Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.42 (870 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1439190461 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 624 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-12-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Bright light shining on a cornerstone of modern jazz Thelonious Monk is one of those jazz icons whose legend precedes him in almost every discussion. It is all the more to Robin credit that he has constructed such a thorough and eye-opening biography as this. This book strips away many of the myths surrounding Monk and the advent of bebop and the avant-garde in jazz, but without dismissing any story or factoid out of hand without. "As good a biography as it gets." according to Steve. This is one of the finest biographies ever written. If you thought that you knew pretty much all you needed to know about Thelonious, get this superb book. It gives a very detailed account of his life. Most of it was pretty tragic. A collector like me thought of the excellent albums for Prestige, Riverside, Columbia, Black Lion, etc. and never really thought about what life was. Monk in perspective If you're interested in jazz, post war urban American history or just enjoy reading well written biographiesbuy this book. Deftly written, extremely well researched and highly readable this book is a great acheivemment.Being a professional musician I have read many music bios (jazz and otherwise) and this ranks among the best. Robin Kelley clearly has a love for his subject and
One of the youngest tenured professors in a full academic discipline--at the age of 32--Kelley has spent most of his career exploring American and African-American history with a particular emphasis on African-American musical culture, including jazz and hip-hop. . Ransford Professor of Cultural and Historical Studies at Columbia Univeristy. From 1994-2003, he was
His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of “bebop” and establishing Monk as one of America’s greatest composers. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth century. Now updated with an afterword for Monk’s 2017 Bicentennial.Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist’s struggle to “make it” without compromising his musical vision. The first full biography of legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk, written by a brilliant historian, with full access to the family's archives and with dozens of interviews. Elegantly written and rich with humor and pathos, Thelonious Monk is the definitive work on modern jazz’s most original composer.
(He was often unable to even play in New York jazz clubs because his reputation precluded him from getting a work license from city authorities.) Sometimes, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming, but whether he's charting the highs or lows of Monk's emotional swings, Kelley rarely strays from his central theme of an extraordinary talent pushing against the boundaries of his art. All rights reserved. Kelley also explains Monk's most notorious behaviors—stony silences when confronted in public, exuberant dancing during concerts—as the outward signs of a bipolar disorder that went unrecognized for much of his life, with immeasurable impact on his career. Kelley (Race Rebels) breaks down the mythology, taking great pains to establish, for example, that Monk, far from being an untutored savant, was intimately familiar with classical and popular music. Every step of Monk's musical journey is teased out i