TV REVIEW : THELONIOUS MONK TRIBUTE SLIGHTS THE MAN’S MUSIC

Innocents with little knowledge of how jazz works may be mystified as they watch “Celebrating a Jazz Master” this weekend on PBS, a Charles Fishman production taped last year at Constitution Hall in Washington and sponsored by the Beethoven Society. (It airs tonight at 10:30 on Channel 50, and Saturday at 10 p.m. on Channel 28.)

They will wonder what were the elements of greatness in Thelonious Monk that led such musicians as Herbie Hancock, David Amram and Wynton Marsalis to reminisce loftily about the new boundaries established, the legacy he passed on, the “elevation of the human spirit” (Hancock’s verdict).

Their confusion will be understandable. The program opens (after introductions by Debbie Allen and Bill Cosby) with the amusing but irrelevant two-tin-whistles-at-once routine of David Amram, teamed with Dizzy Gillespie in a Gillespie tune. Later, the pianists Ellis Marsalis and Kenny Kirkland duet on “Just You, Just Me,” with only momentary reference to a Monk song midway through.

Monk composed two great ballads: “ ‘Round Midnight,” splendidly performed by Gerry Mulligan with the Billy Taylor Trio, and “Ruby My Dear,” well played by the pianist Walter Davis Jr. The best of his quirky, ingenious instrumental pieces, such as “Straight No Chaser” and “Misterioso,” are not heard.

Instead, we have Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis and Jon Hendricks improvising on traditional chords, with a brief nod to Monk only in their opening and closing statements, via the very basic “Blue Monk” and the simplistic “Rhythmaning.” Ursula Dudziak, playing multiphonic synthesizer tricks with her voice, refers briefly to “Well You Needn’t,” a Monk riff tune based mainly on two chords.

There is good ad lib jazz aplenty here, but the actual proportion of playing time devoted to Monk’s music is in fact very small indeed, though this will not be clear to listeners who cannot distinguish between an improvisation on the blues or “I Got Rhythm” and an original creation by the supposed central figure in this curious production.

It’s too bad that a vastly superior documentary, “Music In Monk Time,” has been unable to get on the air, despite having won numerous honors such as a bronze award from the New York Festival.