It is fitting that one of the most recognizable symbols, images, of jazz, is the headshot of the High Priest himself, hunched over his piano keys smiling, singing Epistrophy or Round Midnight. Thelonious Sphere Monk captivated, but sometimes personal situations and most of all his high regard for originality, played a huge role in this master not receiving the recognition he so well deserved. In retrospect, his music ranks as innovative and top-tier many years after the composer’s death.

Composer may be the best word to describe Monk, but he probably wouldn’t go for that; no one can do. “T” always taught young, up-and-comers, if they were willing, to not only work hard on what he told them, but as Monk said: “play yourself”.

Young musicians, perhaps all youngsters, today experience issues with being themselves. We all get so many pressures when we’re growing up, to be this, or be that, that we struggle with just being ourselves. Monk was the model; he was that one individual in the crowd who HAD to do it his way. He became a maverick. Being a maverick starts with one credo: never give in to the pressure from outside!

Knowing about Monk’s background helps us understand where he was coming from when he composed what are now known as jazz standards. According to the Thelonious Monk Institute, Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982) is recognized as one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz. He was one of the architects of bebop and his impact as a composer and pianist has had a profound influence on every genre of music.

Born October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Monk and his parents soon moved to New York City. Monk began piano lessons as a young child and by the age of 13 he had won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was barred from entering. At the age of 19, Monk joined the house band at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where along with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and a handful of other players, he developed the style of jazz that came to be known as bebop. Monk’s compositions, among them “Round Midnight,” were the canvasses upon which these legendary soloists expressed their musical ideas.

In 1947, Monk made his first recordings as a leader for Blue Note. These albums are some of the earliest documents of his unique compositional and improvisational style, both of which employed unusual repetition of phrases, an offbeat use of space, and joyfully dissonant sounds. That same year, he married his longtime love Nellie Smith and they later had two children, Thelonious, Jr. and Barbara. In the decade that followed, Monk played on recordings with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins and recorded as a leader for Prestige Records and later for Riverside Records. Brilliant Corners and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane were two of the albums from this period that brought Monk international attention as a pianist and composer.

The Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane – At Carnegie Hall

A recent biography, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original by Robin Kelley, captured my attention and inspired this piece–one man’s attempt at describing the designs of one of the greatest composers/pianists/ musicians in the history of the world. First, Monk’s designs are indescribable.

Publishers Weekly came close to describing Monk’s designs in music when they wrote about him in Kelley’s biography. Elusive, mysterious, strange, eccentric, weird, genius-the legend of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk began early in his career propagated by supporters and detractors in equal measure. Kelley breaks down the mythology, taking great pains to establish, for example, that Monk, far from being an untutored savant, was intimately familiar with classical and popular music. Every step of Monk’s musical journey is teased out in meticulous detail, from his childhood piano lessons to his groundbreaking half-year run headlining at New York’s Five Spot, along with behind-the-scenes stories from the recording sessions for classic albums like Brilliant Corners and Monk’s Music. Kelley also explains Monk’s most notorious behaviors-stony silences when confronted in public, exuberant dancing during concerts-as the outward signs of a bipolar disorder that went unrecognized for much of his life, with immeasurable impact on his career. He was often unable to even play in New York jazz clubs because his reputation precluded him from getting a work license from city authorities. Sometimes, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming, but whether he’s charting the highs or lows of Monk’s emotional swings, Kelley rarely strays from his central theme of an extraordinary talent pushing against the boundaries of his art.

TIME Magazine. February 28, 1964. Cover: Thelonious Monk

Kelley’s was a great read and it reaffirmed what this pianist repeatedly said: follow this dictum–be yourself. Sometimes being oneself isn’t what others want. No matter, Monk would say, “do it anyway”. When others want you to play a certain way; don’t do it, play your way. When others want you to speak, remain silent.

Life is a sequence of events of many moods. Some happy, some sad. Smile and enjoy the ride. It may be bumpy but if you’re unique–we’re all born unique–let your spirit shine through your chosen art. With one note, a noticeable pause, or a series of sounds, Monk’s music speaks to us still. The unanswered question is this: What is Monk saying? Check out his albums, CDs and you’ll hear for yourself.

>Written by d/visible contributor Robert Gluck.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Culture, Music, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.