To coincide with the release of The Monkathon – Miles Okazaki, filmmaker Frank Heath, and producer David Breskin’s unprecedented live concert film of the complete works of Thelonious Monk on solo guitar – Okazaki is reissuing Work, his widely acclaimed six-disc solo guitar album of the complete Monk songbook, which has been unavailable since the sellout of the original printing. Work is available on October 10, 2026, Monk’s 109th birthday, via Cygnus Recordings.
Recorded In 2017 during Monk’s centennial year and released in 2018, the album was heralded as a “monumental statement of devotion” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times), “the six-string equivalent of a free solo climb up El Capitan” (Nate Chinen, WBGO), “heroic” (Kevin Whitehead, NPR’s Fresh Air), and “jaw-dropping” (Mark Corroto, All About Jazz). The album landed on more than a dozen Top Ten lists and Okazaki was voted the #1 rising star guitarist in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
