During my first year at college, I became friends with a number of people who were all music industry majors. One of my closest friends at the time introduced me to a man he revered-that man was Thelonious Monk. Thelonious Monk is a jazz pianist and a composer who is known to be one of the most unique and original jazz artists of all time. Born in North Carolina, Thelonious Monk is considered to be the founder of bebop (a style of jazz music). He did not get any respect during the first few years of his career because he had an improvisational style that had its own unique sound. Nevertheless, after starting out in the 1940's, Thelonious Monk stuck to his own orginal sound and began putting out classics such as "Round Midnight"and "Epistrophy."
Later on in his life, Thelonious Monk gained more critical acclaim and worldwide recognition when he joined John Coltrane performing in a quartet. Following this feat, Thelonious Monk signed with Columbia Records and was even featured on the cover of Time. Towards the end of his life, he became mentally ill but that did not take away from all the music he gave to jazz lovers over his long career. Although Jazz music is not for everyone, I hope you give it a chance and listen to some of my favorites which include "Ruby My Dear," and "Blue Monk."
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