Monk's stated influences included Duke Ellington, James P. Monk's style at this time was later described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at the club. The Minton's scene was crucial in the formulation of bebop and it brought Monk into close contact with other leading exponents of the emerging idiom, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis. Much of Monk's style was developed during his time at Minton's, when he participated in after-hours "cutting competitions" which featured many leading jazz soloists of the time. In the early to mid 1940s, Monk was the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub. He toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but did not graduate. Although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was largely self-taught. Monk started playing the piano at the age of six. In 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City. A brother, Thomas, was born in January 1920. Thelonious Monk was born October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marion. He is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck) as of 2010. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. This was not a style universally appreciated poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'.
His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. Monk is the second-most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Thelonious Sphere Monk (Octo– February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered one of the giants of American music. Thelonious Monk Discography 1994 - 2010 part 3/3ġ994.Thelonious Monk - The Complete Blue Note Recordings (4CD) ġ994.Thelonious Monk Quartet - Live At Monterey Jazz Festival (1963, Volume 2) ġ995.Bud Powell & Thelonious Monk - Pianology ġ998.Thelonious Monk - Monk Alone (Complete Solo Studio Recordings) (2CD) Ģ000.Thelonious Monk - The Complete Prestige Recordings (3CD) Ģ001.Thelonious Monk - Live at the Jazz Workshop Complete ( 2CD) Ģ001.Thelonious Monk - The Columbia Years '62-'68 (3 CD) ]Ģ003.Thelonious Monk - The Essential Ģ005.Thelonious Monk - Four in one ( Quadromania, 4CD) Ģ006.Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane - The Complete Riverside Recordings 1957 (2CD) Ģ007.Thelonious Monk - Original Album Classics (5CD) Ģ007.Thelonious Monk Trio (RVG Remasters) Ģ009.Thelonious Monk - Jazz Manifesto (2 CD) Ģ010.Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Himself & Portrait Of An Ermite ] Thelonious Monk Discography 1965 - 1991 part 2/3 Thelonious Monk Discography 1941 - 1964 part 1/3 Jazzplanet gives you the best discography of "Thelonious Monk", format Lossy Kbps