Superb biography shines light on jazz legend Monk's genius

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Thelonious Sphere Monk was many things: pianist, composer, band leader, eccentric, sharp dresser, loving husband and father, good friend and, ultimately, a man who accomplished so much while suffering from bipolar disorder.Monk was a complex man and musician who, had he only been known for his classic jazz tune 'Round Midnight, would still have left an impressive legacy.

But he did so much more for himself, for jazz, for African-Americans, for his beloved wife Nellie and their children Thelonious Sphere, Jr. (T.S. or Toot) and Barbara (Boo Boo), writes Robin D.G. Kelley in his excellent biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 608 pages, $40).

Kelley -- a professor of history and American studies at the University of Southern California, the author of two earlier books on black culture and politics, and a pianist himself -- worked on this biography over 14 years. It is a labour of love.

A couple of things are clear from his research: Monk was a genius who fought hard all his adult life to maintain his integrity; and Nellie was a loving saint who recognized his ability and enabled him to perfect it.

Monk was not an easy man to live with. He drank and took drugs, went for long spells without making much or any money, stayed away from home for days or took to his bedroom for a couple of weeks at a time.

There were early signs, treated as eccentricities, that not all was well mentally, but bipolar disorder was less understood then than now. And the life of a black jazz musician in the U.S. during the 1940s to late '70s, his heyday, wasn't exactly easy whatever your mental state.

Monk -- who died in 1982 having not performed for years, living in the care of the "jazz baroness" Pannonica (Nica) de Koenigswarter (who had given sanctuary to Charlie Parker before his early death) -- left a musical canon that still thrills listeners and inspires musicians. For example, on a recent trip to Cuba I was talking with a sales rep for the music label Egrem, when he pulled out his cellphone and played a snippet of a tune composed by a 17-year-old Cuban pianist in tribute to Monk.

Monk played with the greats of jazz from Coleman Hawkins to John Coltrane to Sonny Rollins to Miles Davis to Bud Powell. Monk's musical voice is indelibly his; no matter who performs his music, or how well or how differently, it is instantly recognizable as Monk.

He appeared on the cover of Time magazine and was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2006. And T.S. helps keep his father's legacy alive through the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which annually awards prizes to younger musicians.

T.S., a drummer who took his first lessons from family friend Art Blakey, told me a few years ago that as sole heir of his father's estate, he was receiving seven-figure royalty payments annually. His father, who struggled financially most of his life, would have found that staggering.

Monk, a genius of modern music, will long be remembered and Kelley's exhaustive research and well-presented biography help explain the man behind the music.

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Winnipeg pianist and band leader Ron Paley and former Boss Brass lead trombonist Ian McDougall close out the Winnipeg Art Gallery's Jazz under the Rooftop series this Saturday, Jan. 16, 8 p.m.

Paley, a perennial favourite of the WAG's indoor and outdoor jazz series, is completing work on a new CD.

McDougall, lead trombone and soloist for 20 years with Rob McConnell's Boss Brass, also was a founding member, soloist, lead trombone, and arranger for the Juno award-winning Brass Connection.

Tickets -- WAG members $20, seniors $21, students $21, adults $22 -- are available at the WAG or through Ticketmaster.

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Also on Saturday, singer Helen White releases her CD no (more) dinosaur bones at Le Garage Café, 166 Provencher Blvd. at 9:30 p.m.

The release party has double significance for the British-born White. Besides presenting her CD and some new music, she will be raising money for a U.K. charity called the Musicians Benevolent Fund, which helped her father after he suffered a stroke in 1997. He died in September and White's extended family is having a fundraising concert in London next month, so she is pledging half the $10 CD price to the charity.

White says the show, which is free, will feature 10 new songs as well as material from the CD. She will be backed by guitarist Ariel Posen, bassist Ian Cherry, drummer Glenn Lambert, percussionist and vocalist Marie-Josee Clement, and singers Jodie Borlé and Malissa Magorel. There also will be a set showcasing the singers other than White. The CD is good and I've heard this band put on a hot show at Mardi Jazz.

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 11, 2010 D3