Life and career

Early life

Little is known about Monk's early life. He was born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, with a sister named Marian who was two years older. A younger brother, Thomas, was born a couple of years later. The 1920 US Federal Census lists Thelonious and his father (a laborer) as "Theloins". Monk started playing the piano at the age of six; although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was essentially self-taught.

1944-1954

In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was among the first prominent jazz musicians to promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 (later anthologised on Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1) which showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisation. Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T.S. Monk, who later became a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara (affectionately known as Boo-Boo), was born in 1953.

Riverside and Columbia, 1954-1970

At the time of his signing to Riverside Monk was highly rated by his peers and by some critics, but his records did not sell in significant numbers, and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for mass-market acceptance. Indeed, Riverside had managed to buy out his previous Prestige contract for a mere $108.24. His breakthrough came thanks to a compromise between Monk and the label, who convinced him to record two albums of his interpretations of jazz standards.

Later life

Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctively "hip" sartorial style in suits, hats and sunglasses, and he developed an unusual, highly syncopated and percussive manner of playing piano. He was also noted for the fact that at times he would stop playing, stand up from the keyboard and dance in a counterclockwise fashion, ring-shout style, while the other musicians in the combo played.

Discography

• After Hours at Minton's (1943)
• Genius Of Modern Music: Volume 1 (1947-1948)
• Genius Of Modern Music: Volume 2 (1947-1952)
• Thelonious Monk Trio (1952)
• Monk (1953)
• Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (1953)
• Thelonious Monk plays the Music of Duke Ellington (1955)
• The Unique Thelonious Monk (1956)
• Brilliant Corners (1957 release of 1956 recording with Sonny Rollins and Clark Terry)
• Thelonious Himself (1957)
• Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (1957)
• Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (1957)
• Monk's Music (1957)
• Mulligan Meets Monk (1957, with Gerry Mulligan)
• Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957, released, 2005)
• Blues Five Spot (1958, with various saxophonists and Thad Jones, cornet)
• Thelonious in Action (1958, live at the Five Sport with Johnny Griffin)
• Misterioso (1958)
• The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (1959, Charlie Rouse jioned the band then)
• 5 by Monk by 5 (1958)
• Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (1958)
• Thelonious Monk And The Jazz Giants (1959)
• Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk (1960, with Charlie Rouse)
• Monk in France (1961)
• Monk's Dream (1962)
• Criss Cross (1962)
• April in Paris (1963)
• Monk in Tokyo (1963)
• Miles & Monk at Newport (1963, with unrelated 1958 Miles Davis performance)
• Big Band and Quartet in Concert (1963)
• It's Monk's Time (1964)
• Monk (album) (1964)
• Solo Monk (1964)
• Live at the It Club (1964)
• Live at the Jazz Workshop (1964)
• Straight, No Chaser (1966)
• Underground (1967)
• Monk's Blues (1968)
• The London Collection (1971, three volumes)
• Monk's Classic Recordings (1983)

Samples

• Download sample of "Ruby My Dear"

Compositions

• Ask Me Now
• Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are (aka Bolivar Blues)
• Bemsha Swing
• Bluehawk
• Blue Monk
• Blues Five Spot (aka Five Spot Blues)
• Blue Sphere
• Boo Boo's Birthday
• Brake's Sake
• Brilliant Corners
• Bye-Ya
• Coming on the Hudson
• Crepuscule with Nellie
• Criss Cross
• Epistrophy
• Eronel
• Evidence
• 52nd Street Theme
• Four in One
• Friday the 13th
• Functional
• Gallop's Gallop
• Green Chimneys
• Hackensack
• Harlem is Awful Messy
• Hornin' In
• Humph
• I Mean You (aka Stickball)
• Introspection (aka Playhouse)
• In Walked Bud
• Jackie-ing
• Let's Call This
• Let's Cool One
• Light Blue
• Little Rootie Tootie
• Locomotive
• Misterioso
• Monk's Dream
• Monk's Mood
• Monk's Point
• North of the Sunset
• Nutty
• Off Minor (aka What Now)
• Oska T
• Pannonica
• Played Twice
• Raise Four
• Reflections
• Rhythm-a-ning
• Round Lights
• 'Round Midnight (song)
• Ruby, My Dear
• San Francisco Holiday (aka Worry Later)
• Shuffle Boil
• Sixteen
• Skippy
• Something in Blue
• Straight, No Chaser
• Stuffy Turkey
• Teo
• Thelonious
• Think of One
• Trinkle Tinkle
• Two Timer (aka Five Will Get You Ten)
• Ugly Beauty
• Well, You Needn't (It's Over Now)
• We See (aka Manganese)
• Who Knows
• Work

Trivia

• The unusual name of Thelonious is in many translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses as an alternate spelling for Philonius, Mercury's son. Today, most scholars agree that the spelling should have been Thelonious. ^{[citation needed]}

• Asteroid (11091) Thelonious has been named in honor of Thelonious Monk.

• An episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is sub-titled "Felonius Monk", an obvious reference to Thelonious Monk.

• Pharrell Williams has used the nickname Thelonius P, an homage to Thelonious Monk.

• In The Simpsons episode "Trilogy of Error", Lisa encounters a boy at another school named Thelonious who seemingly matches her intelligence and loneliness:

• Thelonious: My name's Thelonious.
• Lisa: As in "Monk?"
• Thelonious: Yes. The esoteric appeal is worth the beatings.