Monk Competition Wraps Up In D.C.

Washington, D.C.’s annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition might be the genre’s most prestigious contest, and this week, the 2005 edition was won by a Norwegian-born strummer now living in New York. Unlike many classical competitions, the students hoping for first prize weren’t the only ones to take the stage – all the judges, whose names read like a roster of America’s finest living jazz musicians – performed in addition to their jury duty.