Thelonious Monk
Personal Profile
Thelonious Monk
Birth Name:
Thelonious Sphere MonkNickname:
Melodious, The High Priest of Bebop
The Mad Monk
The Genius of Modern MusicDate of Birth:
October 10, 1917Zodiac Sign:
LibraPlace of Birth:
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USAPlace of Death:
Englewood, New Jersey, USADate of Death:
February 17, 1982Cause of Death:
StrokeHeight:
6' 3"Sex:
MaleHair Color:
WhiteEye Color:
BrownNationality:
AmericanReligion:
ChristianityEducation:
Stuyvesant High School
Family
Thelonious Monk
Father:
TheloniousMother:
Barbara MonkBrother:
ThomasSister:
MarianSpouse:
Nellie MonkSon:
Thelonious Monk Jr..
Career
Thelonious Monk
Trivia
Thelonious Monk
Quotes
Thelonious Monk
- “I’m famous. Ain’t that a bitch?” - Unknown
submitted by - Amitabh Dhiman
- “I don’t know where jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.” - Unknown
submitted by - Amit Kher
- “Well, I enjoy doing it. That’s all I wanted to do anyway. I guess, you know, if I didn’t make it with the piano, I guess I would have been the biggest bum.” - Unknown
submitted by - Dr. Reddy Labs
- “At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. There’s no beat anymore. You can’t keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There’s a new idea that consists in destroying everything and find what’s - Unknown
submitted by - Soha Ali
- “I don’t conside myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further. But I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. Take a musician like John Coltrane. He is a perfect musician, who can give expression to all the possibilities of his instrument. But he seems to have difficulty expressing original ideas on it. That is why he keeps looking for ideas in exotic places. At least I don’t have that problem, because, like I say, I find my inspiration in myself.” - Unknown
submitted by - Mandy John
Biography
Thelonious Monk
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The first thing you need to know about Monk is that he has a crazy name. Thelonious Sphere Monk. That is his birthname. He was born October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marian. A brother, Thomas, was born a couple of years later. In 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan. 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. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but did not graduate. He briefly toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz.
The second thing you need to know about him is that he is one of the most important jazz composers of all time. In a few words, his reputation was for crafting really eccentric and oddball pieces which, once you got a little way through them, were immensely beautiful. His solos were pretty simplistic, frequently being comprised of just a variation on the melody and some little tinkling lines. Yet, listening to it, you can tell he’s got a very strong idea of what he wants to portray—he just does it differently from almost every other soloist.
Filmography
Thelonious Monk
- Tom Dowd the Language of Music Wednesday, January 01, 2003
- Monterey Jazz Festival: 40 Legendary Years Thursday, January 01, 1998
- A Celebration of America's Music Thursday, January 01, 1998
- A Celebration of America's Music Thursday, January 01, 1998
- Masters of American Music Sunday, January 01, 1995
- Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser Friday, January 01, 1988
- Newport Jazz Festival Monday, January 01, 1968
- Monk in Oslo Saturday, January 01, 1966