Robin D. G. KelleyRecensioni

Thelonious Monk. The Life and Times of an American Original van Robin D.G. Kelley is de uitgebreide biografie van een eigenzinnige jazz-pianist. Het is een boek van 451 pagina’s en na het lezen ervan bent u aardig op de hoogte van de Amerikaanse jazz-scene in de vorige eeuw.

Ik wilde het boek graag lezen omdat Thelonious Monk een heel eigen plaats inneemt onder de jazz-muzikanten. Hij wordt nu beschouwd als één van de grootste artiesten in dat genre, maar daar ging wel wat tijd overheen. Dat komt onder meer door zijn gedrag, wat vaak als excentriek werd omschreven of soms als knettergek, maar waar later de diagnose bipolaire stoornis aan werd gegeven.

Hij groeit op in New York waar hij pianolessen neemt, ook al moet zijn moeder er hard voor werken (zijn vader is niet in beeld). Hij is een snelle leerling en krijgt invloeden mee van klassieke muziek, Caraïbische muziek en de gospels die in de kerk worden gezongen. Hij luistert naar pianisten als Art Tatum, Earl Hines en Fats Waller en ontwikkelt langzaam maar zeker een eigen stijl;

He heard players “bend” notes on the piano, or turn the beat around…or create dissonant harmonies with “splattered notes” and chord clusters…Monk embraced these elements in his own playing and exaggerated them.

Met de jaren werd die speelstijl zijn handelsmerk maar daar was nog niet iedereen klaar voor;

Monk’s chords were a product of years of training, experimentation, and a solid understanding of music theory. Monk knew it, which is why he became so annoyed when critics, musicians, or fans – even the sympathetic ones – described his chords as “wrong” or “weird”.

Het is vaak lastig voor hem om werk te vinden maar hij weet toch steeds bij de verschillende jazz-clubs als pianist op te treden. Hij moet er dan wel voor zorgen zijn ‘Cabaret Card’ te behouden, want zonder mag je niet optreden in clubs waar alcohol geschonken wordt. Dat lukt hem niet altijd, want hij wordt een aantal maal gearresteerd in verband met drugs. Naast zijn optredens begint hij ook met het opnemen van platen. Blue Note is een jonge maatschappij die gelooft in marketing dus wordt hij de “High Priest of Bebop” gedoopt en worden zijn excentrieke trekjes breed uitgemeten.

Die trekjes, dat zijn er nogal wat. Hij komt vaak te laat, is vaak dronken, danst of loopt rond op het podium en steeds vaker er vanaf ook, hjij kan dagenlang lethargisch op bed liggen of ineens een creatieve explosie krijgen waarbij hij dan weer helemaal niet slaapt. Excentriek, maar wellicht de voortekenen van zijn bipolaire stoornis.

Die creativiteit hoor je terug in zjn muziek. Die is vaak zo complex dat zelfs een held van Monk zelf, Coleman Hawkins en de ster van dat moment John Coltrane moeite hebben met wat Monk van hen vraagt. Een typische Monk-reactie volgt dan:

‘You’re the great Coleman Hawkins, right? You’re the guy who invented the tenor saxophone, right?’ Hawk agreed. Then Monk said to Trane, ‘You’re the great John Coltrane, right?’ Trane blushed, and mumbled, ‘Aw…I’m not so great.’ Then Monk said to both of them, ‘You both play saxophone, right?’ They nodded. ‘Well, the music is on the horn. Between the two of you, you should be able to find it.’

Daar kunnen de heren het mee doen. Het boek staat vol met optredens die Monk doet en er komen heel veel namen voorbij want het verloop met de muzikanten met wie hij speelt is groot. Het is een uitgebreide biografie, dus de buitenlandse tournees worden ook beschreven, tot aan optredens in Bussum en Hilversum aan toe. Gedurende al die tijd zijn twee vrouwen altijd bij hem, zijn vrouw Nellie en de jazz-barones Pannonica de Koenigswarter, een Rothschild-telg die tal van jazzmusici financieel helpt en Monk ook heel lang bijstaat.

