11 “It’s a Drag to Be in Jail”

1 Department of Correction, City of New York, Annual Report, 1948, p. 44.

2 In 1948, the Tombs possessed 829 individual cells and another 106 single beds dormitory style, and thus at capacity could hold about 1,000 inmates. Since the late summer and early fall months (August, September, October) were the busiest months of the year, according to the Department of Correction annual report, we can guess that the Tombs was near capacity at the time of Monk’s incarceration. The average population throughout the year was 813. Department of Correction, City of New York, Annual Report, 1948, pp. 42–43.

3 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

4 See Shaw, 52nd Street, 256, 339 passim.; Morgan, Drugs in America, 140; Marez, Drug Wars, 131; Bonnie, Richard J., et al. The Marijuana Conviction: A History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States (New York: Drug Policy Alliance, 1999); Barry Charles Wukasch, “Marijuana and the Law: An Analysis of Evolving Federal Drug Policy” (Ph.D. diss., University of Arizona, 1972).

5 Monk family interview, January 30, 2004. Both Judith and Evelyn Smith recalled simultaneously that “something happened in Mexico.” Geraldine Smith also remembered, “They were out of town when they got married.” Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004. On the Monk side of the family, however, neither his niece Charlotte nor his nephew Alonzo recalls hearing about a marriage ceremony. “If they did [get married],” Charlotte explained, “it would have been Las Vegas or New York. But they never had a marriage ceremony.” Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004; Alonzo White interview, February 23, 2004.

6 It is indisputable from the flurry of press reports and profiles published about Monk, not to mention recollections of friends and acquaintances, that he was still single through the fall of 1947 and spring and summer of 1948. Nevertheless, the official date of their marriage is still subject to question and speculation, and the scenario I present here is based on all the sketchy evidence available. For one thing, there is no extant record of a marriage certificate. The issue came up after Monk’s death in 1982 when Nellie’s position as inheritor was called into question by the state of New York precisely because she could not produce a marriage license. In her affidavit, she testifies to having married Thelonious in September of 1947 and having signed a marriage certificate, but the minister who conducted the ceremony failed to file the documentation with the City Clerk of New York County. Nellie Monk Affidavit, November 4, 1982, Proceeding for Letters of Administration, Estate of Thelonious Sphere Monk, Deceased, Surrogate Court of the State of New York, Case # 5484; Hudson H. Reid Affadavit, ibid. It is possible they were married in September of 1947, but Thelonious was still living with his mother, and in every press interview the journalist and Monk himself made a point of his single status, and Lorraine Lion, who spent quite a bit of time with Monk, concurred. (Lorraine Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 67.) Monk was astonishingly honest about such things, so it seems unlikely he would marry and then lie about it. Finally, the fall 1948 date seems more realistic, given that the birth of their first child occurred a little over a year later, December 27, 1949. My own presentation of the sequence of events suggests they were married sometime in the first two weeks of October, prior to the Vanguard gig. However, it is equally probable that they were married later in the year, possibly before Nellie’s birthday on December 27.

7 Jackie Bonneau interview, July 8, 2005. Marion White confirms that Thelonious and Nellie first lived together in the Bronx. Marion White interview, with Quincy Troupe, December 1, 1990.

8 Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002.

9 Quote from “Lorraine Gordon: Administrator, Village Vanguard,” interviewed by Ted Panken, March 23, 2002, Artist and Influence, vol. 21 (New York: Hatch-Billops Collection, 2002), 117.

10 Lorraine Gordon recalls Monk’s gig opening on September 14, but this is impossible since Monk was still in jail. Furthermore, Billy Taylor clearly remembers working at the Vanguard before Monk and Max Gordon holding him over just in case Monk’s band failed to generate an audience. According to Local 802 records, Billy Taylor’s contract with the Vanguard began October 1, 1948. Minutes of the Executive Board, October 6, 1948, AFM Local 802, reel 5276.

