![]() ![]() There have been nearly fifty Monk albums available on eight different record labels since he made his debut on Blue Note in 1947, and each LP reveals a different layer of the way his hands molded the very concept of modern jazz - one that continues to evolve today. “A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world,” Monk once told saxophonist Steve Lacy, some time in 1960. Yet while Monk’s penchant for headgear was indeed a fickle affair, the pioneering melodicism and improvisational elegance with which the New York City–bred genius played the baby grand remained a constant, defining factor - from the time he helped shape the concept of bebop during the Second World War as the house piano man at Minton’s Playhouse, to his final tour, in 1971. A look at the covers for some of his most beloved albums - The Unique Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Music, Thelonious Alone in San Francisco, Monk’s Dream, It’s Monk Time, Underground, and, most recently, the long-awaited release of his soundtrack to Roger Vadim’s controversial 1960 French film Les Liaisons Dangereuses - reveal all you need to know about the wide variety of lids that graced his brilliant brain throughout his four decades of active duty. Thelonious Monk (1917–1982) was a man of many hats - literally. Thelonious Monk performs in Paris in 1964.
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