Thelonious Monk, Bebop Jazz Pianist and Composer
Wrote "Round Midnight," Played with Miles Davis, John Coltrane
Dec 16, 2008
Monk was born in 1917 in North Carolina, and moved to New York as a child. He began to play music at nine, eventually landing a job playing organ with an evangelist.
Minton's Playhouse and Early Recordings
In the early 1940s, Monk became the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub. This after-hours spot was the site of informal jam sessions that featured top jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke and others. These musicians fueled the ideas for a loose-knit school of jazz that came to be known as bebop.
Thelonious Monk's first recording session was with saxophonist Coleman Hawkins in 1944. Three years later, he cut his first records as a leader, for Blue Note records. These takes included a number of his signature tunes, many of which he would perform, re-arrange and re-record throughout the remainder of his lengthy career.
Monk suffered a professional setback during this period when he lost his cabaret card, which entitled him to earn a living in New York's nightclubs. This occurred when police searched his car and found narcotics that probably belonged to his friend, pianist Bud Powell. When Monk would not testify against Powell, the authorities confiscated the card, making it impossible to work in Manhattan. This ban lasted several years.
Riverside and Columbia Records
For the lion's share of Monk's recording career he worked for Riverside Records, from 1954-61, and Columbia Records, from 1961-70. Such albums as "Brilliant Corners," which included tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and "Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane," coming after Monk's historic residency with sax player Coltrane at the Five Spot in the summer of 1957, came under the aegis of Riverside.
Monk also recorded with drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan during this period, and also cut "Monk's Music" and "5 by Monk by 5," a quintet date that was dedicated to the pianist's original compositions.
By the time Monk signed with Columbia Records, he was well known in jazz circles and was becoming somewhat of a mainstream figure on the American music scene. Albums from this period, including "Straight, No Chaser," "Miles and Monk at Newport" (with trumpeter Miles Davis) and "Monk's Dream," were state-of-the-art recordings but did not offer much in the way of important new ideas from the pianist. Nevertheless, his quirky musical style and inspired performances made him a critical favorite throughout the 1960s.
Last Years and Legacy
Always eccentric, Monk's idiosyncratic personality became quite pronounced during the last decade of his life. Associates and friends tell stories about his increasing unwillingness to speak, and for the last 11 years of his life he did not perform at all.
Thelonious Monk died in 1982, after about half a decade of declining health. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1993, in addition to a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2006.
 |