11 Lorraine Gordon remembered a slightly different line-up—a quintet with Idrees Sulieman with Blakey on drums. (“Lorraine Gordon: Administrator, Village Vanguard,” interviewed by Ted Panken, March 23, 2002, Artist and Influence vol. 21 [New York: Hatch-Billops Collection, 2002], 117.) But Billy Taylor, who played opposite Monk that week, recalls a quartet with Denzil Best on drums and no trumpet. Billy Taylor interview, January 26, 2004. Of course, Sulieman might have sat in.

12 Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 96.

13 Ibid.

14 Billy Taylor Interview, January 26, 2004.

15 Lorraine Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 95–103.

16 Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 198. James Accardi discovered Monk’s second Royal Roost gig.

17 Ibid., 199.

18 Marion remembered that the one dish Monk cooked frequently was spaghetti. “Yeah, he could cook some mean spaghetti and meat ball. He used to cook that. That and a few other things, but that was his main dish, the spaghetti.” Marion White interview, with Quincy Troupe, December 1, 1990.

19 Geraldine Smith and Evelyn Smith, interview, February 12, 2004.

20 Nat Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” Esquire Magazine (April 1960), 137.

21 Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 198–99.

22 Frank Pelaez was actually born on Long Island and moved to San Juan Hill as a kid. U.S. Census, 1930, Population Schedule: Islip, Suffolk County, New York, ED 79. He composed and co-composed over twenty songs between 1948 and 1963. (See Library of Congress www.copyright.gov.)

23 See interview with Frank Paccione on Howard Mansfield’s Thelonious Monk website, http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/passions.php; see also, Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 27–28.

24 David Hinckley, “Future of Radio,” New York Daily News, March 17, 2004; Charles F. McGovern, Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 53; http://www.swingmusic.net/.

25 Nor do we know the date of the recording. There has been a longstanding debate among Monk scholars about this date, initially placing the session in 1950 or later. But all of my evidence points to the winter of 1948–1949. Chris Sheridan independently has come up with 1948, based in part on the aural evidence of Rouse’s playing and on Paccione’s testimony on Howard Mansfield’s website (http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/passions.php). He also ventured some guesses as to personnel: Wesley Anderson, trumpet, William “Keter” Betts on bass, and possibly Jimmy Cobb on drums. (Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 27.) He came up with these names based on who was playing with Rouse at the time, but I’m skeptical, since Monk put together the band, not Rouse, and he had many New York musicians to choose from. Michael Mattos and Jerry Smith seem to be the more likely candidates. Other possibilities are Gene Ramey or Al McKibbon (bass) and Denzil Best on drums, but none of these men have ever mentioned anything resembling this date.

26 “Frankie Passions,” http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/passions.php.

27 Both songs originally appeared on the Washington label (303 and 304) but were released on a compilation CD called Cool Whalin’ (Spotlite [E]SPJ 135).

28 Quoted in “Frankie Passions,” http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/passions.php.

29 Johnny Griffin interview, February 2, 2004. See also, Mike Hennessey, The Little Giant: The Story of Johnny Griffin (London: Northway Publications, 2008), 6–42; Liner notes from Elmo Hope Trio (Hifirecords 616 [1959]); Arthur Taylor, Notes and Tones, 71.

30 Johnny Griffin interview, February 2, 2004. Two days earlier, Griffin and Hope had done a recording session for Joe Morris in New York, so there is no question as to whether or not they were in town. See Tom Lord Discography, session [M10371-4] Joe Morris.

31 Clifton Smith interview, July 27, 2004. Jackie MacLean also talked about Al Walker. See Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 197.

32 Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 110.

33 Gilbert Millstein, “The Twilight of a Zany Street,” New York Times, January 1, 1950; “Trust Group Buys Sixth Ave. Corner,” New York Times, February 28, 1950.

34 Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 357.

35 For nearly all of Monk’s sidemen, their first recording sessions took place in 1949, just weeks or months after they returned from their date at the Hotel Pershing. See Tom Lord Discography.

