WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Okay, let's get into it. Today we are doing a 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:06.860 deep dive into the life, the music, and just 00:00:06.860 --> 00:00:11.839 the sheer uncompromising vision of Thelonious 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:15.779 Fear Monk. When you hear that name, you probably 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.600 get this immediate mental image, right? The impeccable 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.179 suits, the crazy hats, the sunglasses. And the 00:00:21.179 --> 00:00:23.179 dancing, that little shuffle he does while the 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:27.190 band plays on. Exactly, that image. But it's 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:30.089 so powerful, that persona, that it can sometimes 00:00:30.089 --> 00:00:32.490 overshadow the absolute revolution he started 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:34.630 in music. It really can. And that's our mission 00:00:34.630 --> 00:00:37.450 today, I think. To go beyond that icon, beyond 00:00:37.450 --> 00:00:39.789 the persona, and really dig into the struggle, 00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:41.689 the musical, the personal, the professional struggle 00:00:41.689 --> 00:00:44.929 that defined his entire career. Absolutely. Because 00:00:44.929 --> 00:00:47.070 the raw numbers, they really back up his importance. 00:00:47.289 --> 00:00:49.590 I mean, he is the second most recorded jazz composer 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:51.869 in history. The second. Just think about that. 00:00:51.929 --> 00:00:53.810 The only person ahead of him is Duke Ellington. 00:00:54.170 --> 00:00:56.289 which is just staggering. Ellington basically 00:00:56.289 --> 00:00:58.869 invented the big band playbook to be right behind 00:00:58.869 --> 00:01:00.829 him. It tells you the scale of his contribution, 00:01:01.049 --> 00:01:03.549 and it's not just the volume. You look at a song 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:05.769 like Round Midnight. The ultimate ballad. It 00:01:05.769 --> 00:01:08.230 is the most recorded jazz standard written by 00:01:08.230 --> 00:01:10.769 a single composer, period. It's just foundational. 00:01:11.209 --> 00:01:12.870 And then you got the bangers, you know, Blue 00:01:12.870 --> 00:01:15.609 Monk, Straight, No Chaser. Well, you needn't. 00:01:16.090 --> 00:01:17.849 These are tunes that define the whole language 00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:20.569 of bebop. They do. And that's the paradox of 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:22.049 his style, which we should probably touch on 00:01:22.049 --> 00:01:24.069 right away. Yeah, let's set the stage. He was 00:01:24.069 --> 00:01:28.420 rooted in this really old school. Harlem stride 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:31.400 piano tradition, but the sound he created from 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:34.719 it was so radical, it was full of dissonance, 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:36.659 these sharp edges. When you hear it, it's like 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:38.420 this beautiful conflict. You get these angular 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:40.640 melodies, these notes that feel like they shouldn't 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:43.040 be there, those flat ninths, the flat fifths. 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.180 And the way he attacked the piano, it wasn't 00:01:45.180 --> 00:01:48.079 gentle. Not at all. It was percussive, he played 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.819 it like a drum, and then he'd just stop. He'd 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:53.319 leave these huge abrupt silences in the middle 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:56.260 of a solo. The space was as important as the 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:58.530 notes. It's a sound that was just radically, 00:01:58.670 --> 00:02:02.409 completely original. And that originality, it 00:02:02.409 --> 00:02:04.609 wasn't born in a vacuum. So let's go back to 00:02:04.609 --> 00:02:06.750 the beginning. Section one, the formative years 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:09.409 and the Harlem Crucible. Right. And first up, 00:02:09.490 --> 00:02:11.629 a little correction that's in the sources. He 00:02:11.629 --> 00:02:14.009 was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1917. 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.080 But his birth certificate actually misspells 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:21.360 his first name as Felius. Pelius. Yeah. And his 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.759 middle name, Sphere, which is just so perfect 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:25.919 for him, that came from his grandfather, Sphere 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.659 Batts. But the real story starts in New York. 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:32.439 The family moves to Manhattan in 1922. He's about 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:34.939 four. They settle in this neighborhood called 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:37.620 San Juan Hill. And this move, I mean, it changed 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:39.460 everything. San Juan Hill was this incredibly 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:41.960 vibrant, tight -knit, black community. It's where 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:44.819 his sound was born. But that neighborhood. It's 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:46.780 not there anymore, is it? No, and that's the 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:49.120 tragedy. It was completely bulldozed, displaced 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.439 under urban renewal to make way for, among other 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:54.479 things, the Lincoln Center for the Performing 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.879 Arts. Wow. So the place that nurtured one of 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:00.659 America's greatest artists was literally erased 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:03.780 to build a temple for, well, mostly European 00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:06.099 classical music. That's the irony, yeah. And 00:03:06.099 --> 00:03:08.139 his musical education there was just as unique. 