have
anybody else to visit them.

559
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:26,954
Or going to help somebody get some food
because their girlfriend just had a baby.

560
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:31,750
The list goes on and on and on.
It's so many different kinds of things.

561
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:38,792
Every aspect of human existence
that I saw musicians deal with,

562
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:41,837
I saw them lean on Nica.

563
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:44,275
And I saw Nica respond.

564
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,637
MIRREN AS NICA: I never sorted out
the role of freedom fighter,

565
00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:55,840
but once I got here,
I did see that an awful lot of help was needed.

566
00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,232
And, well, I couldn't just stand by and watch.

567
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,114
She was a fighter, a tough, tough lady...

568
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:11,670
and, like I said, I think she found a cause.

569
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,949
She was a woman who was ahead of her time.

570
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,269
What's interesting about her is that...

571
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:22,593
she took a stand
when it wasn't popular to do so.

572
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:26,479
And that's what I meant about taking risks.

573
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:31,798
And, actually, she stands as a role model.

574
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,633
One of the early feminists...

575
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:43,199
..to not only assert her right to be herself,

576
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:51,233
but to see herself as a person
who fomented social change...

577
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:55,829
...and that social change was possible
from her class.

578
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:08,352
MIRREN AS NICA: When I first met Monk,
he'd lost his Cabaret Card

579
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,795
and couldn't work in New York clubs.

580
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:15,670
The police took it away
after some bogus drugs bust in 1951.

581
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:18,875
I put a beautiful piano in my suite

582
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,191
and he'd be up there all day long
playing the piano.

583
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,191
Then, at night, we'd go out around the clubs.

584
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,594
And then all the musicians
would come back with us

585
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:32,514
and we'd have these...
these fantastic jam sessions

586
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:35,160
until eight or nine the next morning.

587
00:48:35,240 --> 00:48:39,598
There'd be Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell,
Art Blakey - all the cats were there.

588
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:50,073
Society people would "slum" and go down
to hear swing bands or jazz bands

589
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:51,594
or what have you.

590
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:53,671
But it wasn't as...

591
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:56,919
With her, it was...

592
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:03,918
She just embraced the whole culture of jazz
and bop musicians

593
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,389
and the whole kind of rebelliousness of it.

594
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:11,077
People of wealth and within a certain class

595
00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:14,878
who lived on 5th Avenue, like the Baroness did,

596
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:19,716
just didn't...socialise with jazz musicians.

597
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:23,236
The majority of the opinions of jazz musicians

598
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:28,474
is that they were drunks
or drug addicts or sex maniacs.

599
00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:32,432
They were considered
people with bad reputations.

600
00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:36,479
Because, remember,
jazz had just come out of the house of ill repute.

601
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:43,192
But the attitude that Nica found most despicable
in her adopted country was racial prejudice.

602
00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:46,914
I remember in Texas once, in 1951,

603
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:50,516
<i>finishing the job about 12:30, 100,</i>

604
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:55,959
and we had to drive until almost six o'clock
in the morning to find a place to eat.

605
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,190
We tried to eat. We even sent the driver in.

606
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,955
We went by one place - it was dawn by then -

607
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,556
and we were driving through the town
to check out a restaurant,

608
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:07,392
and at the top of the church...

609
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,518
the steeple of the biggest church in town,

610
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:15,629
had a rope around an effigy of a black dummy
hanging off of the church steeple.

611
00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:18,280
And I just said, "Keep going."

612
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:21,796
Oh, that was...
Every day was like that, you know.

613
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:26,631
It's hard to believe that these memories
belong to Quincy Jones,

614
00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:30,714
the influential composer, musician,
Oscar winner and activist

615
00:50:31,960 --> 00:50:37,399
His wall of fame reminded me of Waddesdon
and Tring and Nica's childhood homes.

616
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:42,910
And so I asked both Quincy
and my Great Aunt Miriam, Nica's sister,

617
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:45,037
to examine the seeds of prejudice.

618
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:50,194
The office boy has got to kick the cat downstairs.

619
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:54,914
Everybody's got to have something below them

620
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:00,712
that they can either bully or torment
or kick downstairs like the office boy.

621
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:02,632
It's just part of the human race

622
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:05,712
and it's just unlucky if you happen to be Jewish

623
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:08,838
because you're one of the easiest things
to kick downstairs.

624
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:12,993
But next day it will be the Negroes
and next day it will be something else.

625
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:22,990
They always need something on which
to vent their anger, really, at what life is like.

626
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:31,033
JONES: Well, it's part of a disease,
psychological disease.

627
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:37,310
Make yourself feel like a giant
by making other people midgets.