36 “Autographs by Frank L. Brown,” Amsterdam News, May 9, 1959. According to the story, Brown “partially financed his education at Chicago’s Roosevelt College by performing as vocalist with such outstanding groups as Thelonious Monk Quintette.” He could have only performed with Monk during this gig because Brown had graduated from Roosevelt in 1951 and during the period of his matriculation, this was the only time Monk led a quintet in Chicago.

37 Jaki Byard interview with Taylor Ho Bynum, Hollis, New York, November 14, 1997, transcript in author’s possession.

38 Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce (Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books, 2002), 29–52; Silver, Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty, 39.

39 Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 58.

40 Ibid., 59.

41 Paul Bacon review of “Epistrophy” and “In Walked Bud,” Record Changer 7, no. 11 (November 1948), 19.

42 Paul Bacon review of “Ruby, My Dear” and “Evidence,” Record Changer 8, no. 4 (April 1949), 28.

43 J. J. Finsterwald and J. F. Zbinden, “Thelonious Monk,” Jazz-Revue 32 (April 1949), 36. I am tremendously grateful to Jacques Ponzio for generously sharing this document with me. He and François Postif also quote it in Blue Monk, 110–111.

44 Down Beat (October 20, 1948), 13.

45 Down Beat (March 25, 1949), 14.

46 Leonard Feather, Inside Be-Bop (New York: J. J. Robbins and Sons, 1949), 10.

47 Ibid., 10.

48 Ibid., 7–8.

49 Monk family interview, January 30, 2004; the same story is told in Leslie Gourse’s book. See, Gourse, Straight No Chaser, 38.

50 Marion seems to think that Nellie had already delivered when they moved back in with Barbara, but Thelonious, Jr.’s birth certificate clearly states that they were already living at 243 W. 63rd. Certificate of Birth, Thelonious Monk, Jr., Certificate No. 156-49-151384.

51 State of New York Division of Housing, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Housing to the Governor and Legislature, 1950, 85.

52 Before the Amsterdam Houses were constructed, the area housed 2,913 people; after it was completed, the new structure accommodated 4,586 people. Ibid., p. 85.

53 T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005. Alonzo White, Marion’s son, recalls moving into the house in Queens in 1950. Alonzo White interview, February 23, 2004.

54 Evelyn Smith and Benetta Bines interview, July 6, 2005; Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

55 Clifton Smith interview, July 27, 2004. Also, Evelyn Smith interview, July 6, 2005; Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

56 Certificate of Birth, Thelonious Monk, Jr., Certificate No. 156-49-151384.

57 Judith Berdy and the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, Roosevelt Island (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003), 9–21, 43–44, 71–72; “The Roosevelt Island Story,” http://www.correctionhistory.org/rooseveltisland/index.html.

58 Weissman is listed as the attending physician at Thelonious, Jr.’s birth. On Weissman’s distinguished career, see “Deaths: Weissman, Frederick, M.D.,” New York Times, September 8, 2005; “Weissman Lecture in Analytical Chemistry,” http://www.chem.sc.edu/about/named_seminars.asp.

59 To be precise, she walked to East 77th Street at the East River, where she hopped the trolley across the bridge. This was the only way to get to Welfare/Roosevelt Island at the time. There was a huge elevator that took pedestrians and vehicles from the Queensboro Bridge to the island. See Berdy, et. al., Roosevelt Island, 59.

60 Evelyn Smith interview, July 6, 2005; Geraldine Smith interview, September 16, 2007.

61 N.F. Vitalo vs. Thelonious Monk, AFM Local 802, Executive Board Minutes, February 2, 1950, reel 5278.

62 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004; Maely Danielle Dufty, “The Prophet’s Exile to the Tombs—And Return,” New York Citizen Call, July 2, 1960.

63 Jackie Bonneau interview, October 30, 2008.

64 Evelyn Smith interview, July 6, 2005.

65 Ibid.

66 Norman Granz from original liner notes, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Bird and Diz (Clef MGC-512), issued in 1954. The recordings were originally issued in 1951 under the Clef label as 78s: “Bloomdido”/“My Melancholy Baby” (Clef 11058); “Leap Frog”/“Relaxin with Lee” (Clef 11076); “An Oscar for Treadwell”/“Mohawk” (Clef 11082).