Het mooie van dit boek is dat je op heel veel mooie muziek gewezen wordt, je zoekt televisiefragmenten erbij die vaak terug te vinden zijn op Youtube, zoals de documentaire Straight, No Chaser die er over Monk is gemaakt, maar de grote meerwaarde is dat je veel kennis opdoet over jazz in het algemeen. Waarom de muziek van Monk zo knap in elkaar zit, waarom de muziek van Ornette Coleman ineens als een bom insloeg of wat het belang van pianist Bud Powell was. Je bent er zowat bij als beschreven wordt dat Powell na een afwezigheid van zes jaar zich weer laat zien in de club Birdland;

Bud Powell had barely walked through the door before Birdland exploded with applause. As he made his way to the bandstand, holding fast to Francis Pandras’s arm and greeting well-wishers and old friends, the whole room was on its feet clapping and shouting. Birdland’s diminutive emcee, Pee Wee Marquette, held the microphone and attempted to introduce ‘the Amazing Bud Powell’ but the ovation lasted seventeen minutes.

Dus luister ik naast de muziek van Monk ook naar de muziek van Powell en ben er zelfs achter gekomen dat de beroemde Pee Wee Marquette nog bij David Letterman in zijn show is verschenen. U begrijpt, ook terug te vinden op Youtube.

Achter in het boek staan alle nummers die Monk heeft geschreven met een korte toelichting dus dat wordt vanzelf een luistergids. Een prima leesbaar boek, een prachtig tijdsbeeld en goed naslagwerk, ook omdat de besproken nummers opgenomen zijn in de index en dus overal in het boek terug te vinden zijn.

An incredibly detailed, thoroughly researched book that has given me the rich context I wanted to better appreciate Monk and his beautiful and unique music. Still, I felt that the author lacked critical distance from his subject, especially when trying to downplay the every day complications Monk's bipolar disorder brought to his life.

The Young Oxford History of African Americans

Read this seven or eight years ago, but listening to and playing a lot of Monk these days so revisiting. Even better the second time not that I am so much more intimate with his music.

Thelonious Monk was a trendsetter, musical genius and a committed family man, but not particularly controversial. There's so much mystique surrounding the guy that I guess I expected more weirdness. This one I DNF'd half-way through.

Much of this information is new to me, so I can't critique the book on grounds of inaccuracies, etc.

A really thorough and enlightening study on communist and labour organising in the American South. This book goes a long way towards demonstrating how American anticommunism is deeply rooted in white supremacy. In some ways, it is also a depressing read--Kelley talks about how a young black man was arrested once, and subject to police brutality, simply because he was having a seizure and a theatre manager "misread" the situation and called the cops instead of an ambulance. This was around 1940. Having a seizure while black is a risk to your life in more ways than the obvious one. That brief anecdote left me reeling.

Another illuminating quote:

Indeed, the [KKK], the League to Maintain White Supremacy, and the Alabama American Legion deftly appropriated Cold War language to legitimize white supremacy before the rest of the world. The racist response to Communism was not limited to white supremacist and conservative groups, however. After taking a strong stand against anti-Communist legislation throughout most of 1947, Southern Labor Review editor A.H. Cather assailed efforts to integrate colleges as "a part of communistic doctrine ... aimed at America with the intention of provoking revolution." "To insist that Africans leave their own institutions and attend Aryans," Cather complained, "would place this nation in the ridiculous position of fighting communism abroad and encouraging it at home."

This fascist resistance to "integration" and intermingling of races, genders, etc. brings to mind Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, which also talks about how fascists deplored "communistic" ideas that would to lead pure, Aryan masculinity and femininity being "contaminated" by working-class and nonwhite elements.

A dense and fascinating read and recommended to those interested in learning more about racism, class politics and black radical activism and organising in the US.

This book was really a delight. I strongly recommend getting the 25th-anniversary edition if you can find it, because my #1 favorite part was in that (a quotation from Lemon Johnson--god it was so good, ahh.) In a lot of ways, this is definitely a product of its time; it reads just like an old-school labor history book, and it can be very easy to get lost amid all the names and acronyms (and Kelley for some reason decided to just dive into those and not do like a first-reference full name thing, which was a Choice for sure) but also it's an incredible story of Black radical politics and Black folks doing what they can and organizing to survive. WITH added 'well-meaning white Communists fucking up' which is my favorite genre. Overall a great read, and a deep reminder of what I love about history.½

An articulate expression of anger at the portrayal of urban black America as culturally dysfunctional in American academia, politics, and media. Looks at urban issues through the lens of resistance and cultural expression. Rejects the use of white middle-class values in evaluating black culture.