628
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:40,474
A cheap shot, you know.

629
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:44,592
It was like when she came over,
they shot at her car, you know,

630
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:46,239
"Nigger lover" and all this.

631
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:49,312
So she went through quite a bit...

632
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:53,995
...and we could appreciate
what she was going over, going through.

633
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:58,233
And in our own way,
we would have fought to the death

634
00:51:58,320 --> 00:51:59,833
if we were with her, you know,

635
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:02,878
if we were there and someone insulted her
or something,

636
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:05,554
they had to deal with all of us, you know.

637
00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:10,469
But the main problem for Nica
was not just that her friends were black,

638
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:12,836
many were also drug addicts.

639
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,389
Heroin was part of their lifestyle

640
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:21,920
and the most famous junkie of all was
Monk's cofounder of bebop, Charlie Bird Parker.

641
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:26,149
MONK JR: Charlie Parker was so excessive

642
00:52:26,240 --> 00:52:31,360
because there were not many people
you could find, in or out of the jazz world,

643
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:36,958
who would drink a half a gallon of wine
and drop a handful of Benzedrine

644
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:39,680
or shoot up dope the way he shot it up.

645
00:52:39,760 --> 00:52:41,910
So Charlie Parker was extreme.

646
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:45,516
He courted death.

647
00:52:47,520 --> 00:52:50,433
Most people do not understand, you know.

648
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:52,750
Charlie Parker was not a nice person.

649
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:56,429
He did a lot of bad things to a lot of people.

650
00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:00,280
Part of it was the drugs.

651
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,590
Part of it was his personality.

652
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,637
(Plays saxophone with jazz band)

653
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:15,037
ROLLINS: Charlie Parker
was one of the reasons that we got involved

654
00:53:15,120 --> 00:53:17,873
with the type of drug use that we were into...

655
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:24,239
...him being our idol
and his social impact on everybody.

656
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:30,234
You know, like, we were like Charlie Parker's
children in a way.

657
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:33,631
You know, all the young saxophone players.

658
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:40,198
MIRREN AS NICA: For all the adulation
heaped upon him by fans and musicians,

659
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,112
Bird was lonely.

660
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:47,557
I saw him standing in front of Birdland
in the pouring rain and I was horrified.

661
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:49,358
I asked him why.

662
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:52,475
And he said he had no place to go.

663
00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:00,836
And when this happened,
he'd ride the subways all night.

664
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:03,917
He'd ride a train to the end of the line

665
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:08,790
and when he was ordered out,
he would go to another train and ride back.

666
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:22,518
MAN: Parker was supposed to go to Boston
for an engagement.

667
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:24,034
He stopped up there.

668
00:54:24,120 --> 00:54:26,634
He started vomiting blood.
She called a doctor.

669
00:54:26,720 --> 00:54:29,109
They said, "You're too sick to travel."

670
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:31,555
And he spent a couple of days there

671
00:54:31,640 --> 00:54:34,314
and according to Nica's recollections,

672
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:36,471
she and her daughter -
who was very young -

673
00:54:36,560 --> 00:54:40,440
were just giving him
endless amounts of water to drink

674
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:42,272
and could not slake his thirst.

675
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:45,398
He was sweating. He was sick.
He had all sorts of complications.

676
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:48,313
He was 34 years old but he looked a lot older.

677
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:49,834
He'd gained a lot of weight.

678
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:54,232
She says that the doctor was up there twice.

679
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:59,679
And then on Sunday night, they were watching
the Dorsey Brothers' television show

680
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,593
and during the juggling act,

681
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,672
he started laughing
and then choking and then died.

682
00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:12,155
MIRREN AS NICA: Oh, yes, that story
became juicy grist for the pulp mills.

683
00:55:12,240 --> 00:55:15,631
One screamed
"The Bird And The Baroness' Boudoir".

684
00:55:15,720 --> 00:55:19,554
Another newspaper said
"Bop King Dies In Heiress' Flat',

685
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:22,154
or "Death Of Bop King Parker".

686
00:55:22,240 --> 00:55:24,231
One particular paper said,

687
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:31,351
'Blinded and bedazzled by this luscious, slinky,
black-haired, jet-eyed Circe of high society,

688
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:34,478
the Yardbird was a fallen sparrow."

689
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,519
I mean, how absolutely ridiculous.

690
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:42,753
COLOMBY: The most famous columnist
in New York at the time was Walter Winchell.

691
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:48,239
Walter Winchell actually pursued her.

692
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:53,193
He persecuted her in his column
as a dealer of drugs.

693
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:56,316
Oh, he made her out to be this horror.

694
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:00,159
He targeted her.
And Walter Winchell was like...

