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Thelonious Monk
Pianist, composer
1917–1982, born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Raised in NYC Wikipedia
See Thelonious Monk on the map
Neighborhood
Wikipedia ties Thelonious Monk to Lincoln Square, Manhattan. A tie, not always an origin
On the map at Phipps Houses
Phipps Houses, Manhattan: His family moved to the Phipps Houses at 243 West 63rd Street, in San Juan Hill, in 1922.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Places
Listen and read
Music spots
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Venue
Minton’s Playhouse
1941The nightclub in the Hotel Cecil, at St. Nicholas Avenue and West 118th Street. In 1941 its house band, formed by the drummer Kenny Clarke, included Thelonious Monk, and its Monday-night jam sessions drew bebop innovators. The building became a city landmark in 2023, per the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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Studio
Columbia 30th Street Studio
1948–1981Columbia Records’ studio in a former church, nicknamed “The Church”, from 1948 to 1981. Miles Davis recorded almost exclusively here during his years under contract to Columbia, including Kind of Blue (1959), and Thelonious Monk recorded here too. The building was later demolished, per Wikipedia.
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Venue
Birdland (the first club)
1949–1965Named for Charlie Parker, it opened just north of West 52nd Street in December 1949 with Harry Belafonte and Lennie Tristano on the bill. The Count Basie Orchestra was a regular booking and recorded Basie at Birdland here, and Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis appeared. It closed in 1965; today’s Birdland is on West 44th Street, per Wikipedia.
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Venue
Brooklyn Academy of Music
1956–1981Its “Jazz at the Academy” series brought Count Basie and Louis Armstrong to the Opera House stage from 1956, and a late-1960s series featured Thelonious Monk and Tito Puente, per BAM's archivist.
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Venue
Five Spot Café
1956–1962The jazz club’s first home, on Cooper Square from 1956 to 1962. Cecil Taylor’s band played the club’s first official engagement, and on 18 July 1957 Thelonious Monk’s quartet, with John Coltrane, began a six-month residency, Monk’s first New York engagement after a long suspension of his cabaret card. The building was demolished in 1962, per Wikipedia.
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Moment
“A Great Day in Harlem”
1958On 12 August 1958 Art Kane photographed 57 jazz musicians for Esquire on this block of East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, where police had blocked off the traffic. Count Basie sat down on the curb and a dozen children followed; Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins are in the picture too, per Wikipedia. In August 2021 the Amsterdam News announced a ceremony co-naming the block Art Kane Harlem 1958 Place.
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Venue
The Blue Coronet
1969A Bed-Stuy jazz club, now shut. Its owner told The Independent Ear that Miles Davis played there regularly, that Thelonious Monk drew crowds, and that Etta Jones played it many times. A 1969 bootleg of Davis's quintet is the only known live recording made at the club, per The Independent Ear.
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