Jason Moran takes liberties with his homage to Thelonious Monk

Jason Moran's reverence for jazz history is equaled by his knack for subverting it. That's easy to forget. So on Saturday night at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater, when he took the stage alone to the sound of Thelonious Monk's 1959 version of "Thelonious" -- recorded live at New York's Town Hall with a 10-piece band -- it suggested that reverence was perhaps the top priority of "In My Mind," Moran's ultimately brilliant homage to Monk's Town Hall concert. He sat at the piano, slapped on ...