695
00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:04,154
I don't know if you know anything about him...
You don't know about Walter Winchell?

696
00:56:04,240 --> 00:56:05,958
- No.
- You should find out.

697
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:08,680
He was a guy
that literally made or broke people.

698
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:15,512
I did find out and ploughed through
yards of innuendo, speculation,

699
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:19,275
rumours about Nica's love affairs
and her supposed habits.

700
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:23,875
But I've always believed
that the best way to establish the truth

701
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:27,316
<i>is to ask those who were there,
the first-hand witnesses.</i>

702
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:29,951
HANNAH: Did Nica take drugs?

703
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:34,876
COLOMBY: I don't think I've ever seen
Nica smoke a joint, as they say.

704
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:38,032
I've never seen that so I can't tell you.

705
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:41,636
And she never looked to me
like someone that was high.

706
00:56:41,720 --> 00:56:43,631
She would drink a little bit, but she...

707
00:56:43,720 --> 00:56:45,552
She once told me she was really...

708
00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:49,474
She had been, I think,
almost a certified alcoholic, I think.

709
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,949
But she said Thelonious cured her.

710
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:53,997
♪ THELONIOUS MONK: Bolivar Blues

711
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:08,637
She'd get up very late, as well.
Six in the evening.

712
00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:15,750
The first thing, I'm told, that she did sometimes
was to take a pistol from under her bedclothes

713
00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:24,396
and practise pistol shooting
on the light bulbs in the hotel bedroom.

714
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:28,511
And this went down badly
with the hotel management and her neighbours

715
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:31,353
and my father, from time to time,
would have to go over there

716
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:34,319
to persuade them to allow her
to go on staying in the hotel.

717
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,392
HANNAH: What do you think
Nica's family in England's reaction was

718
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:42,951
to her lifestyle in New York and her friends?

719
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:44,917
They didn't talk very much about Nica,

720
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:49,995
so I imagine that they disapproved,
and found it very strange.

721
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:54,074
I should think they were probably very surprised
and certainly shocked.

722
00:57:57,240 --> 00:58:00,278
Nica's behaviour was too much for her husband.

723
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:04,513
The Baron sued for divorce
and received custody of the younger children,

724
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:09,151
though her eldest daughter, Janka, was allowed
to remain with her mother in New York.

725
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:15,675
MIRREN AS NICA: I was living in the Stanhope,
but after Bird died they threw me out.

726
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:20,674
Then I went to the Bolivar
and that's when I got my Steinway.

727
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:23,274
Well, Thelonious and I got it together.

728
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:29,513
That's where he wrote Brilliant Corners,
Bolivar Blues and Pannonica.

729
00:58:29,600 --> 00:58:31,750
(Mellow jazz piano)

730
00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:39,637
These shelves, unfortunately,
tend to break the spines of the records

731
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:41,393
So you can't easily read them.

732
00:58:41,480 --> 00:58:45,075
These are all Monk records I'm going through,
every single one.

733
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:53,792
- And that's the one with Pannonica on it?
- Mm-hm.

734
00:58:54,920 --> 00:58:57,912
This is really one of the great dedication pieces.

735
00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:04,599
This is a very major composition,
specifically created to celebrate the individual,

736
00:59:05,560 --> 00:59:06,994
as opposed to...

737
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:11,392
"Hey, we just did a blues ad-libbed in the studio,

738
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:13,517
let's name it for our friend."

739
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,951
It's really one of the great,
great jazz dedication pieces,

740
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:22,031
as substantial as anything.

741
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:26,111
MIRREN AS NICA: It was my brother Victor
who decided I needed a house

742
00:59:26,200 --> 00:59:27,713
and he found me this one,

743
00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:32,112
that had belonged to Josef von Sternberg,
Dietrich's director.

744
00:59:32,200 --> 00:59:34,157
(Meowing)

745
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:41,998
MIRREN AS NICA: Thelonious used to call it
the "Cat House".

746
00:59:43,640 --> 00:59:46,075
I was used to being surrounded by animals.

747
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:57,512
MAN: She'd know the name of each cat.

748
00:59:59,360 --> 01:00:04,389
I remember one of her favourites was Cootie,
which she named after Cootie Williams.

749
01:00:05,320 --> 01:00:09,917
So she had all of these cats
named after different musicians.

750
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:11,832
The term "cats" in jazz

751
01:00:11,920 --> 01:00:15,436
comes from the cat houses of New Orleans

752
01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:17,955
where the musicians played in the early days.

753
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:19,678
That's where they found employment.

754
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:23,037
So I think that's how
they started calling each other cats.

