Jazz Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk born (October 10, 1917 - February 17, 1982), was an American jazz pianist and composer, considered one of the giants of... more

by JL Vaden

Title

Jazz Thelonious Monk

Artist

JL Vaden

Medium

Painting - Watercolor

Description

Thelonious Sphere Monk born (October 10, 1917 - February 17, 1982), was an American jazz pianist and composer, considered one of the giants of American music. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonances and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This style was not universally appreciated, shown for instance in poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin's dismissal of Monk as "the elephant on the keyboard".

Uploaded

February 9th, 2014