67 Phil Schaap, liner notes to ten-disc set, The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve (1988); Shipton, Groovin’ High, 230; Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999, rev. ed.), 210–211.

68 Monk is granted very little solo space. He takes two choruses on the twelve-bar blues “Bloomdido” and half a chorus solo on “My Melancholy Baby,” which sounds like a throwback to the days of Minton’s Playhouse. Bloomdido, a twelve-bar blues named for Buffalo-based disc jockey Maury Bloom (not Bird’s manager, Ted Blume, as is often claimed), and the only song done in one take. See Phil Schaap, The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve (1988); Koch, Yardbird Suite, 210.

69 For a different but useful analysis of these recordings, see Koch, Yardbird Suite, 210–213.

70 Nat Hentoff, “Granz Wouldn’t Let Me Record with Parker, Says Roy Haynes,” Down Beat (April 4, 1952), 7; Woideck, Charlie Parker, 196. The controversy surrounding Granz’s hiring of Rich has been discussed in virtually all Bird studies. For a perspective sympathetic to Rich, see Mel Torme, Traps, the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 92.

71 Ted Hershorn, Verve: Norman Granz. Granz was committed to an integrated band and that’s what he got, though he had other choices such as Stan Levey, a white drummer steeped in the bebop idiom.

72 The few sources that cite this story date it August 31, 1949, suggesting that it occurred on Birdland’s opening night. (i.e., Fitterling, Thelonious Monk, and Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 109). Besides the fact that Birdland did not actually open until December 15, 1949, Monk did not play at Birdland on opening night. (See “New Broadway Club in Grand Opening,” Amsterdam News, December 17, 1949; Mike Waldman, “Birdland New Roost for Jazz Lovers on Gay White Way,” Pittsburgh Courier, December 24, 1949. The first half of the show was Dixieland, the second half was “modern,” with Charlie Parker’s group, Lennie Tristano sextet, Stan Getz, and Harry Belafonte.) It is true that Birdland management (Morris Levy and Oscar Goodstein) planned to open on September 8, but they could not get everything together in time. (“Birdland, New Bop Nitery, Sets Debut,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 3, 1949; “Allan’s Alley,” Amsterdam News, September 10, 1949.)

73 Quoted and translated from Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 110. The original source of the story comes from Sahib Shihab, who told the story to journalist and radio personality Yvan Amar on the radio show, “France Culture.”

74 Allegro, January 1951.

75 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

76 Mary Ellen Moylan, “Harlem Jam Sessions,” New York Times, April 22, 1951. Thelonious may have learned about Newman’s intentions from the newspaper. Newman had become a key player in the world of independent record labels. See, Jerry Newman, “How a Small Company Works,” New York Times, March 30, 1952. Russ Parmenter, “Business Booming, Say Record Makers,” New York Times, November 21, 1954; “Collectors’ Items,” New York Times, February 24, 1952.

77 Agreement with Thelonious Monk and Alfred Lion, August 6, 1951, Blue Note Archives.

78 The title is a mathematical pun—there are four quarter notes per (one) measure, and when we divide each quarter note into four beats, the value of each beat is a sixteenth note. Four sixteenth notes to one quarter note; four quarter notes to one measure—hence the name “Four in One.”

79 Agreement with Thelonious Monk and Alfred Lion, August 6, 1951, Blue Note Archives.

80 Ibid.

81 See Chapter 8.

82 Gitler, Swing to Bop, 120. Don Sickler, music publisher and trumpeter who knew Sulieman quite well, confirms the story of how “Eronel” was written. Don Sickler interview, September 9, 2003.

83 Lenore Gordon-Ferkin interview, August 6, 2003.

84 Ibid.

85 Contrary to jazz lore, however, he did not spell it backward because she was involved with a mobster. She had long divorced Baroni and had no ties to the Mafia. Lenore Gordon-Ferkin interview, August 6, 2003.

