It's night and day... they couldn't be more different... both absolute legends ... Evans is more of a classic piano player's piano player... his technique is smooth, his dynamics tended to be more delicate, he fills space with delicate chord clusters and crystalline, sustained single notes... there's a tremendous sensitivity and vulnerability to his playing (check out Intermodulation and Undercurrent, the two outrageously gorgeous records he cut with Jim Hall, who is like his musical twin with a guitar) Monk created space and then punctuated it unpredictably with loud, percussive strikes... completely idiosyncratic musician... he was clearly strongly influenced by Duke... the single, hard-struck key on an offbeat ringing out unexpectedly over a series of changes, the flirtations with dissonance... a really fascinating listen is Thelonius Monk Plays Duke Ellington which showcases both Monk's formidable and underrated skill but more importantly how easily his sensibility fits Ellington's songs. Neophytes and snobs alike hear Monk and think his playing is weird or sloppy but it's some of the most difficult stuff in all of music... get out your instrument of choice and try to play "Brilliant Corners"... good luck ... what's most remarkable about Monk, to me is that for all his celebrated quirky genius, he's probably the second best ballad composer of the whole Bop generation (the finest being Charles Mingus) capable of writing incredibly beautiful ones
Monk is something else. It's not a great comparison, but it's more "who do you listen to on a Saturday afternoon with a spliff and some beer?"
Your Duke Ellington thing is bang on, he did draw from Duke's percussive nature and played his shit easy.
Yup... Duke is basically inescapable as an influence for about 75% of all jazz made after 1935 or so but Monk was especially influenced by Duke's piano playing in particular (which I always loved... Duke didn't have a virtuoso skill set on the instrument but he's so underrated in it... his style was all his own)
His piano playing in this context is like Bob Dylan's guitar playing in a thread about "Wes Montgomery or George Benson?"
