Thelonious Monk – Unorthodox Pianist

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Table of Contents

Monk – an iconic figure in the history of jazz music
The dawn of Monk’s music career
Monk’s contribution into the development of jazz music
Works Cited

Monk – an iconic figure in the history of jazz music

Thelonious Monk is an iconic figure in the history of jazz. He is often called “one of the founding fathers of the Bebop Revolution of the forties” (Crouch 86). His extraordinary music style has been admired by thousands of jazz lovers and followed by many prominent musicians.

Monk’s discography embraces numerous pieces which have become examples of the harmonized chaos which opened up new horizons for new understanding of jazz, performance and music in general. Of course, musical genius cannot belong to ordinary person and Monk is a great illustration for such statement. This outstanding composer and musician had an extraordinary life which from the first years was inevitably connected with music.

Interestingly, his musical career was similar to his music: it was full of ups and downs, unpredictable twists and pauses. In spite of periods of oblivion, Monk’s genius and contribution into development of world jazz music is recognized and praised. It goes without saying that Monk’s heritage is to be cherished and his life should be studied so that novice musicians can understand what a real music masterpiece is.

The dawn of Monk’s music career

Monk’s early life

A lot has been said and written about Thelonious Monk, but there is still “about Monk’s life and art that resists complete knowledge” (Solis 19). Monk remains an enigmatic person even in spite of numerous interviews, commentaries and books. However, it is very tempting to have a try and reveal his secret.

So, Thelonious Monk was born in 1917 in North Carolina. After a while his family moved to New York City and this to great extent entailed the appearance of new jazz genius. Crouches calls Monk “the first Picasso of jazz” denoting that he was first “to develop a style that willfully shunned overt virtuosity in favor of a control of the elements of the music in fresh ways” (87).

However, this parallel is also relevant in the other point: Monk’s talent was revealed at very early age, as well as Picasso’s. Moreover, likewise Monk’s teacher, Simon Wolf, after few sessions with him said to one of his student’s parent: “I don’t think there will be anything I can teach him. He will go beyond me very soon” (qtd. in Kleinzahler BR10). Interestingly, Monk’s mother did not see her middle son as a pianist, instead she wanted him to play trumpet.

Actually, Thelonious did play this instrument for a while, but his sister music teacher told his mother that the boy has a talent for playing piano. Thelonious recalled this in the following way: “I started to study trumpet, but the music teacher saw me playing on the piano and he said, ‘You got to take up piano.’ So I took piano” (qtd. in Kelley 25). In fact, Monk was always fascinated by piano.

He could repeat any tune he heard once, he was also self-learning watching his sister’s lessons. When Monk started his piano lesson he was not, of course, taught jazz music. Wolf taught his young talented pupil “works by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Mozart” and he was amazed by Monk’s ability to master the most difficult places so quickly (Kelley 26).

Thelonious was fascinated by Rachmaninoff and Chopin. However, in two years Wolf stopped teaching Monk, and he started learning from jazz musicians living in the neighborhood. Monk was devoted to music and spent a lot of time playing in his house or at his friends’. However, he also had one more place to develop his talent.

This place was Columbus Hill Community Center which was a great place for numerous children from the neighborhood to develop various skills like sport, art, etc. It is necessary to add that the Center became a second home for Monk since he spent there a great deal of time. Thus, in 1933 Monk organized his first band which gave performances at parties and even several gigs at restaurants (Kelley 35). This was the start of Monk’s musical career.

Monk’s first steps in his music career

In 1934 Monk’s band performed at “Audition Night” and won the main prize, ten dollars. In fact, they won several times, so Monk’s sister Marion recalled: “The three of them would go up and they won every time they went up, so they barred them from coming up there because they were wining each time” (Kelley 36). However, these victories did not bring any fame to the trio. They were still playing for little money and no publicity. Instead, Monk’s musical career influenced negatively his study.

He was in class only sixteen days out of ninety-two and got “zeroes” for all subjects (Kleinzahler BR10). Having broken his mother’s aspiration that her son would get proper education, Monk devoted himself totally to his God, music. It is necessary to add that those were really difficult times of the Great Depression so any money brought into the family were of great importance.

Soon Monk’s mother arranged his playing for Reverend Graham, a female evangelist, who was preparing her tour of the west “in order to save souls and drive out affliction” (Kelley 40). This period of his life is believed to produce great impact on Monk’s further life and music style. Despite of some remarks that Monk was a kind of travelling with a circus, the experience in church was really important for him. In contrast to his early style, quite a lot is known about his playing for this tour.