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:11.259 He tried trumpet for a minute. Nope. Switched 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:13.740 to piano around age nine. And he learned from 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:16.379 a few different places. First, his neighbor, 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:19.500 a woman named Alberta Simmons. She taught him 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:21.599 the Harlem stride style. Okay, so for someone 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.400 listening who might not know, what exactly is 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:27.139 stride piano? Why is that so important? Well, 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:29.219 stride is all about the left hand. It literally 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:32.139 strides or jumps between a low bass note and 00:03:32.139 --> 00:03:34.539 a chord higher up. It creates this huge rhythmic, 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:37.139 almost orchestral sound. It's a one man band 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:39.759 kind of piano. And the masters of that style, 00:03:39.939 --> 00:03:42.120 Fats Waller, Yubi Blake, those were his early 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:44.639 influences. They were. And even more directly, 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:47.280 James P. Johnson, who was maybe the biggest stride 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.479 pioneer of them all. He lived in the same neighborhood. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.159 So Munch was breathing this music in. It was 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:54.060 all around him. And his mother was teaching him 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:56.620 hymns, gospel music. You can really hear that 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:59.520 bluesy, soulful harmony in his later work. Absolutely. 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:02.080 But then he takes this little detour into classical 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.759 music. For two years, he studied with an Austrian 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:07.900 teacher, Simon Wolff. Learning Bach, Beethoven, 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.259 Mozart. Right. And the sources say he really 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:14.159 gravitated toward Chopin and Rachmaninoff, you 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:16.660 know, the big dramatic romantics who were already 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:19.259 pushing harmonic boundaries. So did any of that 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:21.740 classical training really stick with him? Not 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:24.060 in the long run. The lessons stopped once it 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:27.220 was clear that jazz was his entire world. But 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:28.980 it's so important to know he had that foundation. 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:33.360 Why? Because it proves that his later wrong notes, 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:36.459 all that dissonance. It wasn't an accident. It 00:04:36.459 --> 00:04:38.459 wasn't because he didn't know any better. He 00:04:38.459 --> 00:04:40.560 knew the rules perfectly well. He just chose 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.699 to break them. He also went to Stuyvesant High 00:04:42.699 --> 00:04:45.160 School, which is for gifted kids, but he never 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.600 graduated. It just seems like from an early age, 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:50.560 institutional learning wasn't his path. I mean, 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:53.819 by 16, he's leading his own band. At 17, he's 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:56.019 on the road touring as a church organist or an 00:04:56.019 --> 00:04:58.660 evangelist. Imagine that sound influencing a 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.480 young monk. All that powerful gospel harmony. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:03.860 It's all part of the mix. And then comes the 00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:06.660 place where the legend really ignites, Minton's 00:05:06.660 --> 00:05:10.220 Playhouse. The Crucible. In the early 40s, he 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:12.459 becomes the house pianist there. And this wasn't 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:15.279 just another gig. This was the laboratory where 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:17.660 modern jazz was being invented. It was. It was 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:20.360 the after -hours spot. The musicians who were 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.519 tired of the same old swing charts would go there 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:25.000 to experiment. They'd have these cutting contests, 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:27.800 these musical duels to see who was the most innovative. 