The beginning of this biography is no less than a masterly recounting of Monk's early family history in the American South and his move to NYC. If only I had loved his music as much as I hoped--which I normally would enjoy while reading a musician's bio--but which I don't yet appreciate. So that once his career started, I was at a loss. But the introductory chapters glow with intelligence and a sense of joy.½

Reads like a doctoral dissertation. Comprehensive, but languid and heavy prose.

Extremely thorough and comprehensive, at times painfully so. I love Monk but struggled through details of every member of every band during every month of his adult life. Nonetheless and sometimes in spite of itself, painted a rich and atmospheric picture of life as a jazz musician in NYC and gave me a good sense of who Monk was. I keep toggling between 2 and 3 stars.

Robin D. G. Kelley is a great radical historian. His writing is clear and his wisdom is great.

Top five biography I've ever read. A comprehensive, meticulous, myth-busting piece of scholarship. Kelley lauds Monk's genius, but doesn't shy away from the difficult Monk. Instead, he truly humanizes the character that has been painted through the years by not only writers and reviewers but by Monk's own record companies and PR people and Monk himself through his schtick. Just fantastic.

Meticulously researched, this was as close up as I imagine I could ever come to Monk through words, and understand what it was like to work with him, to learn from him and to face the frustrations he afforded! Excellent, excellent tribute.

A Great Read! Lots of interesting facts about his life.

I found this book to be a well researched and well rounded picture of Thelonious Monk. Given his struggles with his own mental state and with the jazz critics, it's amazing that he persevered as long as he did and created such spectacular original music. I wish there was a more complete picture of the emotional nature of his upbringing to better understand the sources of his troubles but I'm assuming that's well hidden.

I have always loved his music and this look at the man gives me even greater respect for him. As others have mentioned, the book would probably be tedious without a familiarity with jazz movements and musicians.

Monk's one of my favorite jazz pianists, and I knew he was eccentric. I didn't, though, know just how screwed up he was. Nor did I understand how much he (and his caretakers!) struggled over the years for the recognition he felt he deserved and how, once he got it, it turned out not to be what he needed.

Kelley's biography of Monk? Pretty good. I suspect that having an appreciation for jazz of the 40's through the 60's makes this a better book, though. Without the musical context, the names and concerts and songs won't be nearly as interesting. I do wish that Kelley had discussed the relationship between Monk's mental condition and his music - I have to believe that some of his musical ideas grew from his unique view of the world. But then we'd be well out of the realm of biography and deep into psychology.½

Nice history of three major labor strikes that you won't read about in you classroom history book.

I wish I'd never read this book. I now don't like Thelonious Monk, who comes across in these pages as a self-centered snot whose mental illness could and should have been medicated to ameliorate its nasty effects on those around him; and I flat don't like the selfishness and effrontery of the man.

His music is great. I will do my damnedest to forget the rest.

I spent 451pp hoping that soon I'd get past the building distaste for the man whose talent I'd revered for decades. Sadly, it never happened. I think Robin Kelley got Stockholm Syndrome and fell into the world of Monk so completely that he became an apologist instead of a biographer and the book became a hagiography. Kelley's serviceable prose rises to a sort of two-dimensional poesie when rhapsodizing about Monk's music, but it's never better than average.

Not recommended. Not at all. Want to know about Monk? Listen to "Ruby, My Dear." It'll teach you what you *really* need to know.

Reviewed by Mr. Overeem (Language Arts)
Finally: modern jazz's most mysterious genius demystified--somewhat--in a biography fans have waited nearly thirty years to read. Kelley brings a musician's mind and ear and meticulous research skills to a very important task: illustrating that, rather than being a primitive, instinctive mad man (a misunderstanding that carries racist overtones), Monk was master musician and technician, with such a capacious theoretical mind that even his most accomplished peers (like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane) had difficulty getting their minds and horns around his conceptions. The reader may occasionally get swamped in detail, but he will also emerge with a rewarding shopping list of essential American recordings.

