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Yasiin Bey, Formerly Mos Def, Cast As Jazz Revolutionary Thelonious Monk
By Zoe Haylock@zoe_alliyah
Yasiin Bey and Thelonious Monk. Photo: Dominique Charriau/WireImage; Gilles Petard/Redferns
Sorry, Denzel. Yasiin Bey, the artist formerly known as Mos Def, has been cast as jazz musician Thelonious Monk in an upcoming film by screenwriter-producer Peter Lord Moreland. Thelonious will center on the pianist and composer’s “struggles for musical success, mental illness, and the spiritual love triangle between his wife, Nellie, and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild.” Production is slated to begin next summer. Finding an actor with the right vibe proved difficult, producer Alberto Marzan explained to Rolling Stone. So they found a musician. “When his name was brought up, there was a silence that I will never forget,” Marzan says. “We all envisioned him. This needed to be somebody that understood Thelonious’ music on an intimate level. It needed to be someone who understood the life and challenges of being a musician, a black man in this universe. Yasiin has Thelonious’ morals and focus on what matters.”
“A leader.A Lord.A shape in space.A man from a community of devotion who lives a simple life distant from society,” Bey said of Monk in an emailed statement to Rolling Stone. “The adjectives.can never be nouns.Love.is a verb.The Future has already happened.And Forever.is a current event.Jupiter and team.”
Yasiin Bey, Formerly Mos Def, Cast As Jazz Revolutionary Thelonious Monk
By Zoe Haylock@zoe_alliyah
Yasiin Bey and Thelonious Monk. Photo: Dominique Charriau/WireImage; Gilles Petard/Redferns
Sorry, Denzel. Yasiin Bey, the artist formerly known as Mos Def, has been cast as jazz musician Thelonious Monk in an upcoming film by screenwriter-producer Peter Lord Moreland. Thelonious will center on the pianist and composer’s “struggles for musical success, mental illness, and the spiritual love triangle between his wife, Nellie, and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild.” Production is slated to begin next summer. Finding an actor with the right vibe proved difficult, producer Alberto Marzan explained to Rolling Stone. So they found a musician. “When his name was brought up, there was a silence that I will never forget,” Marzan says. “We all envisioned him. This needed to be somebody that understood Thelonious’ music on an intimate level. It needed to be someone who understood the life and challenges of being a musician, a black man in this universe. Yasiin has Thelonious’ morals and focus on what matters.”
“A leader.A Lord.A shape in space.A man from a community of devotion who lives a simple life distant from society,” Bey said of Monk in an emailed statement to Rolling Stone. “The adjectives.can never be nouns.Love.is a verb.The Future has already happened.And Forever.is a current event.Jupiter and team.”
