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Was Thelonious Monk’s Music Crazy?
- Abstract
In 1964 a pianist with the unusual name of Thelonious Monk appeared on the cover of Time. He was only the fourth jazz musician to be so featured, and unlike his predecessors, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington, he was unknown to the public at large. Why, then, was he put on the cover of a newsmagazine written for a mass audience of middlebrows? Because he was an eccentric whose peculiarities made for good copy—a “mad genius,” in Time’s words, who suffered from “periods of acute disconnection in which he falls totally mute.”
That Monk deserved attention for other, better reasons is now beyond question. The sharp-edged, excitingly astringent wit of his hard-swinging compositions, which bore such gnomic titles as “I Mean You,” “Off Minor,” and “Well, You Needn’t,” had already won him the acclaim of musicians and critics, who rightly regarded him as a key figure in the development of modern jazz. Today he is universally considered to be one of the greatest artists in the music’s history, and his best-known tunes, most notably “’Round Midnight” and “Straight, No Chaser,” are played the world over.
About the Author
Terry Teachout, COMMENTARY’s regular music critic and the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal, served as an editorial writer for the New York Daily News from 1987 to 1993. His "Rhythm Man: A Life of Louis Armstrong" is forthcoming next year from Harcourt.
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