755
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:27,193
The only place they couldn't go -
and she told me this - was the Bentley.

756
01:00:27,960 --> 01:00:35,356
It had a fence built around it in the garage
so they couldn't get into the Bentley.

757
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:42,350
- What do you think Monk made of all the cats?
- He hated cats.

758
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:45,159
He hated the cats. He said so.

759
01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:50,269
He just loved her and liked hanging around her,
but he wasn't into the cats at all.

760
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:52,317
(Jazz music and applause)

761
01:00:57,600 --> 01:01:02,197
After six years of being a shadowy figure,
unable to play in public,

762
01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:05,671
shuttling between his apartment
and Nica's hotel room,

763
01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:08,115
Monk finally got his Cabaret Card back.

764
01:01:08,840 --> 01:01:14,279
<i>And it was Nica who helped him secure
a longstanding gig at the Five Spot,</i>

765
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,557
<i>a residency that was to go down in jazz history.</i>

766
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:24,035
MAN: In fact, when I did start to play with Monk
at the Five Spot,

767
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:25,793
Monk had her to call me up.

768
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:28,030
She was the one that made the deal.

769
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:33,598
It was great to, you know,
play at the Five Spot.. . with Monk.

770
01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:36,194
We were there sometimes 18 weeks at a time.

771
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:40,517
I remember her coming in with Monk.

772
01:01:40,600 --> 01:01:43,194
She was always with an entourage,
a few people.

773
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:47,751
Coming in with her fur coat on,
and smiling as usual, you know.

774
01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:49,956
I'll never forget that smile of hers.

775
01:01:53,240 --> 01:01:58,269
KELLEY: She had taken Thelonious
to the Five Spot so many times

776
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:01,716
that she could time the lights perfectly,
you know.

777
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:09,153
So she'd jump in the car - and he was living at
West 63rd street, near Amsterdam -

778
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:11,800
and she'd have to
get downtown to the village.

779
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:15,111
And she'd just get down there
without having to stop.

780
01:02:15,200 --> 01:02:17,237
You know, just figured it all out.

781
01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:33,194
On October 15th, 1958,

782
01:02:33,960 --> 01:02:39,273
Nica drove Monk and Charlie Rouse
to a concert in Wilmington, Delaware.

783
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:46,478
A white woman driving two black men
was enough lo alert the cops.

784
01:02:50,240 --> 01:02:53,358
It's all here in the cutting.
They never got there.

785
01:02:57,240 --> 01:03:03,156
MIRREN AS NICA: "Baroness Sentenced,
Wilmington, Delaware, April 21st, 1958.

786
01:03:03,240 --> 01:03:06,471
Baroness Kathleen Rothschild
de Koenigswarter

787
01:03:06,560 --> 01:03:09,154
was sentenced to three years in prison today

788
01:03:09,240 --> 01:03:13,029
for having $10 worth of marijuana in her car

789
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:18,672
when she was arrested with Thelonious Monk,
Negro pianist, and another musician."

790
01:03:18,760 --> 01:03:24,995
COLOMBY: The night before, he was
going through one of his mental episodes.

791
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:30,510
And that, of course, made me nervous,
but he had a job.

792
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:34,355
We weren't in a position just to cancel a job.

793
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:38,354
And then what happened was,
he started acting strange.

794
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:45,596
KELLEY: So he goes in his hotel,
asks for a drink of water.

795
01:03:45,680 --> 01:03:49,116
Looks very menacing
as far as the hotel staff were concerned.

796
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,556
COLOMBY: The manager of the hotel
called the Highway Patrol.

797
01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:54,870
And he went back into the car...

798
01:03:55,920 --> 01:03:58,230
KELLEY: They start beating Thelonious.

799
01:03:58,320 --> 01:03:59,958
And the Baroness jumps out.

800
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:04,113
<i>She's trying 10 defend him, saying,
"Protect his hands .. don't beat his hands "</i>

801
01:04:04,200 --> 01:04:07,955
cos his hands are on the steering wheel
and they're beating him.

802
01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:12,352
COLOMBY: They opened the trunk of the car
and saw marijuana, in a little can,

803
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:15,034
and that became a narcotics arrest.

804
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:19,237
MAN: And she took the rap, you know.
She took the rap for him.

805
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:21,118
Why do you think she took the rap?

806
01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:23,032
- Why did she do it?
- Yeah?

807
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:27,312
I think she did it because she felt

808
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:37,310
that she would be able to deal with
the legal problems much better than he.

809
01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:41,514
He was black, she was not.

810
01:04:41,600 --> 01:04:43,034
She was a woman.

