Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

The first full biography of legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk, written by a brilliant historian, with full access to the family's archives and with dozens of interviews. Now updated with an afterword for Monks 2017 centennial.

Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artists struggle to make it without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of bebop and establishing Monk as one of Americas greatest composers. Elegantly written and rich with humor and pathos, Thelonious Monk is the definitive work on modern jazzs most original composer.