Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T22:19:27.061Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ECCENTRIC, GIFTED, AND BLACK: THELONIOUS MONK REVEALED

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2010

Ingrid Monson ,
John Gennari  and
Travis A. Jackson
Ingrid Monson*
Affiliation:
Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
John Gennari*
Affiliation:
Department of English and U.S. Ethnic Studies Program, University of Vermont
Travis A. Jackson*
Affiliation:
Department of Music, University of Chicago
*
Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music, Harvard University, University Hall, 1 Harvard Yard 2 North, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: imonson@fas.harvard.edu
John Gennari, Department of English, University of Vermont, Old Mill 425, Burlington, VT 05405. E-mail: jgennari@uvm.edu
Travis A. Jackson, Department of Music, University of Chicago, 1010 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: travieso@uchicago.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Do not miss Robin D. G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, for it will stand as the definitive biography of the great American composer and pianist for many years to come. What distinguishes Kelley's treatment of Monk's complicated and enigmatic life is the sheer depth and breadth of primary research, including, for the first time, the active cooperation and involvement of Thelonious Monk's family. In his acknowledgments, Kelley describes a long process of convincing Thelonious Monk, III to grant permission culminating in a six-hour meeting in which his knowledge, credentials, and commitment were thoroughly tested and challenged. Once he had secured “Toot's” blessings, as well as that of his wife Gale and brother-in-law Peter Grain, Kelley was introduced to Nellie Monk, Thelonious Monk's wife, and a wide range of family and friends who shared their memories and personal archives of photos, recordings, and papers. This is not an authorized biography, however, since Thelonious Monk, Jr. never demanded the right to see drafts or dictate the content. Rather Kelley was admonished to “dig deep and tell the truth.”

Type
State of the Discourse
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Fall 2010 , pp. 381 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arndt, Jürgen (2002). Thelonious Monk und der Free Jazz. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.Google Scholar
Brown, Frank London (1958). More Man than Myth, Monk Has Emerged from the Shadows. Down Beat, October 30, pp. 13–16, 45–46.Google Scholar
Buin, Yves (1988). Thelonious Monk. Paris: P.O.L.Google Scholar
DeVeaux, Scott (1997). The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVeaux, Scott (1999). “Nice Work If You Can Get It”: Thelonious Monk and Popular Song. Black Music Research Journal, 19(2): 169–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feurzeig, David Kahn (1997). Making the Right Mistakes: James P. Johnson, Thelonious Monk, and the Trickster Aesthetic. D.M.A. Thesis, Department of Music, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Fitterling, Thomas (1997). Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music. Translated by Dobbin, Robert. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books. Originally published in 1987 as Thelonious Monk: Sein Leben, Seine Musik, Seine Schallplatten (Waakirchen: Oreos).Google Scholar
Floyd, Samuel A. Jr. (Ed.) (1990). Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance: A Collection of Essays. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Gabbard, Krin (1999). Evidence: Monk as Documentary Subject. Black Music Research Journal, 19(2): 207–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourse, Leslie (1997). Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk. New York: Schirmer.Google Scholar
Koch, Lawrence O. (1983). Thelonious Monk: Compositional Techniques. Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 2: 67–80.Google Scholar
Kofsky, Frank (1970). Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music. New York: Pathfinder Press.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Judith (2009). The Definitive Monk Bio: So, Was He Crazy, or What? All About Jazz, November. ⟨www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34600.⟩ (accessed August 20, 2010).Google Scholar
Sheridan, Chris (2001). Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography of Thelonious Monk. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Solis, Gabriel (2008). Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Mark (2004). Mainstreaming Monk: The Ellington Album. In O'Meally, Robert G., Edwards, Brent Hayes, and Griffin, Farah Jasmine (Eds.), Uptown Conversations: The New Jazz Studies, pp. 150–65. New York: Columbia University Press. Originally published in Black Music Research Journal, 19(2): 227–244.Google Scholar
Van der Bliek, Robert (2001). The Thelonious Monk Reader. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilde, Laurent de (1997). Monk. Translated by Dickinson, Jonathan. New York: Marlowe.Google Scholar