811
01:04:45,600 --> 01:04:47,034
White woman or not,

812
01:04:47,120 --> 01:04:51,796
Nica's sentence was three years,
followed by immediate deportation.

813
01:04:51,880 --> 01:04:54,998
<i>She refused to say
who the dope actually belonged to.</i>

814
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:58,072
She went to prison and Monk still lost his card.

815
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:01,390
I tried to find out what happened next

816
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:03,312
But the trail went cold.

817
01:05:03,400 --> 01:05:05,277
No-one could tell me any details.

818
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:06,998
I hit a dead end.

819
01:05:12,320 --> 01:05:14,550
And then, one of those lucky breaks.

820
01:05:14,640 --> 01:05:19,271
At Rutgers University in New Jersey -
one of the few centres of jazz studies -

821
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,239
I was looking at Mary Lou Williams' archive.

822
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:27,233
The great pianist
was Nica's closest friend and pen pal

823
01:05:27,320 --> 01:05:29,550
and there were lots of Nica's things.

824
01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:38,839
There were paintings, fabulous paintings.

825
01:05:41,760 --> 01:05:45,515
- Here's one here.
- That's absolutely amazing, isn't it?

826
01:05:54,040 --> 01:05:58,910
And there were letters that quashed my fears
that Nica had abandoned her children.

827
01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:00,718
She hadn't at all.

828
01:06:00,800 --> 01:06:04,953
There were references to their visits
and to Christmases and to holidays.

829
01:06:05,040 --> 01:06:08,078
Janka and her son Stephen
even lived at the Cat House.

830
01:06:08,920 --> 01:06:12,117
And all her children
hung out with her and the musicians.

831
01:06:17,640 --> 01:06:19,551
And then I found it

832
01:06:19,640 --> 01:06:20,960
A letter.

833
01:06:21,040 --> 01:06:25,557
Nica had apparently been let out of prison,
subject to appeal

834
01:06:26,440 --> 01:06:29,000
And this letter was written by Nica,

835
01:06:29,080 --> 01:06:32,152
the night before her case
went to the High Court -

836
01:06:32,240 --> 01:06:36,632
possibly her last night of freedom,
the last time she'd see Monk.

837
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:42,398
MIRREN AS NICA: "Today is the day
upon which my entire future may well depend.

838
01:06:42,480 --> 01:06:45,632
At this very moment,
it may well be being decided.

839
01:06:46,640 --> 01:06:48,995
Release, miraculous escape.

840
01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:51,913
The chance to start afresh with a clean slate.

841
01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:55,719
Or the onset of inevitable catastrophe.

842
01:06:55,800 --> 01:06:57,871
The beginning of the end.

843
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:04,075
I don't mention it to Thelonious or Nellie
or anyone else,

844
01:07:05,480 --> 01:07:07,869
but now I sit outside St Martin's

845
01:07:07,960 --> 01:07:12,113
and I wonder which of them has any idea
of what I'm going through today.

846
01:07:14,320 --> 01:07:21,477
And as for Thelonious, well, his protection
is at the root of the whole business.

847
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:24,476
And I have never discussed it with him.

848
01:07:25,360 --> 01:07:27,749
And I don't think he is really aware of it.

849
01:07:28,480 --> 01:07:30,915
He and Nellie have enough problems as it is.

850
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:39,033
I have been sitting here for almost two hours,
but it's very cold.

851
01:07:41,200 --> 01:07:44,795
So now I am going in
to light a candle to St Martin."

852
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:54,554
Nica's prayers were answered
and she got off on a technicality.

853
01:07:56,200 --> 01:08:00,558
MIRREN AS NICA: Everybody - well,
I mean the family - finally got the message,

854
01:08:00,640 --> 01:08:03,393
after I had been in and out of prison and all that.

855
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:06,074
Well, they all got to realise what was going on.

856
01:08:06,160 --> 01:08:09,630
That Thelonious was something
rather important in my life.

857
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:10,949
(Chuckles)

858
01:08:11,040 --> 01:08:14,032
And of course they're all
suddenly dying to meet him.

859
01:08:14,120 --> 01:08:18,353
My sister Miriam came out to New York.
That's another story.

860
01:08:19,280 --> 01:08:23,069
<i>It took another 18 months
for Monk to get his Cabaret Card back.</i>

861
01:08:23,800 --> 01:08:26,679
He hit the road and the recording studios
with a vengeance

862
01:08:26,760 --> 01:08:32,278
and was finally recognised as the genius
that Nica had spotted 11 years earlier.

863
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:36,111
HOST: Hello, again.