86 On the only extant recording of the tune by Miles Davis, he refuses to play the bridge and instead improvises over the B-section. Davis’s interpretation of the song, which had been mistitled “Overturia,” was caught on tape on June 30, 1950 live from Birdland. Miles Davis, Hooray for Miles Davis–Vol. 2 (Session 102).

87 Gitler, Swing to Bop, 120. Leslie Gourse also quotes Sulieman, who suggests that the changed note was the third note of the song: “He played F sharp, and it should have been an E natural. A tone higher.” (Gourse, Straight, No Chaser, 75.) But the aural evidence contradicts Sulieman’s recollections. The first eight bars of Miles’s version are practically identical, the only difference being phrasing. Trumpeter and music publisher, Don Sickler, has a more persuasive explanation of Monk’s involvement with Eronel based on conversations Sickler had with Sulieman. Sickler insists that the A-section is Sulieman’s and the bridge belongs to Hakim. Monk changed the fourth note in the A-section. Don Sickler interview, September 9, 2003.

88 Gitler, Swing to Bop, 120; Gourse, Straight, No Chaser, 76.

89 Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004.

90 Thomas Monk, Jr. interview, February 16, 2004; see also, Carolyn Wah, “An Introduction to Research and Analysis of Jehovah’s Witnesses: A View from the Watchtower,” Review of Religious Research 43, no. 2 (2001), 4–5; You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1989).

91 Jehovah’s Witnesses reputation as conscientious objectors would have been known to Monk since their cases were fairly prominent in the press. “545 Urge Release of War Objectors,” New York Times, November 24, 1947. The Jehovah’s Witnesses also attracted many African Americans during the 1950s, despite some accusations of racial prejudice. Werner Cohn, “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Racial Prejudice,” Crisis (January 1956), 5–9; Marley Cole, “Jehovah’s Witnesses Religion of Racial Integration,” Crisis (April 1953), 205–211, 253–255.

92 Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004.

93 The most thorough description of his arrest is Maely Danielle Dufty, “The Prophet’s Exile to the Tombs—And Return,” New York Citizen Call, July 2, 1960; see also, “Thelonious Monk,” Docket # 7038, New York Felony Court Index Books, 1948–1956 (microfilm), NYC Municipal Archives; “Thelonius Monk Arrested on Drug Charge,” Melody Maker, August 25, 1951; Director of FBI to Legat, Tokyo (163–2971), cablegram, September 3, 1970, Thelonious Monk FBI File.

12 “The ‘Un’ Years”

1 Dufty, “The Prophet’s Exile to the Tombs.”

2 Lewis H. Lapham, “Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” Saturday Evening Post 237 (April 11, 1964), 74.

3 “Thelonious Monk,” Docket # 7038, New York Felony Court Index Books, 1948–1956 (microfilm), NYC Municipal Archives; Director of FBI to Legat, Tokyo (163–2971), cablegram, September 3, 1970, Thelonious Monk FBI File; “Thelonious Monk Arrested on Drug Charge,” Melody Maker (August 25, 1951).

4 Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 86.

5 Paul Bacon interview, July 30, 2001.

6 Email correspondence from Supervisor Bevan Dufty to author, October 25, 2007.

7 Dufty, “The Prophet’s Exile to the Tombs.”

8 Ibid.

9 Receipt Books—Payment to Nellie Monk, September 15, 1951, for $25.00 for alterations on five gowns, Box 1, Series 6, Mary Lou Williams Collection, Rutgers University.

10 Department of Correction, City of New York, Annual Report, 1951, p. 2.

11 Charles R. Lucci, Secy of Local 802 AFM, to Thelonious Monk, September 6, 1951, Blue Note Archives.

12 It was issued around November of 1951 as Blue Note LP 5002, part of its “Modern Jazz Series.” What would become volume 2 came out in the spring of 1952.