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:30.910 And Monk is right there. At the piano, at Ground 00:05:30.910 --> 00:05:33.990 Zero, helping formulate Bebop with Dizzy Gillespie, 00:05:34.129 --> 00:05:37.269 Charlie Parker, Kenny Clark. And what's so fascinating 00:05:37.269 --> 00:05:41.089 is how Monk's music became a kind of a gatekeeper 00:05:41.089 --> 00:05:43.550 for the new sound. Mary Lou Williams, the great 00:05:43.550 --> 00:05:45.949 pianist, she had this amazing quote about it. 00:05:46.170 --> 00:05:48.290 What'd she say? She said that the musicians at 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:50.870 Minton's worked out a music that was hard to 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:53.370 steal. Hard to steal. I love that. So it was 00:05:53.370 --> 00:05:55.930 intentionally complex. Exactly. It was a way 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:58.449 to keep the imitators, the leeches, as she called 00:05:58.449 --> 00:06:01.550 them, from just copying their licks without understanding 00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:04.649 the deep harmonic work behind it. Monk's chord 00:06:04.649 --> 00:06:06.910 changes were like a secret language. And she 00:06:06.910 --> 00:06:08.810 even said they started copying his look, too. 00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:11.610 The bop glasses, the beret, the whole persona 00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:14.069 was already forming. He was a leader right from 00:06:14.069 --> 00:06:16.370 the start and even the older generation saw it. 00:06:16.449 --> 00:06:19.910 His first commercial recordings in 1944 were 00:06:19.910 --> 00:06:22.610 with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was 00:06:22.610 --> 00:06:25.069 a swing giant and he was championing this weird 00:06:25.069 --> 00:06:28.250 new pianist. That's a huge endorsement. But before 00:06:28.250 --> 00:06:31.170 we move on, there's this one really strange symbolic 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:35.459 detail from around that time. 1943, he goes for 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:38.639 his Army physical for World War II. And an Army 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.779 psychiatrist labels him a psychiatric reject. 00:06:42.100 --> 00:06:44.220 A psychiatric reject. He wasn't inducted. That's 00:06:44.220 --> 00:06:45.740 incredible. We don't know the exact details, 00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:49.459 but it suggests his unique way of being, his 00:06:49.459 --> 00:06:51.480 quietness or his eccentricities were already 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:53.519 so pronounced that the establishment just flagged 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:56.759 him as... unfit for conformity. Which is pretty 00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:58.699 much the perfect diagnosis for his entire musical 00:06:58.699 --> 00:07:01.199 career. Exactly. And that refusal to conform, 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.740 it sets the stage for the next very difficult 00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:06.259 chapter of his life. Which brings us to section 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:09.149 two. The cabaret card crisis and the dedication 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:11.069 of patrons. This is where the struggle really 00:07:11.069 --> 00:07:15.589 kicks in. It's brutal. So in 1947, he gets introduced 00:07:15.589 --> 00:07:18.269 to Lorraine Gordon and Alfred Lyon of Blue Note 00:07:18.269 --> 00:07:21.610 Records. And Lorraine especially, she just immediately 00:07:21.610 --> 00:07:24.170 believes he's a genius. She becomes his fiercest 00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:26.910 champion. And that year, he makes his first albums 00:07:26.910 --> 00:07:29.649 as a leader for Blue Note. The ones we now know 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:33.310 as Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1. Canonical 00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:36.240 stuff. But back then. commercially they were 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.779 a total disaster a flop a complete flop lorraine 00:07:39.779 --> 00:07:42.000 gordon tells these stories about trying to get 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.899 harlem record stores to stock them she said one 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:46.800 owner just told her he can't play lady what are 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:48.660 you doing up here the guy has two left hands 00:07:48.660 --> 00:07:51.480 wow two left hands she had to stand there and 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.529 argue with them but Alfred Lyon, the head of 00:07:54.529 --> 00:07:56.449 Blue Note, his commitment was just legendary. 00:07:56.850 --> 00:07:59.029 He didn't care about sales with Monk. Really? 00:07:59.149 --> 00:08:01.629 Not at all. He said Monk was one of three artists 00:08:01.629 --> 00:08:03.990 he just flipped for and felt he had to record 00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:06.410 everything they did no matter what. For him, 00:08:06.449 --> 00:08:08.670 it was about documenting history, not making 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:11.290 a quick buck. So with Lorraine as his public 00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:13.129 mouthpiece, he starts to get a little press. 00:08:13.310 --> 00:08:15.850 She gets him a feature in the PM newspaper. But 00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:18.449 even then, he was, well, he was Monk. He refused 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:20.410 to talk to the reporter unless Lorraine was in 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:22.449 the room with him. And she gets him a week -long 00:08:22.449 --> 00:08:26.129 showcase at the Village Vanguard in 1948. This 00:08:26.129 --> 00:08:28.170 should have been his big break. And the result 00:08:28.170 --> 00:08:30.670 is just heartbreaking. She said not a single 00:08:30.670 --> 00:08:33.509 person came. An entire week playing to an empty 00:08:33.509 --> 00:08:35.669 room. It just shows how far ahead of his time 00:08:35.669 --> 00:08:39.009 he was. But that obscurity was about to get a 00:08:39.009 --> 00:08:41.870 whole lot worse because of what happened in 1951. 00:08:42.070 --> 00:08:44.450 The cabaret card incident. This is so central 00:08:44.450 --> 00:08:47.350 to his story. It is. He was in a car with his 00:08:47.350 --> 00:08:50.070 friend, the brilliant but very troubled pianist 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:52.929 Bud Powell. The police stopped them and found 00:08:52.929 --> 00:08:55.370 narcotics in the car. Which were presumed to 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:58.070 be Powell's. Everyone assumes so. Powell was 00:08:58.070 --> 00:09:01.289 struggling badly and the police pressured Monk 00:09:01.289 --> 00:09:03.409 to testify against his friend. And Monk just 00:09:03.409 --> 00:09:06.629 refused. He refused out of loyalty. And the police 00:09:06.629 --> 00:09:09.210 immediately retaliated by confiscating his New 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.610 York City cabaret card. We have to explain what 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:13.110 this meant. This wasn't just like losing your 00:09:13.110 --> 00:09:16.250 driver's license. No, no. This was devastating. 00:09:16.909 --> 00:09:19.429 The cabaret card was a license issued by the 00:09:19.429 --> 00:09:22.289 NYPD that you needed to perform in any venue 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:24.690 in the city that served alcohol. So basically 00:09:24.690 --> 00:09:28.129 every single jazz club. Every single one. Birdland, 00:09:28.289 --> 00:09:30.690 the Vanguard, all of them. Without that card, 00:09:30.730 --> 00:09:32.970 you were legally barred from working. It was 00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:35.350 a tool the police often used to harass black 00:09:35.350 --> 00:09:38.690 musicians. So for the next several years, Monk 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:41.940 is in exile in his own city. He can't play gigs 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:43.940 in Manhattan, the center of the jazz world. For 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:46.779 six years, it was a professional death sentence. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.299 He had to watch everyone else, people he'd mentored, 00:09:49.299 --> 00:09:51.120 become stars in clubs he wasn't even allowed 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:53.899 to enter. So how did he survive? Did he just 00:09:53.899 --> 00:09:56.600 stop playing? No. And this is where his community 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:59.600 stepped up. Other musicians, like the pianist 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:01.980 Randy Weston, they found a workaround for him. 00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:04.200 What'd they do? They took him to black -owned 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:06.980 clubs in Brooklyn and the Outer Boroughs, places 00:10:06.980 --> 00:10:09.559 that basically ignored the law and didn't check 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:12.480 for cards. So he was playing these secret, unadvertised 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:15.320 gigs? Exactly, just to keep playing to keep the 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:18.860 music alive. But it was underground. Meanwhile, 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.620 he's recording for Prestige Records, making these 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:24.600 classic albums with Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, 00:10:24.620 --> 00:10:26.740 Max Roach. But they're still not selling well. 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.940 And this is when that famous rumor about him 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.480 and Miles Davis starts. Ah, yes. The Christmas 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.879 Eve session in 1954, the one that produced Bag's 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:37.879 Groove. The story goes that they came to blows, 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:40.659 that there was all this tension. Right. But Miles 00:10:40.659 --> 00:10:43.639 himself, in his own autobiography, said it was 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:46.299 all a misunderstanding. It wasn't personal. It 00:10:46.299 --> 00:10:49.019 was musical. What was the musical problem? Miles 00:10:49.019 --> 00:10:51.639 liked pianists who would lay out, you know, play 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:54.059 very sparsely behind his solos to give him space. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.490 And Monk, well, Monk was not. a sparse player. 00:10:57.690 --> 00:11:00.309 His chords were complex, intrusive, and brilliant. 00:11:00.549 --> 00:11:02.610 They just had two completely different ideas 00:11:02.610 --> 00:11:04.610 about accompaniment. So it was a clash of styles, 00:11:04.669 --> 00:11:07.149 not a fistfight. That's what Miles said. But 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:09.669 in 1954, he also takes his first trip to Paris. 00:11:09.929 --> 00:11:12.149 And this is where he meets someone who will change 00:11:12.149 --> 00:11:14.629 and probably save his life. Baroness Pannonica 00:11:14.629 --> 00:11:17.970 de Königswerder, Nika. Nika. An heiress from 00:11:17.970 --> 00:11:20.509 the Rothschild family who became this incredible 00:11:20.509 --> 00:11:24.429 lifelong patroness to Monk and other jazz musicians. 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:27.649 And patroness doesn't even begin to cover it. 00:11:27.690 --> 00:11:29.509 She was more than just a benefactor. Oh, absolutely. 