864
01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:39,113
The star guest of our Jazz 625 show tonight

865
01:08:39,200 --> 01:08:43,194
is referred to as "The High Priest of Bebop",
as a "jazz maverick”,

866
01:08:43,280 --> 01:08:44,998
as the "Mysterious Monk"

867
01:08:45,080 --> 01:08:49,870
and more recently in a London paper
as "The Piano Picasso".

868
01:08:50,160 --> 01:08:51,594
Whatever that means.

869
01:08:51,680 --> 01:08:56,390
What he is, in fact, is one of those rare beings,
a true jazz original,

870
01:08:56,480 --> 01:08:59,279
a vastly respected musician and composer

871
01:08:59,360 --> 01:09:04,036
whose influence on jazz
in the last 25 years has been incalculable,

872
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:06,999
but who has remained all the time
a striking individualist.

873
01:09:07,080 --> 01:09:08,991
The name is Thelonious Monk.

874
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:10,115
(Applause)

875
01:09:11,760 --> 01:09:13,717
♪ Nutty

876
01:09:52,840 --> 01:09:56,151
KELLEY: He's suddenly a star.
All the critics who hated him love him.

877
01:09:56,880 --> 01:10:00,475
But this is jazz,
which means that you can be loved,

878
01:10:00,560 --> 01:10:04,110
you can get gigs all the time,
but you still won't make any money.

879
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,157
It was an unfortunate life.

880
01:10:13,080 --> 01:10:17,392
Thelonious Monk was listed in the phone book,
"Monk, Thelonious".

881
01:10:17,480 --> 01:10:18,709
See?

882
01:10:18,800 --> 01:10:21,997
Now, someone on his level today
would be unlisted.

883
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:26,153
They wanted the phone to ring.
They wanted jobs.

884
01:10:31,640 --> 01:10:35,474
Then Columbia Records
cancelled Monk's recording contract.

885
01:10:36,480 --> 01:10:40,314
Without this money, it was extremely hard
to keep a band together.

886
01:10:41,120 --> 01:10:44,670
Nica's own finances
were increasingly precarious.

887
01:10:44,760 --> 01:10:49,311
The cat food and veterinarian bills alone
were astronomical.

888
01:10:49,400 --> 01:10:52,313
Monk had to go out on the road to earn money,

889
01:10:52,400 --> 01:10:57,520
even though he was suffering from frequent
nervous breakdowns and even hospitalisation.

890
01:11:02,520 --> 01:11:06,115
One particular incident
happened in San Francisco

891
01:11:06,200 --> 01:11:10,990
when Monk was admitted to the mental ward
by the trumpeter, Eddie Henderson,

892
01:11:11,080 --> 01:11:15,472
who was at that time
a newly-qualified psychiatric doctor.

893
01:11:18,480 --> 01:11:23,475
Nellie brought him in late at night
and I was awakened and I come downstairs,

894
01:11:23,560 --> 01:11:26,154
to be the doctor to do the intake interview.

895
01:11:26,240 --> 01:11:28,595
I said, "That's Monk," to myself.

896
01:11:28,680 --> 01:11:30,591
Nobody else really knew who he was.

897
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:43,717
Nica said over her dead body
would Monk receive shock treatment.

898
01:11:45,920 --> 01:11:49,959
That was something she was very adamant,
but she wasn't out there.

899
01:11:50,720 --> 01:11:52,791
She didn't go to the West Coast.

900
01:12:00,240 --> 01:12:04,552
So with electric shock therapy,
most people have a grand mal seizure.

901
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:06,392
Monk just gritted his teeth

902
01:12:06,480 --> 01:12:11,953
and they put electrodes to his head
and in effect turned on electricity.

903
01:12:12,040 --> 01:12:16,238
And somehow it more or less
does something to the brain cells.

904
01:12:19,240 --> 01:12:21,800
And it works.
They're not depressed any more.

905
01:12:21,880 --> 01:12:24,554
However, they're not really the same any more.

906
01:12:31,080 --> 01:12:37,952
So at the end, they gave Mr Monk a diag...
Schizophrenia, unclassified type.

907
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:52,276
According to Paul Jeffrey,
one of Monk's side men,

908
01:12:52,360 --> 01:12:55,990
Nellie had hoped to spend time
on the West Coast

909
01:12:56,080 --> 01:13:02,156
and to find Monk a permanent engagement
in either San Francisco or Los Angeles.

910
01:13:02,240 --> 01:13:06,473
To save money,
Nellie had sublet the family apartment.

911
01:13:06,560 --> 01:13:10,030
But Monk's breakdown meant
they had to come back to New York.

912
01:13:10,840 --> 01:13:16,040
JEFFREY: When Monk came back to New York,
he had no apartment and no furniture.