13 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005; Hardie Gramatky, Little Toot the Tugboat (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1939). In 1954, Walt Disney spun off “Toot the Tugboat” as its own independent short cartoon.

14 Wilmer, “Monk on Monk,” 21.

15 Monk hired Thompson both for his enormous talent and because he desperately needed the gig. As a result of a conflict Thompson had had with a club owner, “the word got around I was difficult, and from 1949 to 1954, I was never given a gig in a major jazz club in New York City.” Monk understood the situation better than most. Nat Hentoff, “Lucky Thompson,” Down Beat (April 4, 1956), 9; see also, Interview with Eli Lucky Thompson, by Daniel Brecker (Seattle on KCMU radio) www.melmartin.com/luck.ram; Christopher Kuhl, “Lucky Thompson Interview: Part II,” Cadence (February, 1982), 11.

16 L. Tomkins, “The Lou Donaldson Story,” Crescendo International 19, no. 11 (1981), 20; and no.12, p.16. The recordings with Jackson were released on Blue Note 1592, 1593, and 1594.

17 The melody is so full of intervallic leaps that the fact that it is based on “Tea for Two” is not so obvious, even among musicians. Steve Lacy interview, May 9, 1995; Max Harrison, “Mosaic Survey, Part I,” Jazz Forum 96 (1985), 38.

18 Evelyn Smith and Binetta Bines interview, July 5, 2004.

19 Cuscuna, Complete Blue Note Recordings, 9.

20 Recorded at RCA Victor July 10, 1947. Perry Como, Carolina Moon/Haunted Heart (RCA Victor 20-2713).

21 Donaldson was born in Badin and Roach was from New Land. As Donaldson told Sam Stephenson in a recent interview, “We recorded ‘Carolina Moon’ as a tribute to our home state, with Max Roach on drums.” Stephenson, “Thelonious Monk: Is This Home?,” 58.

22 Surprisingly, Blue Note chose not to release “Sixteen” and “I’ll Follow You” until 1985, on More Genius Of Thelonious Monk (Blue Note [J] BNJ 61011).

23 “CNA in Tribute to Jazz Pianist Mary Lou Williams Honored at Town Hall,” Amsterdam News, June 21, 1952.

24 Nellie Monk conversation, November 9, 2001.

25 Kernodle, Soul on Soul, 171–175; Dahl, Morning Glory, 224–243.

26 Their association with Weinstock goes back to 1949, when he recorded J. J. Johnson’s “Boppers” on his New Jazz label. Rollins and Dorham were in the band, along with John Lewis and Max Roach. [See, J. J. Johnson, Spider’s Webb (New Jazz NJ 810)]. In January of 1951, Weinstock recorded both Rollins and Miles Davis as leaders for Prestige. See Miles Davis And Horns (Prestige PRLP 7025) and Sonny Rollins With The Modern Jazz Quartet (Prestige PRLP 7029). See entries for Sonny Rollins, 1949–1951, Tom Lord Jazz Discography; Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

27 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007; M. Ruppli with B. Porter, The Prestige Label: a Discography (Westport, CT and London, 1980); Peter Keepnews, Thelonious Monk: The Complete Prestige Recordings (Liner Notes 3PRCD-4428-2: Prestige Records, 2000), 10–11.

28 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

29 James Petrillo to Alfred W. Lion, October 3, 1952, Blue Note Archive, Capitol Records.

30 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003. The son of Bernice and Gary Mapp, Sr., a Barbadian subway porter who emigrated to the U.S. in 1923, the young Gary was born in Brooklyn January 9, 1926. Social Security Death Index, Gary Mapp, May 1987; U.S. Census, 1930, Population Schedule: Kings County, Brooklyn.

31 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

32 Bob Weinstock quoted in Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 152–53.

33 Lead sheet submitted with Certificate of Copyright Registration, “The Pump: Music by Teddy McRae and T. Monk,” E unp. No. 363022, Received February 5, 1944.

34 Lead sheet and Certificate of Copyright Registration, “Playhouse: Melody by Thelonious Monk,” Walter Gil Fuller claimant, E unpub. 8742, Received February 26, 1946.