00:11:29.730 --> 00:11:32.450 The sources describe her as a surrogate wife 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:35.929 right alongside Monk's equally devoted actual 00:11:35.929 --> 00:11:38.830 wife, Nellie. She paid bills. She dragged him 00:11:38.830 --> 00:11:41.889 to doctors. She literally gave his family a place 00:11:41.889 --> 00:11:44.070 to live when they needed it. And she put herself 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.470 on the line for him. The incident in Delaware 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:49.970 in 1958 is just incredible. It is. They were 00:11:49.970 --> 00:11:51.970 pulled over by the police, a small amount of 00:11:51.970 --> 00:11:54.330 marijuana was found, and she immediately took 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:56.330 the rap for him. She spent a few nights in jail 00:11:56.330 --> 00:11:58.269 to protect him from another charge. That's an 00:11:58.269 --> 00:12:01.070 unbelievable level of devotion. It shows that 00:12:01.070 --> 00:12:03.870 even in his darkest, most difficult years, he 00:12:03.870 --> 00:12:06.350 inspired this fierce loyalty in the people who 00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:08.710 really understood his genius. And that support 00:12:08.710 --> 00:12:11.289 system kept him going until his big break finally 00:12:11.289 --> 00:12:14.820 came. Which brings us to Section 3. Riverside, 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.000 Columbia, and mainstream acceptance. And it starts 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.659 with maybe the greatest bargain in music history. 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:25.299 It's just insane. In 1955, Riverside Records 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:29.120 buys out Monk's contract from Prestige. The total 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:35.480 price. $108 .24. $108 .24. For felonious Monk. 00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:38.379 It's wild. But you have to remember, he still 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:40.720 wasn't selling records. So the owner of Riverside, 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:44.190 Oren Keepnews, he comes up with a strategy. A 00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:46.509 brilliant strategy. The idea was to ease the 00:12:46.509 --> 00:12:49.669 public into Monk's difficult sound. So for his 00:12:49.669 --> 00:12:51.570 first two albums on the label, he would only 00:12:51.570 --> 00:12:54.509 play standards, familiar tunes that people already 00:12:54.509 --> 00:12:56.639 knew. First was an album of Duke Ellington's 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.100 music, then another one called The Unique Thelonious 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:01.720 Monk. The listener gets to hear his strange touch 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.620 and weird harmonies, but on a melody they recognize. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.299 And it worked. It totally worked. After those 00:13:07.299 --> 00:13:09.500 two albums, he was ready to unleash his own stuff 00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:11.519 again, which he did with Brilliant Corners in 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:14.240 1956. And that was the one. That was his first 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:17.080 real commercial success. The title track of that 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:19.399 album is a masterpiece, but it's famous for being 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:22.559 almost unplayably complex. Oh, it was a nightmare 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.190 to record. The tempo changed. the rhythms, the 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:28.250 band just couldn't get a perfect take from start 00:13:28.250 --> 00:13:30.169 to finish. So what did they do? The producer, 00:13:30.330 --> 00:13:33.230 Keep News, had to physically splice the tape, 00:13:33.370 --> 00:13:35.509 editing together different parts of multiple 00:13:35.509 --> 00:13:38.129 takes to create the final version we hear on 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:40.909 the record. That's amazing. And with the success 00:13:40.909 --> 00:13:43.029 of that album, the big breakthrough happens. 00:13:43.289 --> 00:13:46.009 His cabaret card is finally restored. And he 00:13:46.009 --> 00:13:48.590 relaunches his New York career with a six -month 00:13:48.590 --> 00:13:52.789 residency at the Five Spot Cafe in 1957 and the 00:13:52.789 --> 00:13:55.590 quartet he had for that gig. My goodness. It 00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:58.470 featured John Coltrane on tenor sax. A legendary 00:13:58.470 --> 00:14:01.250 pairing. Coltrane said he learned so much from 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:04.110 Monk during that time about harmony, about rhythm. 00:14:04.309 --> 00:14:06.850 It was a graduate -level education for him. But 00:14:06.850 --> 00:14:08.929 tragically, because of record label conflicts, 00:14:09.190 --> 00:14:11.169 there are very few official recordings of that 00:14:11.169 --> 00:14:12.990 group. For decades, there was almost nothing. 00:14:13.549 --> 00:14:16.110 Which is why it was such a huge deal when, in 00:14:16.110 --> 00:14:19.250 2005, the Library of Congress unearthed a lost 00:14:19.250 --> 00:14:21.789 tape. A lost tape? Yeah, a high -fidelity recording 00:14:21.789 --> 00:14:24.350 of a concert they did at Carnegie Hall in 1957. 00:14:24.909 --> 00:14:26.789 It had been sitting in the archives forgotten 00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:29.570 for almost 50 years. And when it was released, 00:14:29.789 --> 00:14:32.110 it was like hearing a ghost. It confirmed everything 00:14:32.110 --> 00:14:34.350 people had said about how incredible that band 00:14:34.350 --> 00:14:37.250 was. And during this period of rebirth, he writes 00:14:37.250 --> 00:14:40.250 one of his most personal compositions, Crepuscule 00:14:40.250 --> 00:14:43.039 with Nellie, a love song for his wife. And it's 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:45.360 unique in his catalog. It's described as his 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.200 only through composed piece. Meaning there's 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.159 no improvisation. Exactly. The whole thing is 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.940 written out, fixed, deliberate. For a man whose 00:14:53.940 --> 00:14:57.460 genius was all about spontaneous invention, to 00:14:57.460 --> 00:15:00.539 write a piece for his wife with no improvisation, 00:15:00.700 --> 00:15:03.559 it's a statement of absolute certainty. It's 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.220 a perfect, unchangeable expression of his love 00:15:06.220 --> 00:15:08.919 for her. The momentum just keeps building. Yeah. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:11.600 After some royalty disputes with Riverside, he 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.480 makes the jump in 1962 to the biggest label of 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:17.100 them all, Columbia Records. This is the major 00:15:17.100 --> 00:15:19.580 leagues, and his debut for them, Monk's Dream 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:22.960 in 1963, becomes the best -selling album of his 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.559 entire life. He had finally, finally arrived. 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:27.500 And the ultimate symbol of that arrival came 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:30.340 in February 1964. He's on the cover of Time magazine. 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:33.019 A huge cultural moment. He was only one of five 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:35.320 jazz musicians ever to get that honor, along 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:38.179 with Armstrong, Ellington, Brubick, and later 00:15:38.179 --> 00:15:40.240 Marsalis. But the story behind that cover is 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.340 interesting. It was delayed, wasn't it? It was 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:44.820 the story was supposed to run in November of 00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:48.080 63, but it got pushed back because of the assassination 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:51.179 of JFK. And there's also the question of why 00:15:51.179 --> 00:15:54.460 they chose Monk for the cover over, say, Miles 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:57.139 Davis or Ray Charles. Right. His biographer, 00:15:57.259 --> 00:15:59.919 Robin Kelly, suggests that Times editors saw 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.980 Monk as quirky, but ultimately less controversial, 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:05.919 less politically charged than Miles or Rhee were 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:08.299 at that time. So it was a kind of safe choice 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:10.639 for the establishment to embrace the avant -garde. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:12.879 You could see it that way. But even with all 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.940 the success, his output of new compositions really 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:18.320 started to slow down during his Columbia years. 00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:20.960 Why do you think that was? It's hard to say for 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.700 sure. The pressure of fame, constant touring, 00:16:23.779 --> 00:16:26.340 and probably the beginning of the health issues 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:28.659 that would later sideline him completely. But 00:16:28.659 --> 00:16:31.539 he did have one last burst of creativity on his 00:16:31.539 --> 00:16:34.139 final studio album for them, Underground, in 00:16:34.139 --> 00:16:37.019 1968. He did. It had a bunch of new tunes, including 00:16:37.019 --> 00:16:39.960 one that's a real outlier in his work, Ugly Beauty. 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:41.860 What's so special about it? It's the only song 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.259 he ever wrote in 34 time. A waltz. After hundreds 00:16:45.259 --> 00:16:47.559 of songs in 44, he just drops this one little 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:49.580 waltz in there at the end. And we should mention 00:16:49.580 --> 00:16:52.320 the band he had during this period, his longest 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:55.899 running group, Charlie Rouse on sax. Larry Gales 00:16:55.899 --> 00:16:59.299 on bass, Ben Reilly on drums. They were together 00:16:59.299 --> 00:17:01.980 for more than four years, providing this incredible 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:04.940 stability during his peak fame, which sort of 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:07.500 contradicts the image of him as this impossible, 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:10.180 difficult artist. He could be a great band leader. 00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:12.380 But that leads us right into the music itself. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:15.940 Section four, diving deep into his technique, 00:17:16.180 --> 00:17:19.019 his quirks and his health. We have to talk about 00:17:19.019 --> 00:17:21.259 how he actually played the piano. And this is 00:17:21.259 --> 00:17:24.140 the core of the Monk Paradox. We have testimony 00:17:24.140 --> 00:17:26.400 from people like pianist Billy Taylor who said, 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:29.359 Monk could really play like Tatum. I mean, he 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:31.640 had incredible virtuosic technique if he wanted 00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:33.660 to use it. But he chose not to. He chose not 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:35.660 to. He had his own philosophy, which was the 00:17:35.660 --> 00:17:38.200 piano ain't got no wrong notes. And if you look 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:40.119 at how he physically approached the keyboard. 00:17:40.650 --> 00:17:43.309 It was so unorthodox. Completely. The writer 00:17:43.309 --> 00:17:46.049 Thomas Owens described it perfectly. He said 00:17:46.049 --> 00:17:48.430 Monk played with a harsh, percussive attack. 