Thelonious Monk
Jagged dissonances, abrupt silences and hammered clusters of notes made Thelonious Monk's piano playing instantly recognisable, and his compositions, 'Round Midnight', 'Straight, No Chaser' and 'Blue Monk' among them, became jazz standards.
House pianist at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse in the early 1940s, where bebop took shape, he recorded for Blue Note and Prestige, but his breakthrough came on Riverside with Brilliant Corners, featuring Sonny Rollins, and Monk's Music, with John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins.
Signing to Columbia brought Monk's Dream and a 1964 Time magazine cover. He stopped performing in the mid-1970s and died in 1982.
If you like Thelonious Monk you should check out: Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck
