pianist
and composer
considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisation
al style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy
", "'Round Midnight
", "Blue Monk
", "Straight, No Chaser
" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington
, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.
His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations.
"I made the wrong mistakes"
You've got to dig to dig it, you dig?
“Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy” (Source: www.thinkexist.com)
"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." (Source: www.reflectionfortheday.com)
"Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture" - variously attributed
"Butterflies faster than birds? Must be, 'cause with all the birds on the scene up in my neighborhood, there's this butterfly, and he flies any way he wanna." (Source: Time Magazine)