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
I find my inspiration in myself.
Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts.
All musicians are potential band leaders.
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.
I don't know where jazz is going. Maybe it's going to hell. You can't make anything go anywhere. It just happens.
I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.
After two takes you're imitating yourself.
If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.
I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.
The majority of juice-heads and winos and junkies arent musicians.
Jazz is freedom. You think about that.
All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.
Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture.
I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum.