Thelonious Vs. Monk
While the United States prepared to draft civilians in preparation for World War I, Thelonious and Barbara Monk were preparing to bring a son into the world. A birth which carried its own air of mystery, according to Thomas Fetterling, “For a long time the year of his birth had been given as 1920. In 1974, however, Leonard Feather saw Monk’s entry in the birth register of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It reads, ‘October 10, 1917, Thelius Monk’ [although, quite a few of his family members were misnamed]” (19). Thelonious had two siblings, an older sister Marion and a younger brother Thomas. During the summer of 1922, Barbara relocated herself and her three children, in what is now referred to as the Great Migration, northbound where she had a cousin, Louise Bryant who helped motivate the decision in order to give her children a better chance in life (Kelley
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14).
The Monk family moved in with their cousin who had an apartment located in the San Juan Hill neighborhood on West 63rd Street, between Amsterdam and West End Avenues, now known as Thelonious Sphere Monk Circle
(Kilgannon). This neighborhood would have a huge impact on the Monk’s musical vocation. The Harlem Renaissance in musical theatre was said to have been ushered in by the all-black music revue “Shuffle Along” which operated out of Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre located within walking distance to Monk’s home (Langston 175). Additionally, San Juan Hill was a microcosm of the African-American as well as Afro-Caribbean communities and early Jazz masters such as James P. Johnson, Willie Smith and Stephen Henderson grew up there (Wilde 3). Moreover, Barbara introduced her children to New York’s rich cultural heritage by taking them to see Edwin Franko Goldman’s orchestra who played both classical European and American compositions (Kelley 22). Significantly, an amalgamation of both the old and new world elements seem to be apart of Monk’s compositions. Around 1927, the Monk’s received a gift that would forever change the world, a player-piano (Kelley 24).
14).
The Monk family moved in with their cousin who had an apartment located in the San Juan Hill neighborhood on West 63rd Street, between Amsterdam and West End Avenues, now known as Thelonious Sphere Monk Circle
(Kilgannon). This neighborhood would have a huge impact on the Monk’s musical vocation. The Harlem Renaissance in musical theatre was said to have been ushered in by the all-black music revue “Shuffle Along” which operated out of Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre located within walking distance to Monk’s home (Langston 175). Additionally, San Juan Hill was a microcosm of the African-American as well as Afro-Caribbean communities and early Jazz masters such as James P. Johnson, Willie Smith and Stephen Henderson grew up there (Wilde 3). Moreover, Barbara introduced her children to New York’s rich cultural heritage by taking them to see Edwin Franko Goldman’s orchestra who played both classical European and American compositions (Kelley 22). Significantly, an amalgamation of both the old and new world elements seem to be apart of Monk’s compositions. Around 1927, the Monk’s received a gift that would forever change the world, a player-piano (Kelley 24).