Thus, Kelley suggests that Monk was influenced by such gospel hymns composers as Dorsey and Tindley (45). Interestingly, blues and jazz were regarded as demonic at that time, and at the same time African-American evangelists used some points of these music genres. Apart from the development of unique music style this period influenced his manner of performance. Monk used to stop playing, stand up and dance a bit while other musicians in the band were playing. According to Kelley:

His “dance” consisted of a peculiar spinning move, elbow pumping up and down on each turn, with an occasional stutter step allowing him to glide left and right. It was a deliberate embodiment of the rhythm of each tune… At the very least, what Monk witnessed on the road with the evangelist reinforced for him the essential relationship between music and dance – music is supposed to move the body and touch the soul (46).

After his return to New York he takes up any job: he plays at parties and at night clubs. It was at that time when he fell in love with Rubbie, so he desperately needed money to marry and make his living.

After numerous attempts to find proper job he entered union, to become secure from jobs when musicians could be fired and get no salary at all. The membership in union was beneficial not only for his certain financial security but for his style development. At that time he met many prominent musicians and those new acquaintances inspired him not only perform his music but create his own pieces.

Eventually, in 1941 Monk was offered a permanent job at Minton’s Playhouse which was “about to become a jazz legend” (Kelley 59). This was, in fact, a great starting point for his worldwide fame and recognition. Of course, not only Thelonious played at that place, many significant figures of jazz music were performing there as well. This variety of styles, believes and approaches also contributed to Monk’s style development which brought him success.

Monk’s contribution into the development of jazz music

Thelonious Monk’s great success.

Starting from 1941 Monk has a chance to reveal his talent to public. He improvised and played his own music. His style became distinctive and, of course, unique. Sometimes (in some tunes or compositions) people saw slight similarities with other performers. However, Monk never stopped surprising his listeners and those who knew him well. His performances were unique, vigorous extravagant and inspiring. At that period he worked really hard.

He had only few hours of sleep dedicating the rest of the day to rehearsing, playing, creating. It is necessary to add that it was then that his friends noticed his mental problems: they could see him sleeping at his piano, forgetting things. However, this was also the period of his first records.

As Sheridan claims it is difficult to denote the precise date of the performance, but those records are extremely valuable since they reveal Monk’s style at the very beginning of his career (7). It is necessary to add that at the time when others try to invent something Monk was just playing his music: “What I was doing was just the way I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking about trying to change the course of jazz, I was trying to play something that sounded good” (qtd. in Sheridan 7).

Indeed, Monk’s music sounded great and attracted many people. Thelonious was an unorthodox pianist who had a great sense for music. He knew where it is necessary to pause and when the piano should blow with dissonant twist, he harmonized such changes in tune perfectly.

Crouch claims that in Monk’s music there was a mix of conventional and outlandish melodies, sophisticated and primitive tunes (87). Since then Monk’s music and his performances gained great popularity. He was giving successful gigs, managed to make many recordings. Of course, some people criticized Monk, and this made him eager to prove that his style is not a primitive lack of technique but sophistication of his talent.

He had some problems with tardiness and eventually got fired, in spite of the fact that public adored him (Sheridan 15). So, Monk arranged a band of young musicians and continued performing for his admirers. In 1948 Monk had first recording session for Blue Note, Thelonious, Suburban Eyes and Down Beat (Sheridan 18).

This was a remarkable session since it was the first one to be under his own name. Later there were another sessions. It is necessary to point out that then Monk did not have many gigs and performances. However, those he had were really outstanding. Monk’s legacy comprises about 70 compositions which are all musical masterpieces (Otfinoski 161). He worked really hard for twenty years and gave a lot of performances which made him famous worldwide.

He made several tours in the United States and also tour to Europe where he became a great success. Crouch stresses Monk’s magnificent ability to develop the theme of his each work. He managed to maintain one and the same theme throughout his melody, even when at the same time shifted from one theme to another. His strong accents and unpredictable improvisations made him one of the most significant jazz musicians of the twentieth century.

Monk’s unorthodox style and his contribution into the development of jazz

Admittedly, the role of Thelonious Monk in the history of music is impossible to overestimate. His desire to play good music led to the development of the unique music genre within a genre. He revolutionized jazz music breaking all conventional rules and prejudice. Monk used to mention that he often heard someone playing his music.

