https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/06/13/julian-jacobson-debussy-and-his-influences-at-the-1901-arts-club/
Monk at Minton’s Playhouse , New York, 1947
Thelonious Monk Jr. October 10, 1917 Rocky Mount North Carolina,U.S
February 17, 1982 (aged 64) Englewood ,New Jersey,U.S.
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including ‘Round Midnight ‘,’Blue Monk’,’Straight,No Chaser’,’Ruby,My Dear’,’In Walked Bud’, and ‘Well .You Needn’t’. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington
Monk’s compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tones , runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations.
Monk’s distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit during performances: while other musicians continued playing, Monk would stop, stand up, and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano.
Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time (the others being Louis Armstrong ,Dave Brubeck,Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis.
Monk once said, “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.”[
According to Bebop: The Music and Its Players author Thomas Owens:
Monk’s usual piano touch was harsh and percussive, even in ballads. He often attacked the keyboard anew for each note, rather than striving for any semblance of legato. Often seemingly unintentional seconds embellish his melodic lines, giving the effect of someone playing while wearing work gloves. … He hit the keys with fingers held flat rather than in a natural curve, and held his free fingers high above the keys. … Sometimes he hit a single key with more than one finger, and divided single-line melodies between the two hands.
In contrast with this unorthodox approach to playing, he could play runs and arpeggios with great speed and accuracy. He also had good finger independence, allowing him to play a melodic line and a trill simultaneously in his right hand. According to jazz pianist, educator and broadcaster Billy Taylor , “Monk could really play like Tatum. He really had all the technique and he could really play like Art.”
Monk’s style was not universally appreciated: for example, the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin described him as “the elephant on the keyboard”.Steve Lacy ,jazz saxophonist, said ‘Monk’s music has profound humanity, disciplined economy, balanced virility, dramatic nobility, and innocently exuberant wit.’
Monk had a particular proclivity for the key of B flat. All of his many blues compositions, including “Blue Monk”, “Misterioso”, “Blues Five Spot”, and “Functional”, were composed in B flat; in addition, his signature theme, “Thelonious”, largely consists of an incessantly repeated B-flat tone.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 