913
01:13:16,120 --> 01:13:18,396
He had nowhere to stay.

914
01:13:18,480 --> 01:13:20,630
So Nica got him an apartment.

915
01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:23,473
So what had happened to his apartment
and his furniture?

916
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:25,517
Nobody ever knew.

917
01:13:27,160 --> 01:13:31,154
Monk used to ask me, "Where's my furniture?"
Of course, you know.

918
01:13:31,240 --> 01:13:33,356
I remember, he even went so far as that..

919
01:13:33,440 --> 01:13:38,150
Charlie Rouse lived in the same
apartment building that Monk used to live in.

920
01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:40,834
And he went by Charlie Rouse's house.

921
01:13:40,920 --> 01:13:43,833
Charlie wasn't in. Charlie's old lady was there.

922
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:49,153
And Monk walked through the whole apartment
looking for his furniture.

923
01:13:50,480 --> 01:13:52,437
(Mellow piano music)

924
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:07,789
KELLEY: He's also suffering
from prostate problems

925
01:14:07,880 --> 01:14:11,510
so physically it's difficult for him
to sit for long periods of time

926
01:14:11,600 --> 01:14:14,752
and, increasingly,
he began to cut down the number of gigs.

927
01:14:14,840 --> 01:14:16,433
He lost a lot of his side men,

928
01:14:16,520 --> 01:14:20,309
because they needed steady work
and he couldn't provide that for them.

929
01:14:20,400 --> 01:14:24,758
So, in '72, that's when
he had a really bad episode,

930
01:14:24,840 --> 01:14:27,116
and that's when Nellie and Nica decided

931
01:14:27,200 --> 01:14:31,956
it would be better for him to move into
the Baroness's house in Weehawken.

932
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:36,709
Monk spent the last ten years of his life
in the Cat House

933
01:14:36,800 --> 01:14:43,513
and his final public engagements
were at Carnegie Hall and at Bradley's, in 1976.

934
01:14:45,280 --> 01:14:47,794
KELLEY: People asked,
"How come you stopped playing?"

935
01:14:47,880 --> 01:14:50,679
He says, "I'm just tired.
I just got tired of playing."

936
01:14:51,960 --> 01:14:54,076
MIRREN AS NICA: Monk only stopped playing

937
01:14:54,160 --> 01:14:57,915
when it became a physical impossibility
for him to go on.

938
01:14:58,000 --> 01:15:02,153
Otherwise nothing on earth
could have stopped him playing.

939
01:15:03,280 --> 01:15:06,432
You know, he had a biochemical imbalance...

940
01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:10,597
...and he was desperately ill
during those last years.

941
01:15:12,040 --> 01:15:15,670
He wanted to get well
more than anything in the world.

942
01:15:15,760 --> 01:15:19,310
And he cooperated with his doctors 100%.

943
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:25,515
And they tried everything under the sun,
but nothing seemed to help.

944
01:15:27,480 --> 01:15:30,154
I only regret one thing in my life.

945
01:15:31,080 --> 01:15:34,072
And that's not being able to save Thelonious.

946
01:15:42,840 --> 01:15:45,832
MAN: People would go up there
like a pilgrimage every day.

947
01:15:48,120 --> 01:15:49,633
He would be in the bed

948
01:15:49,720 --> 01:15:53,031
and he'd have half the world
stretched out in the bed with him.

949
01:15:53,120 --> 01:15:56,511
You know, books, magazines, records.

950
01:15:56,600 --> 01:16:00,195
All kinds of stuff.
It was always very strange.

951
01:16:00,280 --> 01:16:04,478
And I'd say, "What's happening, Monk?"
He'd say, "Everything, all the time.

952
01:16:04,560 --> 01:16:11,000
Every...googolplex of a second,"
he would say. I said, "Oh, really."

953
01:16:12,360 --> 01:16:16,274
I like to think of Nica at this time
in her house across the water,

954
01:16:16,360 --> 01:16:21,309
living with Monk and an assortment of children,
grandchildren and cats,

955
01:16:22,200 --> 01:16:24,271
<i>still entertaining other musicians</i>

956
01:16:24,360 --> 01:16:27,079
and still - as her interviews
and her letters show -

957
01:16:27,160 --> 01:16:29,549
fully committed to helping Thelonious.

958
01:16:39,600 --> 01:16:42,240
MIRREN AS NICA:
I hadn't been away anywhere for 12 years,

959
01:16:42,320 --> 01:16:44,470
but then I had to go to England.

960
01:16:45,960 --> 01:16:48,634
I'm not a crier. I never cry.

961
01:16:48,720 --> 01:16:51,792
I can count the times on one hand
when I've cried.

