Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
by Robin Kelley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robin KelleyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2009-10-06
ISBN: 0684831902
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Free Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780684831909
- Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Book Review: The Enigma of Monk Unraveled
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone who has listened to Thelonius Monk knows that the complexity of his angular dissonant music, and difficult to anticipate rhythms, are first a puzzle and a study in dissonance, then an intellectual challenge of the complex art of rhythms and chords, and finally a begrudging appreciation for the utter subtlety and beauty of Monk's enormous genius.
When Miles died, I discovered that Thelonius Monk's phone number was actually listed in the Philadelphia phone book. And for some crazy and unaccountable reason, I actually called it and asked to speak to Monk. It was obvious that it was Monk himself who had answered the phone and said to me "Monk don't live here." Click!
Such was part of my journey to understanding the man, the music, and the enigma that is Thelonius Sphere Monk. Like learning to understand and appreciate Billy Holiday and John Coltrane, understanding Monk his music and his strange persona have been an integral part of my intellectual journey in life. I think I called him just so that I could say that I had spoken to the great Thelonius Monk. Thus, I could not have been more please to discover this book. I am still searching for an equivalent book on Clifford Brown. The one that is available does not do the great trumpeter the justice he is due.
I do not believe that one can pretend to be musically literate without having wrestled with Monk and his music. There is something both scary and endearing about them both. One is that he always lived with one foot straddled in another world, one entirely of his own making. And until you understand it, the same seems true of his music. Were it not for his music however, he would surely have been dismissed as a "nut case." And yet he in all his many curious aspects, including his bi-polar illness, he symbolizes something essential about our culture.
To his credit, Robin Kelly has captured that essence here exquisitely. And although I can no longer remember the name of the book, this is not the first book I have reviewed by Robin Kelly. I know that as a pianist himself, he has had "Monk on the brain," for most of his life. Thus to him this book was clearly a labor of love, a life project -- and it shows. It is not just a biography of Monk but an archaeological dig and exploration of him, his history as a person and as a Jazz musician, his character, his music, his life and his loves, his demons. It is a book that both the musically literate and those just fascinated by the personality of Monk can all enjoy equally.
My hat is off to Kelly for writing a book that does justice to this great American musician and hero. Five stars
Summary of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes!" So ranted Thelonious Sphere Monk, who proved his point every time he sat down at the keyboard. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers. Yet throughout much of his life, his musical contribution took a backseat to tales of his reputed behavior. Writers tended to obsess over Monk's hats or his proclivity to dance on stage. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. But these labels tell us little about the man or his music.In the first book on Thelonious Monk based on exclusive access to the Monk family papers and private recordings, as well as on a decade of prodigious research, prize-winning historian Robin D. G. Kelley brings to light a startlingly different Thelonious Monk -- witty, intelligent, generous, politically engaged, brutally honest, and a devoted father and husband. Indeed, Thelonious Monk is essentially a love story. It is a story of familial love, beginning with Monk's enslaved ancestors from whom Thelonious inherited an appreciation for community, freedom, and black traditions of sacred and secular song. It is about a doting mother who scrubbed floors to pay for piano lessons and encouraged her son to follow his dream. It is the story of romance, from Monk's initial heartbreaks to his lifelong commitment to his muse, the extraordinary Nellie Monk. And it is about his unique friendship with the Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter, a scion of the famous Rothschild family whose relationship with Monk and other jazz musicians has long been the subject of speculation and rumor. Nellie, Nica, and various friends and family sustained Monk during the long periods of joblessness, bipolar episodes, incarceration, health crises, and other tragic and difficult moments.
Above all, Thelonious Monk is the gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth century. Elegantly written and rich with humor and pathos, Thelonious Monk is the definitive work on modern jazz's most original composer.
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