Since Monk was still living with his mother, who also provided for his livelihood, he did not have to make artistic concessions due to economic constraints or adapt his stubborn rhythm of life to the habits of his fellow human beings. Despite this resistance, Hawkins kept the pianist in his quartet and made his first studio recordings with Monk in 1944. Hawkins, a veteran of the traditional swing style, was heavily criticized for this, as the rhythmically and harmonically unconventional playing Monks met with abrupt rejection from the audience. The tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was one of the few band leaders who hired Monk as a pianist at this time. Although he was hired by Dizzy Gillespie as a pianist for his big band in 1946, he was fired because he repeatedly appeared late or not at all for rehearsals or performances. This was due on the one hand to Monk's individualistic style of play, which many found difficult to understand, and on the other hand to his notorious unreliability, which made regular rehearsals with him hardly possible even with a generous view of punctuality. While Parker and Gillespie later became the protagonists of bebop, Monk was initially denied this recognition. In addition to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian and Kenny Clarke, Monk was one of the group of musicians who would later be considered the nucleus of a new style - bebop - and thus modern jazz. In the early 1940s he became the resident pianist at the Harlem club Minton's Playhouse, the meeting point of a loose association of young musicians who were looking for new musical ways beyond the swing mainstream at jam sessions. Thelonious Monk (left) with Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge and Teddy Hill in front of Minton's Playhouse, circa September 1947.īack in New York City, Monk made a few years doing odd jobs as a pianist. Why 'scary music'? Because the gruesome chords reminded us of music that appeared in 'Frankenstein' and similar horror films. Mary Lou Williams later describes the impression that Monk's music made on her and other musicians as follows: “We called it 'scary music' back then and reserved it almost exclusively for the early hours of the morning when we were musicians among ourselves. According to her, Monk already had a rhythmically and harmonically very idiosyncratic style. She heard Monk play, recognized his talent and encouraged him in his musical ambitions. the home of the Count Basie Band and pianist Mary Lou Williams. He also performed in Kansas City, which was then a vibrant jazz city. He then went on tour as a pianist with a traveling preacher for two years. A performance by the piano virtuoso Art Tatum in New York in 1932 left a deep impression on the fifteen-year-old Monk. In addition, Monk also accompanied his mother's singing on the organ in the church. They used this to pay the musicians and the rent. Tenants who rent their (Rent) could not afford, invited the people of their neighborhood one, made for musical entertainment and then left "to go around hat". These were widespread in neighborhoods inhabited by blacks. Like many musicians at the time, Monk gained his first experience as a pianist at " house rent parties ". Johnson, who lived in the neighborhood of the Monk family, are considered early influences. Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Earl Hines and Stride pianist James P. Monk grew up in a musically very lively environment and heard many jazz musicians "live". The Harlem district in particular, with its many clubs, became a focus of this development. The city of New York developed into one of the great jazz metropolises in Monk's youth. By the age of thirteen he had won a piano competition at the Harlem Apollo Theater so many times that he was excluded from further participation. Monk was supported in his musical inclinations by his mother and received piano lessons as a child. The responsibility for the upbringing and livelihood of Thelonious and his two siblings lay solely with his mother Barbara, who worked as an employee for the city administration. However, the father, Thelonious Monk Sr., left the family a few years later. As a child, Thelonious Monk moved with his family in the early 1920s to San Juan Hill, New York 's southwestern Harlem district, which is largely inhabited by Afro-Americans and which was then demolished in the 1950s.