Thelonious Monk by Robin Kelley

Thelonious Monk by Robin Kelley

The image of Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982), with his trademark goatee, dark glasses, and hat, is today a poster-image of coolness just as Che Guevara's face once was an image of rebellion. Jazz fans revere Monk for his ground-breaking compositions and piano playing from the 1950s and 1960s, but to a wider audience he stands for something much bigger: the very idea of native genius; a quirky, absent-minded, unalloyed originality that is the perfect symbol of the indefinable essence of jazz. Monk's creations from the 1950s and 1960s rank among jazz's most beloved classics, yet Kelley shows that the life behind the music was anything but triumphant. A husband and father, Monk nonetheless moved in with an aristocratic Dutch hipster, Nica de Koenigsvater, known as "the Jazz Baroness," a key, strange patron of modern jazz. He continued to compose subtle, deceptively simple-sounding classics, while descending into depression and erratic behaviour. A once-energetic, joking, handsome young man grew into his image as a tortured artist, and the Monk mystique took hold.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780684831909
ISBN 10	0684831902
Title	Thelonious Monk
Author	Robin Kelley
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Year published	2009-10-16
Number of pages	416
Prizes	Winner of Ambassador Book Awards (Special Recognition) 2010
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable