happy birthday thelonious monk (borrowed text)

It's the birthday of Thelonious (Sphere) Monk, who was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (1917), but grew up in New York City. He started piano lessons as a kid and by age 13, he had won the weekly amateur night contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was no longer allowed to compete. In the '40s he started making recordings, and in the '50s he came out with two of his most popular albums, Brilliant Corners and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane. His most famous compositions include "Round About Midnight," "Straight No Chaser," "Blue Monk," and "Misterioso." (Text from The Writer's Almanac)

t. monk

It's the birthday of the jazz pianist Thelonious (Sphere) Monk, born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (1917), who helped invent bebop in the late 1930s with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Parker and Gillespie achieved fame right way, but Monk spent the next 20 years struggling to make a living. He played any nightclub that would take him, sometimes working for just $20 a week. It wasn't until he began to play with John Coltrane in 1957 that people realized how revolutionary his style was, and some of his compositions became jazz standards, including "'Round About Midnight" and "Straight No Chaser." Thelonious Monk said, "There are no wrong notes."
from The Writer's Almanac 10/10/2007