He played slow and angular in a time when fashion was speedy and sun-soaked. The misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder led to him resigning himself to silence for the final years of his existence. The pianist’s extraordinary talents are finally acknowledged.
Take a look at this. The fact is that Both Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk were born in 1917. Each musician’s unique DNA and brilliance were integral to the evolution of jazz as we know it today. In endless days, weeks, and even months throughout the 1940s, they listened, played, debated, and innovated alongside Charlie Parker, drummer Kenny Clarke, bassist Oscar Pettiford as well as guitar player Charlie Christian and a steady development of black men who were committed to exploring the potential in the jazz of their day and changing its form. (Apart from musicians like pianist Mary Lou Williams and a few female vocalists in this period, this chapter in musical development is primarily about the males.)
Then, due to his popular pyrotechnic style, “dizzy as a fox” personality, and the willingness to instruct the squares together with the organizational skills needed to keep his bands together and the trumpeter Gillespie’s career took off to the top as pianist Monk who was a jobbing musician who was unable to and would not follow the rules of his job, squandered the majority of his career trying to provide for his family.
But, while his sparkle remains unaffected, in the centennial year of their HTML0’sLondon jazz festival, the legendary Dizzy will be given only one memorable performance, and Monk and his songs are the focus for two days. We are in love with Dizzy, But Monk’s multidimensional mystery pricks more deeply into our souls than Dizzy’s sophisticated, sun-soaked delight. The captivating appeal of shadows.
The mystery of it all was due to the superficial reactions from white reviewers and audience members shocked by a stoic black man whose upright posture made him appear higher than his already hefty size and who had no need to articulate the meaning of what the music proclaimed. As a result of his habit of rising in the morning and dancing along to the band’s music, they speculated on the shaman mysticism of voodoo and sham instead of just rejoicing and dancing in tune. Both record companies and fans were looking for a continuous flow of new music, which was also an essential part of a musician’s “job.” At the same time, Monk was a follower of Cezanne, who was a constant student of the study of Mont St Victoire, or the cellist who was constantly re-reading Bach’s suites, looking for different ways to revisit the groups of notes that he’d previously bought, recognizing that their possibilities to be limitless.
The more important aspect of intrigue for fans and musicians was Why the man was inflexible? Why was he so insistent on playing in an angular, expansive, and “slow” when he could play as fast as the famous James P Johnson, and the trend was to play quickly?
A collaborator like Miles Davis asked why Monk kept making odd chord variations that sounded wrong. To Monk, his chords were not strange. They were just the natural result of hours of music exploration.
He was a committed family man concerned about his children and wife; however, he couldn’t afford any centimeter. He’d tell you if you can understand the inside, you will find the exterior right. Take a seat and pay attention. In the meantime, the gigs, recordings, and money poured in. Loyal to his work and loyal to bandmates, the singer was denied his cabaret license but did not snub the talented, younger but addicted Bud Powell after being arrested for possession of heroin belonging to Powell. He was also denied his license after refusing to get out of the Pannonica de Koenigswarter’s Bentley at the direction of police from the Delaware officers, who just acted on the basis that they were black and were not her chauffeur of her.
Contrary to those who thought Monk’s percussive, splay-fingered style to be ignorant and sloppy, and untutored, Juilliard-trained musician Hall Overton was among those who appreciated Monk’s genius. He explained that Monk “adjusted his finger pressure on the keys the way baseball pitchers do to the ball to make its path bend, curve or dip in flight” and asked how long need to be able to master this style of art. Tenor Johnny Griffin said Monk’s music “was like the leaves on trees. His music was born out of nothing but the within Monk.”
Then there was silence. There is nothing more frightening and obscure than silence. We saturate silence with chatter and add sounds or notes, but we don’t let it speak the things it is aware of or let it go. For Monk, the silence was his muse and the center of his muse, just like his wife Nellie, his children Boo Boo, Toot, and his “crazy” friend Pannonica, his church piano, or the many manifestations of blue. It’s Monk’s comprehensive and joyful reflections on the silence that guarantee his place in the history of the past, present as well as future of improvised music, as well as his dazzling melodies and re-making of harmonics that break molds.
Thelonious Monk The Time and Times of an American Original by Robin DG KelleyRead more
There is no surprise, then, exhausted beyond his limit by his undiagnosed and uninformedly medicated bipolar illness, constant financial struggles as well as his recording company’s constant demands, and the death of several family members, Monk, in 1975, accepted the calming mysteries of a life without sound. Refugiating in the Pannonica’s New Jersey home, he quit playing the piano and retreated only for strolls until he fell ill on February 5, 1982, a fatal attack. He passed away in the hug of his Nellie twelve days after.
We are certain he was in awe throughout his silence because the music never ceases. It never stops, and we are incredibly grateful. Happy Centennial Brothers Thelonious Sphere Monk. We’re grateful.
Monk Misterioso, A Journey into the Darkness of Thelonious Monk, is performing on tour starting November 5 and also at The London Jazz Festival on November 18. The concert celebrates the centenary of Monk on November 19. This essay is based on an event in the British Library last month organized by Culture and.