This is a thoroughly research account of the life of the jazz pianist. It is full of footnoted citations. It accounts for his life in light of the times he was living in. I find it very interesting and well written.
I had to return the book to the library after getting to only page 84, but I plaaced another hold on it, so I will continue the book soon.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) rose from a humble beginning as the son of day laborers in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to become one of the legendary—though misunderstood and underappreciated—composers and musicians of modern jazz. The subtitle of this masterful biography claims that Monk is an "American Original", which has been applied to countless other public figures. In this case, however, the author is absolutely correct; "The High Priest of Bebop" was unlike anyone else, in or outside of the world of jazz.

Robin Kelley, a professor of History and American Studies at USC, spent 14 years researching and writing this biography, which includes 100 pages of footnotes from hundreds of colleagues and members of Monk's family. Although the book has an extensive amount of detail, this reader did not get bogged down in it, as Kelley did a masterful job in portraying Monk's complicated and tormented life. Thelonious, whose name represents the Latinized spelling of St. Tillo, a former slave who became a renowned 7th century Benedictine monk in France, was named after his father, who bestowed his love for music to his son. His mother Barbara, who took her children to New York City to escape the crushing poverty of the Jim Crow South, also was an important musical influence on the young Thelonious. Thelonious Sr. was plagued by mental illness throughout his adult life; his son also suffered from what was ultimately diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive, disorder. However, this diagnosis did not come until late in his life, as he was institutionalized and jailed multiple times when he was in the throes of a manic episode, receiving medical treatments that exacerbated his symptoms. His illness contributed to his reputation as being weird and unpredictable, but it may have also led to his creative genius, as his compositions were innovative and complex, though not atonal, as some critics claimed.

His music was widely misunderstood, as many of the leading jazz artists had a difficult time playing alongside him, and critics often described his music as primitive and abstract. However, he had extensive musical training, considering the limitations he faced as a poor black male in mid-20th century America, as he received piano lessons from noted jazz and classical teachers, and played piano in his mother's church and for a traveling evangelist as an adolescent. He initially performed in jazz clubs, most notably Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, but he was barely able to make ends meet despite his growing popularity. Monk, like many jazz musicians of that time, was plagued by unscrupulous club owners who paid him poorly, fellow musicians who claimed his music as their own and stole royalties from him, and record producers who did not utilize his talents fully and underpaid him routinely. His break finally came during an extended gig at the Five Spot Café in the East Village in 1957, with a group that featured John Coltrane on tenor saxophone.

He achieved a moderate amount of success over the next few years, with sold out concerts in the US, Europe and Japan, although he was paid far less than Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis or other notable jazz artists. The music scene changed in the mid-1960s, due to the influence of rock music, and his stature and popularity waned as he refused to adopt to the new trends and as his illness prevented him from writing new material. His last years were spent in seclusion, with the aid of Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, known to her friends as Nica, an artist, jazz aficionado and estranged member of a wealthy Austrian family, who befriended and supported Monk throughout much of his adult life.

However, the true stars of this amazing biography are Monk’s mother Barbara and his wife Nellie; without these strong and determined women, Thelonious would probably have never been heard outside of Harlem. Barbara Monk allowed her son to set his own path, and supported him financially in his early years. Nellie was everything to her husband: devoted wife and mother to their two talented children, personal assistant, manager, cheerleader, and caretaker, despite her own poor health. He recognized her love for him, and he stayed true to her throughout his life. The book is richly infused with the essential nature of their relationship, and the love that Monk had for his children and dear friends.

This is one of the best biographies I have read, and it will stand as the definitive story of the incredible life of Thelonious Monk. Kelley’s labor of love cuts through the myths and mistruths of this complicated man, and Monk is effectively portrayed as both a larger than life public figure and as a sensitive, loving and troubled human being.½

I thought this book was terrific. It's a well-researched work on a topic very little study has been done on. Reading this book made me rethink my view of the civil rights period. The men and women discussed in this book paved the way for the civil rights movement. It's unfortunate this chapter in Southern history has been mostly forgotten. I really enjoyed this book and wish there was more written on this topic. Black Worker in the Deep South is a good supplement to this book. The author is mentioned in Hammer and Hoe and gives a more personalized perspective of the events mentioned in the Kelley book.

When Kelley opened the book by describing everyday acts of rebellion while working in a McDonald's in Pasadena, California, I knew this was a book for me. RACE REBELS draws attention to 'ordinary' people and their acts of personal and everyday protest and resistance. This is history that you don't find much of in your history books.