Thelonious Monk

@ National Portrait Gallery

Description

Born Rocky Mount, North CarolinaA leader of the postwar jazz revolution, Thelonious Monk—along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker—sparked the “bebop” movement, a jazz style faster and more frenetic than the swing that had held sway since the thirties. Monk’s piano style has been called eccentric: “his melodies were angular, his harmonies full of jarring clusters.” His recording career took off in the mid-1950s, and he won an enthusiastic following, often playing with such other avant-garde musicians as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. His compositions “Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” and “Epistrophy” are considered classics of modern jazz.

Type:

Image

Format:

Oil On Canvas

Rights:

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine

View Original At:

http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID=npg_NPG.78.TC596&repo=DPLA