He was an inspiration for many musicians and composers. Crouch even calls Monk “a theoretician and instructor” who taught what jazz really was to such prominent musicians as Dizzie Gillespie or Miles Davis (86). Monk understood the real nature and aim of jazz music which demands that musicians presented their own versions of traditional “four-four swing”, their own ballads and blues compositions (Crouch 87).

Moreover, Monk foresaw the real role of the listener of jazz music which is not passive at all. Monk required that the listener should “play the song along with him, fill in the holes” he used to leave, the listener should understand what he was doing “with the beat, or at least sense more than ordinary” (Crouch 87). Monk was not simply playing some music but rather telling a story. Some people cannot understand his metaphors and images and criticizes Monk for being too inconsistent.

But Thelonious explains: “Everything I play is different; different melody, different harmony, different structure. Each piece is different from the other one. I have a standard and, when the song tells a story, when it gets a certain sound, then it’s through… completed” (qtd. in Sheridan xxxi). Such distortion of the composition melody and harmony is regarded as a transition from the oldest jazz to the newest one (Sheridan xxxi). Monk opened up new horizons for jazz musicians.

His major message was that there can be no conventions in jazz music which should be a reflection of every soul. For instance, Monk revealed his inner thoughts, his dreams. He used to contemplate using melodies and tunes. In his music he reveals the world around him. Thus, Monk once said: “You want to know what sounds I put into my music? Well, you have to go to New York and listen for yourself.

I can’t describe them” (qtd. in Sheridan xxxiv). Thus, his music has taught that the music is everywhere; moreover, it cannot be that harmonious as conventional rules want it to be. The life itself makes unpredictable accents, makes abruptions, mixes tunes. Perhaps, this universal comprehensiveness of his music which evokes the most sacred parts of human soul made Monk an iconic composer and a Giant of jazz.

Monk’s last years and his significance for the history of jazz

Unfortunately, Thelonious Monk was too similar to his music: he was as unpredictable, inconsistent and non-understandable for many. These features determined quite short period of time of his fruitful work. Only two decades Monk was creating his best compositions and giving his greatest performances.

The little talented boy who revealed his uniqueness at a very early age managed to present only twenty years of flourishing talent to the world as an adult musician. Of course, it is necessary to admit that Monk had to live in quite difficult times. Financial difficulties social problems could not be beneficial for the development of jazz music and easy fast-growing success of an African-American musician.

Moreover, he had serious problems with his health which started when he was young. Apart from this he took amphetamines which also shorten his life and caused various problems for his musical career. In fact, it is still unclear why he quitted so abruptly. Perhaps, it was the answer can be found in his music which is characterized by such dissonants and abruptions. However, more likely this inconsistency is rather in Monk’s nature which is revealed in his compositions. Smooth melodies were quite unnatural for him.

Thus, the last decade of his life Monk gave few performances and did not create anything new. Of course, he gained his fame and was praised as one of the most important figures in jazz music, and was proud of that status. However, he was not anymore a participant of performances and concerts as he used to be. His health problems worsen.

He spent many days at hospital and when he was home his health disturbed him. Thelonious spent his last years in the house of his friend and benefactor Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the “jazz baroness” and in 1982 he died “in the arms of his wife, Nellie” (Kleinzahler BR10). Of course, his music remained immortal and his contribution into the world music can never be forgotten.

Monk is an embodiment of the life itself.

In conclusion, it is possible to point out that extraordinary life and divine gift of an unorthodox pianist made it possible for many people to admire his passionate music. Thelonious Monk was a representative of a generation of great transformers. Moreover, he embodied the entire epoch in his compositions.

This was the epoch of great changes which led to the development of new jazz. Nowadays it is impossible to imagine jazz music without Monk’s vision and improvisation. His legacy is still inspiring many musicians not only in the United States but far beyond the boundaries of this country or even the continent.

Monk’s revolutionary approach is now a conventional basis for jazz music which teaches that this kind of music cannot follow any conventions. Unfortunately, too many performances were not recorded. Nevertheless, Thelonious Monk was a great theoretician and his remarks and numerous interviews can, at least partially, revive his affluent heritage. Of course, no one will be able to perform like Monk but his legacy will create numerous prominent jazz musicians in future.

Works Cited

Crouch, Stanley. Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007.

Kelley, Robin D. G. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009.

Kleinzahler, August. “Monk’s Moods.” New York Times 18 October 2009: BR10.

Otfinoski, Steven. African Americans in the Performing Arts. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009.

Sheridan, Chris. Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography of Thelonious Monk. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.

Solis, Gabriel. Monk’s Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.

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