A Different Rebellion

In a 1969 interview the 52 year old Thelonious Monk notably said that he had “no reason..[to] go through that Black Power shit now”, having already fought more than his fair share of battles against racism growing up in San Juan Hill, New York (19).  Indeed, San Juan Hill at the time was a community of poor and diverse, but mutually unfriendly, “general laborers” living in filthy, decrepit apartments (16).  Different races were often geographically separated in blocks (18) and as Monk recollects “we had to fight…to walk the streets”(19).   There was a palpable anti-black sentiment that began often from the very bottom with white teachers and policemen and culminated locally with dramatic race riots that gave San Juan Hill a reputation for violence (17).  Even among blocks of black people there was tension between those from the South, West Indies, and those born and raised in New York. (18)

Amidst this adversity, however, sprang up a tight-knit but also culturally diffuse community of primarily black people that was “like a small town unto itself; every circle of friends seemed to overlap”, which would form the basis for many of Monk’s early musical experiences. (35)  The amount of variety was apparent from the start.  His first piano teacher was a Jewish neighborhood musician from whom Monk was mainly learning European classical music (26) while at home he was constantly absorbing Caribbean music from the West Indians (23) and ragtime and stride from local black musicians like Alberta Simmons who personally tutored him in piano playing (27).  His mom, who had a rich background in gospels and spirituals also provided a rich church music heritage which Monk would later specifically cite as the influence for parts of his performance like the unusual dancing (232).  As an individual, an important part of his development as a young man took place in the local community center, “a second home” for local black youth that offered various recreational and musical opportunities. (28) 

A sense of this community would remain with Monk throughout his life in various forms, such as through his nurturing wife Nellie, or his friendship with like-minded musicians or with the white baroness Pannonica who would aid him at many points. (Lecture, 2/28)  The support of these people would give Monk a personal security that is evident in his wry humor, aloofness, and in his adoption of a somewhat alternate masculinity (232), one that is expressive and sensitive. (2/28)  All this is nicely illustrated by his humorous, rather than overtly indignant response, that “everybody wants to be young”, to Larry Ridley’s complaint about “whites calling us `boys' and stuff like that” (417).  

His personality and way of dealing with discrimination would also inform his artistry.  When Thelonious Monk defiantly states in a 1959 interview that “[his] music is not a social comment on discrimination or poverty”, Robin Kelley interprets this not as a rejection of politics but rather a defense of artistry.  (249)  Monk’s music was not quite the metaphysical rebellion used to describe the activism of his contemporaries, like that of writer Richard Wright, in which “[one] attacks a shattered world in order to demand unity from it.” (Search for Beliefs, 21)  His approach is seen through an anecdote in which he cures his wife’s dissatisfaction with an imperfect wall ornament by deliberately accentuating the imperfection. (Lecture, 2/28) Monk embraces his frustration with an unjust universe by absorbing its dissonances, irrationality, into aspects of his art, his personality, and the ideology of his musical community and this in turn inspires a new community of followers which transcend the racism he had not sought to fight head on. 

By the late 50’s his art had attracted but also shaped, an entire community of modernist artists who “found in Monk’s angular sounds and startling sense of freedom a musical parallel or complement to their own experiments” (226).  They likewise were fascinated by the beauty of dissonance and irrationality.  His tenure at the Five’s Spot, especially, transformed the bar into a hot-spot of jazz where black and white intermingled in the audience (228) and turned him into a “sort of religious or sacred figure” (232), whose eccentricities were seen as the answer to “times of standardization and bland conformism.” (255)

However, shortly after the zenith of his popularity, in 1958, Monk was detained by police who found his company of another white woman (Pannonica) suspicious and after refusing to cooperate, he was beaten, his property searched without warrant, and his cabaret card confiscated (254).  This event was very much akin to Arthur Miller’s definition of tragedy in which “the human spirit [finds] itself caught within a scheme of things that degrades it” (Search for Beliefs, 19) and in this respect his continued strategy of subversion through art is poignant but also very natural for someone in his position.  Ultimately it would be a member of the jazz community that would offer Monk a new job and opportunity after the loss of his cabaret card (256).  

*The citations of the form (n) with no apparent source are all from Robin Kelley's Thelonious Monk in order to reduce word count.  823 words including citations.