Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

This is the finest biography of a musician, jazz or otherwise, that I have read. It is a deep dive into the life, music, and times of Monk and it is expertly told by Kelly. A well-worn copy of this book should be on the shelves of every jazz fan.

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley is a meticulously researched and engaging read that seeks to put the record straight without any chaser. Popular mythology about Monk tends to cast him as untrained, childlike and eccentric. Drawing upon a wealth of family documents, Kelley masterfully weaves a story that counters these myths and captures Monk's genius and his humanity with compassion and profound appreciation.As an educator, I found myself drawn to the parts of the story that brought the people and local institutions that nourished Monk's musical creativity into vivid clarity. Very early on, Monk demonstrated a keen interest and talent in music, especially the piano. Growing up in Harlem during the early part of the twentieth century, his budding talents were nurtured thanks in part to his participation in an after school boys and girls club. At this youth center, Thelonious was able to begin his musical education and develop his piano playing. His mother, raising three children by herself, also provided a pivotal role in the young musician's life -- finding ways to provide him with piano at home and lessons to further hone his creativity. Later on, as an adult, his wife Nellie provided a solid foundation of love and support -- emotional, financial and business.However, to highlight the people who nurtured Monk's musicality is not to detract in any way from his sheer genius. Kelley makes clear that for many years Monk did not receive the accolades he richly deserved. His style of discordant playing formed the basis of what would become BeBop, popularized by two other jazz greats -- Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. While their names are most often associated with the emergence of BeBop, Monk's compositional mastery was foundational to this new form of jazz.This book is much more than your usual musical biography. Kelley's book stands as a tribute to Monk's humanity. Even as a buddy jazz musician, he took an active role in caring for his children, while Nellie worked outside the home to provide financial support for the family. He pursued his profound sense of social justice by supporting civil rights organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) among others. He courageously struggled with manic-depression, made even more acute due to alcohol and drug usage. Clearly, there was more to the man that his mind-blowing musical virtuosity.Reading Kelley's book deepened my appreciation for Monk and his contributions to modern jazz, the Civil Rights movement and social justice, in general. Highly recommended for those interested in the history of jazz and the development of a true American original.

As a longtime fan of Thelonious Monk's music, I looked forward to reading Robin D. G. Kelley's much acclaimed biography, only to find it a serious disappointment. A good biography tells a story, including detail, anecdote, recollection, etc. that help the reader better understand the life - inner and outer - of the subject. I do not believe that a biography needs to include details about every single moment of a person's life, especially if it shines absolutely no light on the subject matter. Yet, that's precisely what Kelley does here. This text is absolutely over-loaded, bloated with the utmost minutiae that would interest only an obsessive compulsive stalker of Monk's, not a reader who wants to actually learn something about the man himself, especially his personal philosophy, influences, thoughts, hopes, fears, etc. along with a sense of why we - the readers, the fans, the students - should actually care about him as a human beyond his music.Kelley, however, offers little in that respect, instead he fools himself into thinking that he is elevating Monk by cluttering the text with details, names, and dates; and that, by doing so, he is actually telling a story, illuminating a life, when in fact, he is doing just the opposite: he completely obscures Monk, burying him under a heap of peripheral details. A collection of facts does not make a biography, any more than a collection of objects in a garage makes a museum. A collection of objects needs a curator to arrange them and to guide one in a way that they make sense and mean more than the sum of their parts. The same is true of a biography. What we have here is paragraph after paragraph packed with details that do not mean anything in particular, because they lack a curator, a story teller, a biographer!I had to struggle through the text. The small, compact print does not help matters, and I often found my eyes glazing over paragraphs that are in essence nothing more than a string of names (and I actually know most of the names). And, then the never ending assault of minutiae! Look, for instance, at his discussion of the Five Spot. Clearly, the club is important in Monk's career, but do I care who drove him there? Do I care that the owner's brother (the owner's brother!) went by the names Ignazio, Ignacio, Ignatze, or Iggy? Do I care about the Termini family's 1930 census record? If it added to my understanding of Monk (or even to my understanding of some broader themes presented herein), then I would care, but it does not and it's not even positioned as such. I can appreciate Kelley's hard work in tracking all these folks down, but quite frankly the book constantly veers off the road. Worse, it does little more than skim the surface, and a very wide surface at that!In sum, Kelley, despite his hard work, offers an incredibly superficial portrait of Monk. For sure, I learned quite a bit about Monk's life, marriage, career, etc. (Though not much more than I learned from the myriad other texts about Monk). Yet, all the muck made it very weak and uninspiring, something I had to challenge myself to finish, which is too bad, since Monk was overflowing with talent and originality. I wonder how a more skilled storyteller could have shaved the excess and shaped something worthy of the man. Kelley notes once that Monk said silence was the most powerful sound. Perhaps he should have realized that a little space on the page, a little editing, and a lot more attention to the art of storytelling might have made for a more powerful and thought-provoking read.

