With all the attention on American Idol, starring the remarkable Fantasia from High Point, I thought it’d be fun to pose the following question: Who is the greatest musician North Carolina has ever produced?
I’ll start with a cop-out answer. I think it’s a tie between Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Some days I think Monk is better, others Coltrane. I tend to listen to Coltrane more than Monk (I came up with the idea for this post while listening to A Love Supreme), but some of Monk’s compositions are just darned impressive. So I give them a tie.
