Thelonious Sphere Monk
Biography:
Early Life
• Was born on October 10th 1917, in the city Rocky Mount of North Carolina
• His first name was misspelled on his birth certificate as “Thelious” instead of Thelonious, and did not include his middle name Sphere, which was taken from his grandfather, Sphere Batts
• Had an older sister and younger brother
• He played the trumpet for a short amount of time but began to focus more on piano at age 9 and was mostly self taught
• (Other sources say he started playing piano at 5 or 6)
• He did attend the Stuyvesant High School, which was supposedly one of the best high schools in New York, but prematurely ended his high school studies around 1935 to pursue music professionally – he took a piano job travelling with an evangelist
• Started learning of his sister’s piano tutor
• By the time he was a young teenage he started performing at rent parties – a rent party (sometimes called a house party) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music (Frank Boyd, 1936-1940)
• He also played the organ at the Baptist Church he attended and supposedly won contests at the Apollo Theatre during their so called “Amateur Hour”
Monk at Minton’s
• Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began (Robin D. G. Kelley Ph.D., 2009)
• In the latter part of the 1940s, Teddy Hill was hired by Minton to manage the club
• Teddy Hill had experience as a bandleader and used his Savoy Ballroom contacts, as well as the Apollo Theatre to gain more interest in Minton’s Playhouse
• One of his roles as new acting manager at the time, was to put together a house band, which included Monk (p), Joe Guy (t), Nick Fenton (b) and Kenny Clarke (d)
• Monday nights at Minton’s was know as “Monday Celebrity Night”, where many famous Jazz musicians of the time, including Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Don Byas, etc. would visit for a play with the house band
• These nights were known for so called famous “Trumpet Duels” between Dizzy and his mentor Roy Eldridge
• Gillespie had told Al Fraser that one Monday Night Thelonious teased Eldridge after being “out played by Dizzy” saying, "Look, you're supposed to be the greatest trumpet player in the world…but that's the best." (Gottlieb, 1996)
• Bird would also come to Jam at Minton’s but was never officially in the house band, so Clarke and Monk asked Teddy Hill to hire Bird, but he declined, so Clarke and Monk took cuts out of both their wages so that they could pay Bird
Monk’s Life
• Even though Monk had contributed greatly to the advancements of a more modern style of Jazz, he still wasn’t the most popular around the 40s/early 50s
• His first “big gig” came around when he was hired by Coleman Hawkins to record with him, making it Monks first ever studio recording
• Received a record deal with Blue Note Records in 1947, which at the time was still a rather small company
• Monk’s Blue Note recordings are seen today as some of his best and most popular works, but at the time, due to the lack of understanding and appreciation of Monk’s playing style and approach to Jazz, the records were unpopular and didn’t sell
• Due to the under appreciation of the great talent Monk was, it was hard for him to get work, which he was in desperate need of due to him starting family in the late 40s
• August 1951, he was arrested for the possession of drugs, which was under false pretences
• It was said he was taking the blame for his friend at the time, Bud Powell
• As part of his charges, the authorities confiscated his cabaret card, which at the time was issued by Police as a “licence” for Jazz musicians to perform in clubs of NY, therefore disallowing monk to get gigs for 6 years in his hometown
• During this time he did still get gigs elsewhere, while still composing and recording (with artists such as Sonny Rollins, Miles and Milt Jackson)
• In 1953 he play for the first time at Paris Jazz Festival
• While he was in Paris his first solo album was recorded for the record company Vogue
Later Years and Death
Playing Style
• Monk was a major influence in bebop, though he was more known for his path towards a more modern style of jazz playing
• Unlike most bebop pianists of the time in which they approach playing changes more sparsely in the left hand, while making the right hand more prominent in regards to improvising with eight note and sixteenth note line in the right hand, Monk used both hands an equal amount, while also effectively utilizing the full range of the instrument
• Also unlike most musicians of the time, in which they were much more active in their soloing, Monk like to use more space between phrases or ideas
• Monk once said, “Everything I play is different… different melody, different harmony, different structure. Each piece is different from the other… When the song tells a story, when it gets a certain sound, then it’s through… completed.” (Robin D. G. Kelley Ph.D., 2009)
• Monk’s sound was rather hard to listen to for a large amount of the Jazz world due to his, at the time, “unorthodox” approach to rhythm and harmony
Song Analysis:
Session 1 (October 15th 1947) – Evonce
Personnel – Thelonious Monk (p), Art Blakey (d), Gene Ramey (b), Idrees Sulieman (t), Danny Quebec West (as), Billy Smith (ts)
Session 2 (October 27th 1947) – Ruby My Dear
Personnel – Thelonious Monk (p), Art Blakey (d), Gene Ramey (b)
Session 3 (November 21st 1947) – In Walked Bud
Personnel – Thelonious Monk (p), Art Blakey (d), Bob Paige (b), George Taitt (t), Sahib Shihab (as)
Bibliography:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious_Monk
• http://www.monkzone.com/biographyHTML.htm
• http://www.allmusic.com/artist/thelonious-monk-mn0000490416/biography
• http://monkinstitute.org/about-us/thelonious-monk/
• http://www.biography.com/people/thelonious-monk-9411896
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/books/excerpt-thelonious-monk.html?_r=0
• http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/22/hannah-rothschild-nica-jazz-thelonious-monk-interview
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122019275#122020272
• http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/progress/prohib/rent.html
• http://www.monkbook.com/monkbio/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Note_Records
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