Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monkwas an American jazz pianist and composer. Monk 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, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed more than 1,000 pieces, whereas Monk wrote about 70...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth10 October 1917
CityRocky Mount, NC
CountryUnited States of America
The piano ain't got no wrong notes.
I was playing birthday parties. House-rent parties where they used to sell whisky during prohibition.
I always believed in being myself.
I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.
I played the wrong wrong notes.
Everyone is a genius at being themselves
After two takes you're imitating yourself.
If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.
The inside of the tune [the bridge] is the part that makes the outside sound good.
Its always night, or we wouldn't need light.
Anybody talented in any way - they're called eccentric.
I don't know what other people are doing - I just know about me.
Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears.
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 shocking and unexpected; whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand.