Thelonious Monk: the Man and the Musician

The quotes by Thelonious Monk allude to the cultural diversity in the community of San Juan Hill along with the struggles that accompanied this diversity. His experience growing up in San Juan Hill allowed Monk to rise above racism and defended his music on the basis of art as oppose to a social or political statement. Eventually Monk would exemplify the beat generation and bohemian community not only with his music, but also with his quirky demeanor and personality. 

Monks quote describing San Juan Hill demonstrates the vast mix of cultures and the violence that existed in the city. The name itself “San Juan Hill” was named by veterans who lived in the community and fought in the Spanish American war, but the name stuck because of the incredible reputation for violence. There was fighting between and amongst all races; Irish and Italians, West Indians and Southern blacks, and blacks and whites (Kelley). Monk and his black friends would be harassed by gangs of white youth on their way to school, and they had to earn a reputation “as one of the kids not to mess with” in order to be left alone (Kelley 30). The community of the Phipps Houses where Monk’s family lived consisted of mostly blacks from the South, the Caribbean and West Indian. But apart from violence amongst ethnic groups, there was also cohesion, as children growing up in the Phipps were surrounded by the traditions of the Caribbean and American south, creating a “cultural hybrid” (Kelley 23). 

His exposure to so many different cultures and violence lead Monk to create music that was a reflection of San Juan Hill. His music was chaotic and unharmonious, yet somehow the clashing of styles and techniques created an appealing sound. Monk’s piano music absorbed the Spanish Caribbean rumba, habanera and tango, as well as the musical traditions of the black baptist church. And to even more variation, Monk’s inclusion of classical music was a reflection of his Austrian- born Jewish piano teacher. Monk’s upbringing in a black church would be reflected in both his music and his visual performance. In the black church setting dancing is a natural response to music, and this response was evoked in Monk in the form of him standing up and dancing when he heard his band really swinging (Kelley). In entirety Monk’s performances were connected to elements of traditional African principles, as he incorporation vital aliveness through his dancing and eccentric foot movements while playing the piano. 

Monk’s music represented the community of San Juan Hill, as he created “order in disorder” (lecture). His music sounds chaotic and has so many elements the music sounds disjointed and discordant, especially because of his reliance on improvisation. Monk uses the attack principle in his music in an aggressive way, which can be seen as a reflection of the violence he encountered in San Juan Hill. Yet despite the aggression and dissonance, his music as a whole is a beautiful intriguing sound. San Juan Hill, like Monk’s music, is a culturally rich place with close communities, despite the chaos and dissonance of clashing cultures.     

 

  Because Monks grew up a witness to constant struggle between racial and cultural groups, he attempted to transcend racial politics. When Monk said to journalist Frank London Brown “my music is not a social comment on discrimination of poverty or the like. I would have written the same way even if I had not been a Negro”, Monk was conveying his dismissal of racial politics in his music and his desire to be seen as an artist, not a paragon (Kelley pg 249). Monk’s attitude made his discrimination and arrests more upsetting because he himself was able to rise above racial loathing, something his diverse music reflects. In the given quote where his friend Larry is mad about whites calling blacks “boys”, Monk light- hearted response displays his tolerance. Yet in return he experiences harsh racialization during his arrests, especially in 1958 when he was pulled over for simply being in a car with a white women and was then beaten and arrested (Kelley). Monk’s 1958 arrest was sad because of the racial discrimination he faced despite his own acceptance, but additionally because of the mainstream response to the arrest. He gained popularity of the event because he fit into the mainstream desire to portray successful black people as representatives of the entire race, instead of his merit as an artist regardless of his color, as he wished to be seen.

Monk’s brilliant music and personality exemplified the tough community of San Juan Hill but also developed the modern beat generation community. Monk performed for many years in the Five Spot Bar in New York which became the center of the jazz world (Kelley). The community that supported the bar were bohemians who were part of the beat generation. Modernity and nonconformity were key aspects to the community, and Monk in his entirety was iconic for such a community. His performances were completely unique and were “avant-garde”, as they expressed “bodily pleasure and excess” that became key to conceptual art (Kelley 232). His music took great intellectual capacity to follow and was completely original due to improvisation and untraditional note combinations. This complex originality was a trait the beat generation appreciated. When Monk was not playing music he was involved in discussions of politics, art, and culture, where he approached the bohemian art world with a sense of humor and intellect (Kelley). Monk’s quirky persona was attractive to people who came to Five Spot, as his haphazard fabrication of umbrellas and his lost gaze at the moon demonstrated a bizarre level of intellect (Kelley). The bohemian community fell in loved with Monk the man and his music, and so would the rest of the jazz world.