Jazz biographies (and autobiographies) are prone to creating and perpetuating myths about performers. Kelley's authoritative and almost certainly definitive biography of Monk tries and succeeds in doing the exact opposite, and is a much-needed corrective to the unhelpful myths which still circulate about Monk nearly 35 years after his death. In particular, it shreds the notion of Monk as an idiot savant and instead portrays him as a complex man who, though he clearly struggled with mental illness and the difficult behaviour resulting from it, was fully engaged with his family as well as his art. In doing so, it makes that art seem all the greater by dispelling the notion it mysteriously came from an unworldly man-child, and showing that it came from hard work, skill and learning as well as from unique genius.The book's success hinges on its detailed research, To indicate just how detailed that was, it took 14 years to write, nearly half of the Kindle edition consists of footnotes and an index, and the first draft was 70, 000 words longer than the published version. Kelley's approach is straightforward. A chronological account, with an unusually and laudably tight grip on the chronology, it starts with details of Monk's ancestors at the end of the American Civil War and goes through to his death aged 64 in 1982, with a short but moving account of relevant events after that. The detail is so thorough that at times it's an almost day-by-day account of Monk's life, grounding his professional life in the context of his family circle and the wider social, economic and political events around him. Because of the detail, and the chronological approach, it's better than pretty much any other jazz biography in conveying the day-to-day struggle of making a living in what was (and to an extent still is) a marginal and underappreciated art-form. Monk's happy family life and remarkable creativity are constantly threatened by desperate financial struggle, lack of critical respect (and general understanding) and persistent racism. Kelley's pen portraits of Monk's friends and family are sharp and vivid, and this is particularly interesting when describing less famous musicians (such as Shadow Wilson and Wilbur Ware) who are much less frequently discussed than the Coltranes and Blakeys in jazz writing overall. The book is also remarkably successful in portraying jazz as a small community, prone to tantrums, jealousy, and fallings-out as well as long-standing, deep friendships and mutual support. This community was also, for a long time, devastated by widespread heroin addiction, which eroded those friendships and, by exploiting it, strained the support network, and also curtailed many lives. The overall impact of the heroin plague is more effectively conveyed by Kelley's careful prose than by many other, more highly-coloured accounts.That careful, deliberately non-sensationalist prose is also crucial to the book's success. Kelley allows his firmly-established facts to speak for themselves (though he does apply acute judgements in his evaluations of performances and recordings), and makes his points by this careful accumulation of detail rather than through colourful but unsubstantiated anecdotes (the more celebrated of which he frequently rebuts). The accumulation of detail does lead to a certain dryness at times (notably the accounts of Monk's gigging schedule in the 1960s, though, hey, who knew Monk played Durham University in 1966?), but it's fundamental to blowing away the inaccuracies and flapdoodle that have characterised the discourse around Monk since the 1940s. For the most part the prose, though plain and unadorned, is clear, effective and readable. Kelley's objectivity does slip a little - the quotes from Monk he provides to illustrate his verbal wait and engagement with social issues are largely unconvincing - but overall it's sustained brilliantly and to a great and necessary purpose.In addition to the copious notes and index, Kelley also provides a recommended listening and viewing guide, a checklist of all Monk's compositions, and a small but fascinating selection of photos which aren't the usual suspects that typically crop up in jazz histories.I've been listening to Monk's music since 1983 and this book has substantially deepened my love and understanding of it. I suspect it will do the same for any other Monk fan, and if that's you, you really should order it immediately.

A truly massive achievement. The life of Thelonious Monk in as much detail as is humanly possible, recounted on an almost week-by-week basis. The author must have researched for years. This book is about 5 times as thick as the Thomas Fitterling biography which I might as well give away now. Everything you wanted to know and a lot you didn't need to, as well. Well written, measured, calm and unexaggerated. A definitive jazz biography.

The review by Runmentionable does this excellent work full justice. I was however left wanting a bit more from this very detailed biography: more of the author's deeper thoughts on the music and Thelonious the man. That said, the main job here is done brilliantly: we now have a solid historical, cultural and personal contextual framework against which to go back and listen with even more care and enjoyment to Monk's music.

Having recently purchased a number of Monk cd's Iwas trying to establish the personel on those cd's without those details. It proved an enthralling read, as well as giving me the information I was looking for. A well researched and written book. It revealed a great deal about the man behind the extraordinary music.

I can't praise this book enough ! A brilliant, in depth, thoroughly researched labour of love biography of one of modern jazz's often misunderstood genius's . Highly recommended .