Thelonious Monk Biography
In the pantheon of jazz piano greats, Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) had no peer. Monk’s highly percussive playing was full of dissonant harmonies and playful melodic twists, as were his rhythmic, spacious solos. His improvisational ability was matched by his complex, adventurous compositions, and such Monk tunes as “‘Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” “Straight No Chaser,’ “52nd Street Theme” and “Epistrophy” remain jazz standards. Although his genius remained largely unrecognized for much of his career, Monk created a majestic body of work that marks him as one of jazz’s true visionaries.
Growing up in New York, Thelonious Monk began playing piano at the age of five, and was partially inspired by his childhood neighbor, the great stride pianist James P. Johnson. Despite some formal training, Monk was essentially self-taught. His first professional job was playing church organ for a touring evangelist. In the early to mid-’40s, Monk played in the house band of the Harlem jazz club Minton’s Playhouse, which would soon become an incubator for the nascent bebop scene, and became a participant in the club’s famous after-hours jams. It was during this period that Monk is generally considered to have perfected his unique style. Monk subsequently worked with the bands of Lucky Millinder and Cootie Williams; Williams was the first to record Monk’s future classic “‘Round Midnight.” Monk won further notoriety working with Coleman Hawkins, with whom he made his recording debut.
Monk recorded extensively for the Blue Note and Prestige labels between 1947 and 1954, working with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Sonny Rollins. But his unique approach alienated some listeners, and caused him to have trouble finding work during this period. Monk’s career finally began to hit its stride when he signed with the Riverside label and released his landmark 1956 album Brilliant Corners. The following year, an extended engagement at New York’s Five Spot with a quartet that included John Coltrane, won Monk massive acclaim and established him as a major musical figure. Monk’s new notoriety was sealed by a 1959 concert at Manhattan’s Town Hall, where Monk performed with an orchestra.
Monk signed with Columbia Records in 1962, and for much of the ’60s experienced the most musically productive and professionally stable period of his career, releasing such classic albums as Monk’s Dream, Always Know, Criss-Cross, Big Band and Quartet In Concert, It’s Monk’s Time, Solo Monk, Live at the Jazz Workshop, Straight No Chaser, Underground and Monk’s Blues. He toured successfully through most of the decade with a quartet featuring longtime cohort Charlie Rouse on tenor sax. In 1971 and 1972, Monk toured the world as part of the all-star Giants of Jazz, which also included Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, Kai Winding and Al McKibbon. But Monk abruptly announced his retirement in 1973, and remained away from the spotlight for the remainder of his life.
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