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Thelonious Sphere Monk, 10 Oct 1917 - 17 Feb 1982, by Boris Chaliapin, Oil on canvas, 1964

Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917-February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer.

Widely considered one of the most important musicians in jazz, Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", " Blue Monk", " Straight No Chaser" and " Well, You Needn't". Often regarded as a founder of bebop, Monk's playing style later evolved away from that form. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are impossible to separate from Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations; a style nicknamed "Melodious Thunk" by his wife Nellie^[1].

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Little is known about Monk's early life. He was born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marian. A brother, Thomas, was born a couple of years later. In 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan. Monk started playing the piano at the age of nine. Although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was essentially self-taught. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but did not graduate. He briefly toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz.

Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at Minton's Playhouse, the legendary Manhattan club where Monk was the house pianist. Monk's style at the time was described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk's stated influences include Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and other early stride pianists. Monk's unique piano style was largely perfected during his stint as the house pianist at Minton's in the early-to-mid 1940s, when he participated in the famous after-hours "cutting competitions" that featured most of the leading jazz soloists of the day. The Minton's scene was crucial in the formulation of the bebop genre and it brought Monk into close contact and collaboration with other leading exponents of bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis.

[edit] Thelonious Monk - Blue Monk

[edit] Discography

• Midnight at Minton's (c.1941, issued 1973 under Don Byas' name. Monk does not play on all tracks of this or the other two CDs of 1941 material)
• After Hours (c.1941, issued 1973 under Charlie Christian's name)
• After Hours in Harlem (c.1941, issued 1973 under Hot Lips Page's name
• Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 (1947–1948 recordings)
• Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 (1947–1952 recordings)
• Thelonious Monk Trio (1952)
• Monk (1953, reissue of 1956)
• Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (1953 recordings, 1957 reissue)
• Thelonious Monk plays the Music of Duke Ellington (1955)
• The Unique Thelonious Monk (1955)
• Brilliant Corners (1956 recording with Sonny Rollins and Clark Terry)
• Thelonious Himself (1957)
• Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (1957 recordings, 1961 issue) - Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.^[2]
• Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (1957)
• Monk's Music (1957)
• Mulligan Meets Monk (1957, with Gerry Mulligan)
• Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957, released, 2005)
• Thelonious in Action and Misterioso (1958, live at the Five Spot with Johnny Griffin)
• The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (1959, Charlie Rouse joined the band then)
• 5 by Monk by 5 (1959)
• Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (1959)
• Thelonious Monk And The Jazz Giants (1959)
• Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk (1960, with Charlie Rouse)
• Monk in France (1961)
• Monk's Dream (1962)
• Criss Cross (1962)
• Monk in Tokyo (1963)
• Miles & Monk at Newport (1963, with unrelated 1958 Miles Davis performance)
• Big Band and Quartet in Concert (1963)
• It's Monk's Time (1964)
• Monk (album) (1964)
• Solo Monk (1964)
• Live at the It Club (1964)
• Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964)
• Straight, No Chaser (1966)
• Underground (1967)
• Monk's Blues (1968)
• Something in Blue, Nice Work in London, Blue Sphere and The Man I Love (all 1971 recordings, collected in The London Collection 1988, three CDs)
• April in Paris (1981 2-LP set of the 18 April 1961 Paris recordings)
• Monk's Classic Recordings (1983)
• Blues Five Spot (1984, unissued recordings from 1958-61, with various saxophonists and Thad Jones, cornet)
• Monk Alone (1998 collection of the complete Columbia solo studio recordings, 1962 - 1968)
• The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (2006 collection of the 1957 studio recordings with Coltrane) - Won a Grammy Award in 1987 for Best Historical Album^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
• Thelonious Monk page in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
• Thelonious Monk's birth certificate
• The Official Thelonious Sphere Monk Website
• The Thelonious Monk Website
• Roundabout Monk: The European Monk Website
• Thelonious Monk at All About Jazz
• IMDb entry for Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
• CBC.ca Article on 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners
• Thelonious Monk Multimedia Directory - Kerouac Alley