Monk Escapes Racism Through His Music

Although he is often characterized by his erratic behavior and moods due to undiagnosed manic depression and bipolarism, Thelonious Monk was full of wisdom concerning racism. His musical life was situated during a period of high creativity—the late 1940s, which allowed for a lot of growth artistically, even as black musician (Lecture 2/28/13). The community in New York that Monk grew up in molded both him and his music, and combined with the fact that he chose to focus on music—rather than black power—throughout his life in order to deal with racial issues, he was able to create and shape his own unique community.

Through his quotes, Monk alludes to the different aspects of his community and neighborhood, including the daily struggles for blacks (Kelley, 19). He explains the “multicultural war” happening in San Juan Hill saying, “every block is a different town. It was mean all over New York, all the boroughs. Then, besides fighting the ofays, you had to fight each other. You go to the next block and you’re in another country” (Kelley, 19). He shares about the diversity of people, as well as the violence, that one encountered each and every day. The dissonance that one can identify in Monk’s writing, music, and improvisational style is directly related to his growing up in the violent and multicultural San Juan Hill. It is through these struggles also that Monk first begins to vent his frustrations about racism through his music, versus physically reacting.

However, growing up in San Juan Hill also introduced Monk to a world-wide spectrum of musical styles and cultures:  “With the music, cuisine, dialects, and manners of the Caribbean and the American South everywhere in the West 60s, virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid,” and this diversity easily wound its way into Monk’s art (Kelley, 23). Monk was also familiar with “many of the neighborhood musicians who played in local calypso or salsa bands,” as well as the classical styles of many great such as Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Chopin that were introduced to him by his Jewish Austrian piano teacher (Kelley, 23/Lecture 2/28/13). His musical style was strongly impacted by all these varied cultural influences. 

Furthermore, Monk’s music is revolutionary to the creation of bebop, which is well known for dissonance, atonality, fast and varied tempos, scattered notes and complex, improvised rhythms. But not only did Monk help structure the style of bebop, but this musical style created a bohemian community through his art. It was the artsy, poet-filled, music-appreciating bohemian community that was centered at the Five Spot--the local café-turned-music-venue where Monk had a regular gig and where he gained a lot of his popularity. The artists who came here were free-thinkers who loved Monk’s bebop-improvisational music because it challenged established norms, in the same way that Monk’s views on society and especially race were challenges to the established order. This is what helped create the bohemian-type community that he fostered through his music.

Race and racism were big factors of life that many musicians were obsessed with at this time—but fortunately, that was not Monk nor his personality. I feel that Monk actually uses his music as a way to deal with and transcend racism, rather than get caught up in it. As a black man, he was subject to the pervasive racism of the time—as seen when he unjustly lost his cabaret card while with Nica in Delaware in 1958; yet still he refused to respond by becoming more race conscious. This was a very different reaction than from someone such as Miles Davis, who would have reacted vehemently to the distinct show of discrimination (Lecture, 2/28/13). He transcended traditional racial politics by focusing on himself and his work and not the “black power shit” and associated struggles (Kelley, 19). Additionally, Monk also ignored race by focusing on other things, such as his eccentric and stylish clothes, improvisation and “Dionysian” style in his work, and even dancing around the stage when he was “really feelin' it” (Kelley, 30). Rather than respond outright to racism, Monk was able to respond through his music, and this is what makes him a great artist.  

Monk differs highly from other black musicians by refusing to succumb to negative racial aspects and instead incorporating his feelings into music. He used the aspects from the community he grew up in and as well as his improvisational style to create a new community that was “bound together by a tolerance for modernity, for dissonance in music as well as within the New York ethnic groups, and the avant-garde in both art and life” (Lecture 2/28/13). I think Monk’s strategy to overcome racial barriers and overall race consciousness was to use music as a vent for his frustration, rather than responding physically in the real world, and this made his music that much better. In light of his arrest with Nica in Delaware 1958, as well as his previous arrest in 1951, I think this added to his intent focus on being a great musician, versus fighting back against the unjust and racist system. On top of that, his relationship with Nica in general helped him overcome race, and to unite the generation of both blacks and whites that were "rebelling against the structures of American society" (Lecture 2/28/13). He refused to let racial problems be a set back, and because of this his art grew and blossomed unlike any jazz artist of the time (Lecture 2/28/13).