You do realize that Monk was Bipolar? That is what lead to his "dancing". Also, it's why his compositions were so different than anyone else. He could play the piano with the normal fingering, he just chose to play it in his own style and be original. His compositions are all off center, so to speak.
He would go days without saying anything or leaving the house. It finally lead him to just not playing or composing.
Over his career, he was institutionalized a few times.
From when he suddenly retired in 1973, until his death, he never went next to a piano again. He lived those last 9 years in the
Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter’s house. Barely leaving the house and in many cases the room he stayed in. He would die in her house.
The Baroness has had two of the biggest giants of Jazz die in her house,
Charlie Parker and
Thelonious Monk.
When it comes down to
Jazz composers, it's him and
Duke Ellington as the two best....with
Mingus coming in third.
It is only in the last 10-20 years that musicians are figuring out many of
Monk’s compositions. Everyone covered
'Round Midnight,
Straight, No Chaser,
52nd Street Theme (a song that has been recorded at least
200 times,
but not once by Monk) (
see below), and
Blue Monk, from the beginning.
However songs like:
Ruby My Dear,
Well You Needn't,
Off Minor,
In Walked Bud,
Misterioso,
Epistrophy,
I Mean You,
Four in One,
Criss Cross,
Ask Me Now,
Little Rootie Tootie,
Monk's Dream,
Bemsha Swing,
Think of One,
Friday the 13th,
Hackensack,
Nutty,
Brilliant Corners,
Crepuscule With Nellie (written for his wife),
Evidence, and
Rhythm-a-Ning, are only recently getting around to being covered.
Huge props have to his wife
Nellie. She supported him when
Monk was busted with pot. It was
Bud Powell’s weed, but
Monk wouldn’t fink out his friend, who had his own mental problems.
Monk realized that
Bud was even more messed up then he was.
Monk was also in debt to
Powell (
see below). The police took away
Monk’s cabaret card, and he could not perform live in
NYC for 5 years.
It’s during this time, that he really started to compose some of the most serious music that
Jazz will ever see. During that time,
Nellie had several jobs, took care of
Monk and their kids. All
Monk did during that time was compose new music. When he finally was able to play live in
NYC, he had a boatload of killer music in hand. In addition, how many women do you know that will allow their husband to live away from her and their kid’s, in another woman’s house for 9 years?
The title track from
Brilliant Corners is so freaking difficult, that it was spliced together out of at least
25 attempted starts over
4hrs. I am not talking about a bunch of hacks, which were trying to record it with
Monk. Beside
Monk....there was
Sonny Rollins,
Max Roach,
Oscar Pettiford, and
Ernie Henry.
Try doing a search on those songs, that I mentioned and see how many times they have been covered. Also, pay attention to just
when others have recorded them.
Steve Lacy....who is one of the two or three greatest soprano sax players spent a great deal of his career playing
Monk compositions. For a couple of years, he and
Roswell Rudd didn't play anything but
Monk covers in their group.
When
Coltrane was in
Monk's band for 6 months, they ruled
NYC. The show to go see for those 6 months, in that town, was them. When musicians, even the biggest came to town, they would catch a performance.
Playing with
Monk was like working on getting your
Ph.D. He never played the sax, but he was the one that showed
Coltrane false fingering, from just looking at
Coltrane's sax.
Coltrane is quoted as saying that he learned more from
Monk than anyone else.
Monk's melodies are tricky to play on the piano (a lot trickier than people really realize, at first) because they require your hands to operate differently than is normally played by piano players are used to (ie using unique fingerings in the right hand; left hand rhythm shifts).
Monk's rhythmic phrasing is very peculiar, and very precise!
Monk makes other piano players think, about phrasing and space (since piano players, don't have to breathe, like with a wind instrument; so, there's no necessary reason for them to 'break in play').
Monk and
Miles both used space in their playing, which his why someone like
Coltrane, fit in so well with both.
Touch is also important with
Monk's playing. It's a real lesson in getting a
sound out of the piano, where so many
trained players come out with some non-descript, mushy touch.
His tunes have their own
logic that have nothing to do with how harmony
should work. Forget everything you think you know, because it isn't going to help.
He was so ahead of his times, it wasn't until the
1964 when
Time Magazine put him on the cover, that people finally caught on, to what all the musicians already knew. He was one of only 3
Jazz musicians, to make the cover.
Some of
Monk's quotes:
“I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing — even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.�
“Wrong is right.�
“Where’s jazz going? I don’t know? Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.�
“Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to
NY and open their ears.�
After the
Time cover:
“I’m famous. Ain’t that a bitch?�
This is something from
Thomas Fitterling's book, "
Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music".
Bud was
17-years-old when this event is supposed to have taken place.
"As the musicians were packing up their instruments after the show, the police stormed the club and went after Monk. He refused to show his identification, and was forcibly arrested. A fan barred the door and challenged the officers. They tried to push him aside, but he wouldn't budge. 'Stop,' he yelled. 'You don't know what you're doing. You're mistreating the greatest pianist in the world!' At this point a nightstick came down on his head like a lightening bolt. The young fan was Monk's best friend, Bud Powell. He was dragged along with Monk, and thrown into jail after his injury was superficially treated at the hospital.
After his release
Powell complained of alarming headaches. He eventually checked into
Bellevue Hospital, then spent
three months in
Creedmore Hospital. There he was treated with various psychoactive drugs and shock therapy. His artistic career had barely started, but henceforth he would be bedeviled by psychological problems.
Monk was aware that
Powell's intervention had saved him from a similar fate. For his ill-starred protege, he wrote
'In Walked Bud',
'52nd Street Theme', and
'Broadway Theme', otherwise simply known as
'The Theme.' The numbers were intended to be
Bud's property alone and
Monk never recorded them."
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Satchmo8101
For his ill-starred protege, he wrote 'In Walked Bud', '52nd Street Theme', and 'Broadway Theme', otherwise simply known as 'The Theme.' The numbers were intended to be Bud's property alone, and Monk never recorded them."
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I just reread this portion of the quote, which I used from
Thomas Fitterling's book. He is wrong about
In Walked Bud never being recorded by
Monk.
Monk recorded it both in studio and on live recordings.