962
01:16:52,920 --> 01:16:56,754
I didn't cry when Thelonious died
and I haven't cried since.

963
01:16:58,720 --> 01:17:02,111
But on the day that I left here, I started to cry.

964
01:17:03,480 --> 01:17:07,519
And when I went to say goodbye to Thelonious,
he was really upset.

965
01:17:08,560 --> 01:17:10,437
I couldn't stop, you know.

966
01:17:10,520 --> 01:17:12,477
I just couldn't stop.

967
01:17:13,320 --> 01:17:15,914
And I cried the whole way to England, too.

968
01:17:18,040 --> 01:17:21,510
And I remember
Thelonious saying there, before I left,

969
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:24,672
"It's all right. I will be here when you come back.

970
01:17:24,760 --> 01:17:26,558
I'm not going anywhere.

971
01:17:26,640 --> 01:17:28,313
I will be here."

972
01:17:29,480 --> 01:17:31,517
But I just couldn't stop.

973
01:17:32,680 --> 01:17:34,671
And that was in 1982,

974
01:17:34,760 --> 01:17:37,036
and of course he died in 1982.

975
01:17:37,880 --> 01:17:41,475
And it was almost like I knew he was going to.

976
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:46,679
And like I had to say my farewell to him then.

977
01:17:46,760 --> 01:17:48,990
♪ Lover Man

978
01:18:20,760 --> 01:18:24,230
JEFFREY: What would have happened to Monk
if she wasn't there?

979
01:18:26,680 --> 01:18:31,880
MONK: I would like to play a little tune I just
composed named after this beautiful lady here.

980
01:18:34,640 --> 01:18:37,951
MONK JR: Your aunt fell in love with my dad.

981
01:18:38,040 --> 01:18:40,236
I have no doubt about that.

982
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:44,797
MONK: I love Nica, so I'll do anything for Nica.

983
01:18:46,520 --> 01:18:50,753
MONK JR: She has that cigarette holder,
that long hair, that smile and that whole thing.

984
01:18:50,840 --> 01:18:52,558
I can just see her now.

985
01:18:55,880 --> 01:18:58,235
JONES: She was cool and she was hip.

986
01:18:58,320 --> 01:19:00,118
Those were the key words back then.

987
01:19:00,200 --> 01:19:02,589
Cool to be hip, you know, and hip to be cool.

988
01:19:03,560 --> 01:19:06,678
ORRIN KEEPNEWS: Your aunt
was a pretty damn flamboyant woman.

989
01:19:07,640 --> 01:19:11,235
CURTIS FULLER: She was our pride
and she was a light.

990
01:19:15,840 --> 01:19:19,549
The last time I saw Great Aunt Nica
was in a club downtown.

991
01:19:20,280 --> 01:19:24,035
She sat of course, at her usual table,
nearest the stage,

992
01:19:24,120 --> 01:19:27,670
and her fur coat
was slung over the back of a chair.

993
01:19:31,240 --> 01:19:34,835
She never did succeed
in making me a jazz expert

994
01:19:34,920 --> 01:19:39,039
and nor did her example
tempt me to seek a life elsewhere.

995
01:19:41,120 --> 01:19:43,111
Perhaps I lack courage.

996
01:19:43,200 --> 01:19:46,955
Perhaps I just never heard the right record
at the right time.

997
01:19:48,120 --> 01:19:50,794
But what Nica and her friends have shown me

998
01:19:50,880 --> 01:19:55,238
is that those of us lucky enough
to enjoy freedom and opportunity

999
01:19:55,320 --> 01:19:57,630
should make the most of every minute.

1000
01:20:01,080 --> 01:20:05,392
And if she were with me now,
I think I know what Nica would do.

1001
01:20:05,480 --> 01:20:09,553
First she'd pour us both
a shot of whisky from her teapot

1002
01:20:09,640 --> 01:20:12,200
and then she'd raise her finger to her mouth

1003
01:20:12,280 --> 01:20:18,037
and she'd whisper,
"Shh. Just listen to the music, Hannah.

1004
01:20:18,960 --> 01:20:20,997
Just listen."

1005
01:20:34,520 --> 01:20:38,354
MIRREN AS NICA: I would like my ashes
to be scattered on the Hudson River,

1006
01:20:38,440 --> 01:20:41,239
in the evening, around midnight.

1007
01:20:42,880 --> 01:20:46,191
Yes, I said "round midnight".

1008
01:20:47,280 --> 01:20:49,237
I think you all know why.

1009
01:20:49,320 --> 01:20:51,277
PIANO: ♪ Lover Man

1009
01:20:52,305 --> 01:21:52,851
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