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:51.769 He used flat fingers, not curved ones like you're 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:53.470 taught. He'd hold his other fingers high up in 00:17:53.470 --> 00:17:56.109 the air. Right. And sometimes he'd even hit one 00:17:56.109 --> 00:17:58.369 key with two fingers at once, creating these 00:17:58.369 --> 00:18:01.269 little dissonant clusters. Owens said it sounded 00:18:01.269 --> 00:18:03.349 like someone playing while wearing work gloves. 00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:06.190 That is such a perfect description. It's this 00:18:06.190 --> 00:18:10.819 rugged, powerful, maybe even clumsy sound. But 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:13.160 it's a deliberate choice. It's a total rejection 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:17.440 of flowery classical technique in favor of something 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.279 more honest and rhythmic. And harmonically, he 00:18:20.279 --> 00:18:24.519 had his signatures, the whole tone scales. Those 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.440 create that dreamy, floating sound. And he was 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:29.619 a master of using silence. He would just leave 00:18:29.619 --> 00:18:31.920 these huge gaps in his solos, forcing you to 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:34.400 think about the note he just played. His accompaniment 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.519 style was famous for driving his horn players 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:38.599 crazy. Oh, absolutely. Because he'd just start 00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:40.700 playing right in the middle of their solo. Just 00:18:40.700 --> 00:18:42.720 drop out completely. Yeah, leave them hanging 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:45.799 there with just the bass and drums. It was a 00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:48.559 test. It forced them to be incredibly self -reliant, 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:51.079 to really know the harmony inside and out. And 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.670 he had his favorite key. It seems like everything 00:18:53.670 --> 00:18:56.190 came back to B -flat for him. It was his home 00:18:56.190 --> 00:18:59.109 base, all his great bleep tunes, Blue Monk, Mysterioso, 00:18:59.190 --> 00:19:01.690 they're all in B -flat. His signature theme, 00:19:01.930 --> 00:19:04.809 Thelonious, is basically just a repeated B -flat 00:19:04.809 --> 00:19:06.769 note. It was his key. But not everyone got it. 00:19:07.450 --> 00:19:10.089 We have to mention the critic, Philip Larkin's 00:19:10.089 --> 00:19:12.869 famous and very cruel description of them. The 00:19:12.869 --> 00:19:15.910 elephant on the keyboard. Yeah. It just shows 00:19:15.910 --> 00:19:18.269 how jarring his style was to people who were 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:20.750 used to a more conventional idea of virtuosity. 00:19:20.910 --> 00:19:23.809 It does. But as the 70s began, the conversation 00:19:23.809 --> 00:19:26.589 tragically shifted from his musical quirks to 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:28.750 his personal health, which was in a steep decline. 00:19:29.029 --> 00:19:32.470 By the mid -70s, he just disappears. He stops 00:19:32.470 --> 00:19:35.049 performing. His last studio recordings are from 00:19:35.049 --> 00:19:38.430 a 1971 tour called The Giants of Jazz. And that 00:19:38.430 --> 00:19:41.150 tour really shows the change in him. The bassist, 00:19:41.190 --> 00:19:43.799 Al McKibben, said Monk Barely said two words 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:46.200 the entire time. Just total silence. Which is 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:48.140 so different from what Coltrane said about him 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:50.339 in the 50s. The exact opposite. Coltrane said 00:19:50.339 --> 00:19:52.339 Monk would talk about music for hours, that he 00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:55.119 was this generous, patient teacher. So to go 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:57.400 from that to complete withdrawal is just, it's 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:01.039 a profound shift. The documentary straight. No 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.099 chaser attributes this to mental illness, which 00:20:04.099 --> 00:20:06.799 got much worse in the late 60s. The symptoms 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.319 they describe are just harrowing. Days of manic 00:20:09.319 --> 00:20:11.740 excitement followed by pacing, followed by long 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:14.180 periods of silence. And the medical care he received 00:20:14.180 --> 00:20:17.680 was really controversial. Very. Doctors recommended 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.240 electroshock therapy, which his family refused, 00:20:20.420 --> 00:20:22.400 thank goodness. They put him on antipsychotics, 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:25.319 on lithium. But later on, some doctors suggested 00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:27.660 he might have been misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosed. 00:20:27.660 --> 00:20:30.279 Yeah, that he might not have had bipolar disorder 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:33.259 or schizophrenia at all, and that the drugs they 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:35.420 gave him may have actually caused brain damage. 