Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

by Robin D. G. Kelley

Overview

From the mind of brilliant historian Robin Kelley comes the first full biography of legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk, including full access to the family's archives, dozens of interviews, and an afterword for Monk’s 2017 centennial.

Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, 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.

To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. 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.

Elegantly written and rich with humor and pathos, Thelonious Monk is the definitive work on modern jazz’s most original composer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439190494
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	12/08/2009
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	932,554
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robin D. G. Kelley teaches History at UCLA and is the author of several books, including Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Prelude xvii

1 "My Mother Didn't Want Me to Grow Up in North Carolina" 1

2 "What Is Jazz" New York, Man!" 15

3 "I Always Did Want to Play Piano" 25

4 "We Played and She Healed" 40

5 "Why Can't You Play Music Like the Ink Spots"" 51

6 "They Weren't Giving Any Lectures" 60

7 "Since You Went Away I Missed You" 76

8 "I'm Trying to See If It's a Hit" 89

9 "Dizzy and Bird Did Nothing for Me Musically" 104

10 "The George Washington of Bebop" 122

11 "It's a Drag to Be in Jail" 143

12 "The 'Un' Years" 156

13 "France Libre!" 170

14 "Sometimes I Play Things I Never Heard Myself" 178

15 "The Greta Garbo of Jazz" 187

16 "As Long as I Can Make a Living" 198

17 "People Have Tried to Put Me Off as Being Crazy" 214

18 "My Time for Fame Will Come" 225

19 "The Police Just Mess with You ... for Nothing" 240

20 "Make Sure Them Tempos Are Right" 257

21 "Hell, I Did That Twenty-Five Years Ago" 279

22 "Bebopens Oversteprast" 298

23 "Maybe I'm a Major Influence" 310

24 "Everything Begins Here and Everything Ends Here" 327

25 "That's a Drag Picture They're Paintin' of Me" 345

26 "Sometimes I Don't Feel Like Talking" 363

27 "Let Someone Else Create Something New!" 386

28 "What Do I Have to Do" Play Myself to Death"" 409

29 "I Am Very Seriously Ill" 431

Postlude 449

Acknowledgments 453

Appendix A A Technical Note on Monk's Music 461

Appendix B Records and Tapes in Thelonious Monk's Personal Collection 463

Notes 465

Original Compositions Thelonious Monk 565

Selected Recordings Thelonious Monk 573

Selected Documentaries and Videos of Thelonious Monk 575

Index 577

Editorial Reviews

"Monk’s story, from roots in slavery, to the Great Migration north, to the cultural explosions of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, encapsulates a vivid tableau of twentieth-century American life and music. This biography is, at its best, a fitting tribute to one of America’s most original and lasting creative geniuses."
—The Sacramento Book Review

"...extraordinary and heroically detailed... I doubt there will be a biography anytime soon that is as textured, thorough and knowing as Kelley's. The 'genius of modern music' has gotten the passionate and compassionate advocate he deserves."
—August Kleinzahler, The New York Times Book Review

"An omnibus of myth busting."
—Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

"...a massive and impressive undertaking... Thoroughly researched, meticulously footnoted, and beautifully crafted, Thelonious Monk presents the most complete, most revealing portrait ever assembled of the man known as the high priest of bebop."
—Steve Greenlee, The Boston Globe

"Every step of Monk's musical journey is teased out in meticulous detail...whether he's charting the highs or lows of Monk's emotional swings, Kelley rarely strays from his central theme of an extraordinary talent pushing against the boundaries of his art."
—Publishers Weekly

"A wealth of historical context is richly studded with details of Monk's family background and the broader world in which he lived and worked... Likely the most thorough possible illumination of the man behind the legend."
—Library Journal

"Thelonious Monk was a true original... This affectionate biography fills in the fascinating and heart-wrenching backstory of an artist the world has always longed to know better."
—The Christian Science Monitor

"Robin D. G. Kelley’s exhaustive, necessary, and as of now definitive [book] offers a Baedeker of sorts...Kelley has created a lush portrait of the private, off-camera Monk, one it would have been difficult to paint without the unprecedented access he had to the Monk family."
—David Yaffe, The Nation

"This is an authoritative tome that pulls aside, without completely lifting, the shroud of mystery that has long surrounded one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of jazz."
—Russ Musto, AllAboutJazz.com

"...as complete a picture of this complex, original and enigmatic artist as possible... this very welcome book is certain to be a go-to reference."
—Down Beat Magazine

"A seminal examination of the man and his music."
—Bay State Banner

"Kelley hopes to balance Monk's brilliance and historic achievements with his quirks and serious problems (bipolar disorder) to take the true measure of the man. Dedicated readers of jazz history and students of Cold War and Civil Rights Era culture won't be disappointed."
—The New Haven Advocate

"Robin Kelley's new biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is a breath of fresh air among the biographies of our legendary jazz musicians. This book is thorough, detailed, and written with a true affinity for Monk's humaneness and creative musical output. It fills in the missing pieces about the growth of the jazz scene in New York through the forties, fifties, and sixties, detailing each step of Monk's development—who passed through his bands, what gigs he played, and what happened on those scenes. It's an invaluable and close look at the center of the world's most important creative musical developments in those decades: New York City."
—Chick Corea, the Grammy-winning composer and pianist

"Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is one of the most anticipated books in jazz scholarship, and well worth the wait. Robin D. G. Kelley represents one of this generation's most important voices equipped with the knowledge, passion, and respect for both jazz and jazz musicians required to interpret the many details and nuances of Thelonious Monk's life. This compelling book will both challenge old assumptions and inspire new assessments of the life and legacy one of the world's greatest musicians."
—GERI ALLEN, pianist, composer, and Director of the Jazz Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh

"Powerful, enraging, and enduring.... In Robin Kelley's finely grained and surely definitive life and-times study, Thelonious Monk, an American original, has found an original biographer."
—DAVID LEVERING LEWIS, biographer of W. E. B. Du Bois and Pulitzer Prize winner

"An honest and eloquent treatment of one of our most important artists, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is a stunning tour de force! It is the most comprehensive treatment of Monk's life to date. Furthermore, in Monk's story, Kelley has found the perfect medium to shed light on a nation's and a people's history and persistent quest for freedom. In so doing he has given us a book that is as bold, brilliant, and beautiful as Monk and his music."
—FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN, author of If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday

From the Publisher