File:Thelonious_Monk,_Minton's_Playhouse,_New_York,_N.Y.,_ca._Sept._1947_(William_P._Gottlieb_06191).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Thelonious Monk
Sign in to saveAlso known as Thelonious Sphere Monk, Thelonious S. Monk
American jazz pianist and composer (1917–1982)
OverviewAI-generated
Thelonious Monk, born Thelious Monk Jr. on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was an American pianist, composer, and jazz musician. He was educated at Stuyvesant High School and resided in Rocky Mount and New Jersey. Monk performed in genres including jazz, bebop, hard bop, stride piano, big band, and post-bop. He recorded for Blue Note, Prestige, Columbia Records, and Riverside.
Monk received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Grammy Hall of Fame recognition. He holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is recognized in the Pulitzer Prize collection. He died of natural causes on February 17, 1982, in Englewood, New Jersey, and is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery. His child is T. S. Monk, and his copyright representative is Broadcast Music, Inc.
Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film & TV
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA
Known for
- Rewind & Play — Self (archive footage)2023
- Monk & Pannonica: An American Story — Self - Jazz Musician (archive footage)2022
- Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool — Self - Musician (archive footage)2019
- Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes — Self (archive footage)2019
- It Must Schwing: The Blue Note Story — Self2018
- Thelonious Monk: Paris 19692013
- Thelonious Monk Quartet at Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1969 — Himself2012
- Public Speaking — Self (archive footage)2011
- Jazz Icons: Thelonious Monk Live in '662006
- Piano Blues — Self (archive footage)2003
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- United States
- Active from
- 1917
- Active to
- 1982
Discography
Member of
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1,111,032
- Total plays
- 19,742,693
Tags
Thelonious Sphere Monk (Rocky Mount, North Carolina 10th October 1917 - Hartsdale, New York 17th February 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. Widely considered as one of the most important musicians in jazz -- he is one of only five jazz musicians to be featured on the cover of Time -- Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy," "'Round Midnight," "Blue Monk," "Straight No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't." <
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Rocky Mount
- Place of death
- Englewood
- Child
- T. S. Monk
- Occupation
- recording artist
- Educated at
- Stuyvesant High School
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Genre
- cool jazz
- Instrument
- piano
- Record label
- Fontana Records
- Official website
- www.monkzone.com
- Image
- Thelonious Monk, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947 (William P. Gottlieb 06211).tif
- Residence
- New Jersey
Show 13 more facts
- place of burial
- Ferncliff Cemetery
- Commons category
- Thelonious Monk
- topic's main category
- Category:Thelonious Monk
- manner of death
- natural causes
- date of birth
- 1917-10-10
- date of death
- 1982-02-17
- sponsor
- Pannonica de Koenigswarter
- birth name
- Thelious Monk Jr.
- name in native language
- Thelonious Monk
- copyright representative
- Broadcast Music, Inc.
- start of work period
- 1944-00-00
- end of work period
- 1973-00-00
- ethnic group
- African Americans
Sources (13)
via Wikidata · CC0
~32 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Thelonious Sphere Monk (/θəˈloʊniəs/ October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He 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". As of 2009, Monk was the second-most-recorded jazz composer in history, after Duke Ellington.
Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodies, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tone runs. His playing style combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. "As a leading figure in the rhythm section of modern jazz, Thelonious Monk serves as a model for accompaniment improvisation."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Thelonious Monk” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.