Thelonious Monk

     The Monks moved from North Carolina to San Juan Hill in Manhattan in 1922. This area was well-known as the largest black community by the middle of the 1910s. Most black in this area were the Southerners and the Caribbean who lived on West 61th, 62nd, and 63rd Street. But in the next block from where the black community located, white people lived along Amsterdam and West End. They were immigrants mainly from Ireland, Germany and Italy and their descendant. Before the Monks arrived there, San Juan Hill had been racially diverse community. This racial diversity often led to fights between white and black, and between the Southerners and the Caribbean. This is what Monk tried to suggest in the quotes. In the worst case these fights provoked the race riots. As a result of these riots, San Juan Hill acquired a bad reputation for “one of the ‘busiest crime areas in New York City” (Kelly, p16).Three race riots which took place between 1901 and 1917 well represented a typical relationship between the black people and the police. Especially in the 1905 riot, police officers “ignored white mobs and arrested and beat African American” (Kelly, p19). This unfair treatment made black people furious and often led them to attack back.

     Monk’s arrest in Delaware in 1958 with Nica and Rose must have caused a sensation not only in jazz scene but in a whole black society because although he almost did nothing wrong, Monk was arrested. He just tried to ask a glass of water but as he stubbornly refused to move and answer the officer’s question, a situation was getting worse. Finally officers came out with blackjacks to beat him; according to Nica, “Thelonious was so mad, he wouldn’t move. … and couldn’t be budged until one cop started beating on his hands with billy club, his pianist’s hands” (Kelly, p254). Kelly suggested Monk believed that “the police didn’t help matters” and “they epitomize racism in the city” (Kelly, p19). Monk’s response to an officer’s irrational violence was completely different from the black people’s response to the violence in those riots. He ignored the existence of cops to refuse everything they demanded even when they started beating him. His attitude represented a black rebellion against the white authority.

     As oppose to the violence the racial diversity brought, it was true that the racial diversity created the rich musical culture in San Juan Hill. As Mary White Ovington described the Phipps Houses in 1908, which the Monks came to move to, “every household had an instrument” (Kelly, p19). Surrounded by the musical diversity, his music had been formed. Because tenements in the neighborhood were crowded and residents were closely connected with each other, the culture of the West Indians and Southerners easily mingled together without the tension (Kelly, p23). In such an environment, especially Caribbean music fascinated young Thelonious (Kelly, p23). The neighborhood was full of musicians, some of who made a living to give kids piano lesson. So he could improve his piano techniques under the guidance of two excellent piano teachers. The first teacher was a Jewish classical pianist named Simon Wolf, who taught him European classical pieces by Chopin and Beethoven (Kelly, p26). The second one was a jazz pianist named Alberta Simmons, who taught him stride piano techniques (Kelly, p27). But the most familiar teacher would be his mother, Barbara, who had knowledge of gospels and hymns and taught him some of them on the piano. She also took him to church where he was absorbed in the sacred music. So San Juan Hill as a rich musical community created his musical background.