00:20:35.779 --> 00:20:38.619 It's a heartbreaking what if. And his final six 00:20:38.619 --> 00:20:41.359 years were spent in isolation in Nika's home 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:43.799 in New Jersey. In silence. There was a piano 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:45.720 in the room, but he never touched it. The man 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:47.500 who reinvented the instrument spent his last 00:20:47.500 --> 00:20:50.000 years unable to play. He died of a stroke in 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.839 1982. Such a tragic end. Which brings us to our 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:56.920 last section. His enduring legacy and a very 00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.640 persistent myth we need to bust. Well, the posthumous 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:02.319 recognition has been immense. A Grammy Lifetime 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:06.039 Achievement Award in 93, and in 2006, a special 00:21:06.039 --> 00:21:09.440 Pulitzer Prize. Not for a specific work, but 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:12.680 for his entire body of composition. A huge honor. 00:21:13.069 --> 00:21:15.150 It really cements his place as one of the great 00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:17.930 American composers. But now we have to talk about 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:20.309 the Juilliard myth. Right. This story is everywhere. 00:21:20.930 --> 00:21:23.410 That felonious monk attended the prestigious 00:21:23.410 --> 00:21:26.109 Juilliard School of Music. It was in his eulogy. 00:21:26.109 --> 00:21:27.769 It's in the documentary. It's all over the Internet. 00:21:28.230 --> 00:21:30.829 And it's just not true. So where did it come 00:21:30.829 --> 00:21:34.079 from? It seems to be a combination of a few points 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:37.660 of confusion, but the main source was a music 00:21:37.660 --> 00:21:41.420 contest he entered around 1942. The first prize 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:44.200 was a scholarship to Juilliard. And he won. He 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:45.839 placed second. He didn't get the scholarship. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.259 Ah. And we have the perfect quote from Monk himself 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:51.759 that puts this whole thing to rest. We do. Years 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:53.980 later, the guy who did win the contest ran into 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:55.880 Monk and said, you know, you should have won. 00:21:56.140 --> 00:21:59.400 And what did Monk say? Monk's reply was... I'm 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:01.240 glad I didn't go to the conservatory. It probably 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:04.359 would have ruined me. And that right there is 00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:07.299 the whole story. That's the thesis. He believed 00:22:07.299 --> 00:22:09.400 that formal training would have stamped out the 00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:12.579 very thing that made him a genius. His uncompromising, 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:16.500 weird, brilliant individuality, which lives on 00:22:16.500 --> 00:22:19.220 through the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, 00:22:19.420 --> 00:22:21.380 which is now the Herbie Hancock Institute. And 00:22:21.380 --> 00:22:23.579 through the thousands of musicians he's influenced. 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.029 The tribute albums are countless. From jazz players 00:22:27.029 --> 00:22:30.549 like Steve Lacey to rock stars like Donald Fagan 00:22:30.549 --> 00:22:32.930 to the Cronus Quartet. There's even a triple 00:22:32.930 --> 00:22:35.690 CD set by a German pianist that is a recording 00:22:35.690 --> 00:22:38.049 of every single song Monk ever wrote. And his 00:22:38.049 --> 00:22:40.559 name is just part of the culture now? comedians 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:43.579 producers punk bands even the main character 00:22:43.579 --> 00:22:45.539 in the movie american fiction is named felonious 00:22:45.539 --> 00:22:48.660 monk ellison he's everywhere so to sum it all 00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:50.839 up we followed this journey from the stride piano 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:53.720 lessons in san juan hill to the bebop lab at 00:22:53.720 --> 00:22:56.319 mittens through the brutal years of the cabaret 00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:59.299 card crisis to global stardom and then finally 00:22:59.299 --> 00:23:02.420 into that tragic silence and through it all His 00:23:02.420 --> 00:23:04.420 legacy is this music that you just can't put 00:23:04.420 --> 00:23:07.819 in a box. Music created entirely on his own terms, 00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:10.440 despite what any critic or record executive said. 00:23:10.700 --> 00:23:12.900 It's a testament to the power of artistic integrity. 00:23:13.160 --> 00:23:15.319 He was willing to be poor, to be misunderstood, 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:17.980 as long as he could be himself. Which brings 00:23:17.980 --> 00:23:20.880 us back to that final, perfect quote. I'm glad 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:22.940 I didn't go to the conservatory. Probably would 00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:25.059 have ruined me. So here's the final thought for 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:29.420 you to take away. If Monk's genius... His angularity, 00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:32.359 his whole unique sound, was a result of him avoiding 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:35.380 the established path? Does true, game -changing 00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:37.859 originality always require standing outside the 00:23:37.859 --> 00:23:40.319 system? Do you have to break the rules to create 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:42.559 something truly new? Something to think about 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:44.559 the next time you put on one of his B -flat blues. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:46.839 Thanks for joining us for the Deep Dive.