35 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007. Peter Keepnews also recounts a version of this story in his liner notes, Thelonious Monk: The Complete Prestige Recordings, 16.

36 Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 361.

37 Jon Pareles, “John S. Wilson, Jazz Critic, Is Dead at 89,” New York Times, August 28, 2002.

38 John S. Wilson, “Some Jazz Piano Specialists,” New York Times, October 26, 1952.

39 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

40 Ibid.; and Keepnews liner notes, The Complete Prestige Recordings, 18.

41 Copyright registration, Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best, “Bimsha Swing” (sometimes listed as “Bemsha Swing” or “Bemesha Swing”), Bayes Music, Registration Number: EU 297366, dated December 15, 1952, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. See also Chapter 3.

42 Ira Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” Metronome 74 (March 1957), 20.

43 “Please, Mr. Sun” was a big hit that year and received much radio play. Johnny Ray’s version reached #6 on the Billboard charts, followed by Perry Como’s version which rose to #12. The Perry Como version was released in 1952 on 45 by RCA Victor. Perry Como, Please Mr. Sun/Tulips And Heather (RCA Victor 47-4453).

44 Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 361.

45 Pittsburgh Courier, September 27, 1952; Amsterdam News, September 6, 1952.

46 Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 363.

47 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

48 Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004.

49 Monk family interview; Alonzo White interview; Clifton Smith interview.

50 Prestige released the first six sides in 1953 in the following order: “Sweet and Lovely/Bye-ya” (Prestige 795); “Trinkle Tinkle/These Foolish Things” (Prestige 838); “Little Rootie Tootie/Monk’s Dream” (Prestige 850).

51 Barry Ulanov, “Thelonious Monk Trio,” Metronome (July 1953), 27.

52 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

53 K. Leander Williams, “Brooklyn New York,” in Lost Jazz Shrines (The Lost Shrines Project, 1998), 12–16; Bilal Abdurahman, In the Key of Me: The Bedford Stuyvesant Renaissance, 1940s–60s Revisited (Brooklyn: Contemporary Visions, 1993); Randy Weston, interview, August 20, 2001; Bob Meyers interview, February 21, 2003; Freddie Robinson interview, January 9, 2002.

54 Amsterdam News, August 22, 1953; Brian Priestley, Mingus: A Critical Biography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1982), 54; Max Roach interview with Phil Schaap, WKCR, February 24 and March 13, 1981; Gene Santoro, Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 105–106.

55 Reisner, ed., Bird, 11–13, 24; on the no alcohol policy, see Allen Ginsberg, interview by Steve Silberman, December 16, 1996, http://www.levity.com/digaland/ginsberg96.html.

56 Certificate of Birth, Barbara Monk, Certificate No. 156-53-135326. Her middle name, Evelyn, is not listed on her birth certificate, but she had had that name since birth. See Memorial Service for Barbara Evelyn Monk, Program, January 17, 1984, in author’s possession.

57 T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005.

58 Ibid.

59 Evelyn Smith interview; Monk family interview; T. S. Monk interview; Charlotte Washington interview; Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 13.

60 Quoted in Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137.

61 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137.

62 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007; Peter Keepnews, The Complete Prestige Recordings, 18–19.

63 Saxophonist Paul Jeffrey used to visit Watkins when he played with Les Jazz Modes, and sometimes they would play classical pieces together. “He’d play all of the horn parts in the classical repertoire, the higher parts and the lower parts. And tears would come to his eyes because he couldn’t get a job working in any symphony orchestra.” Paul Jeffrey interview, August 31, 2003.

64 John S. Wilson, “The Horn Nobody Wants,” Down Beat (September 17, 1959), 37–38; and the excellent dissertation by Patrick Gregory Smith, “Julius Watkins and the Evolution of the Jazz French Horn” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 2005), 31–42.

65 The MJQ, after all, was the label’s latest sensation—with Milt Jackson, John Lewis on piano, and Kenny Clarke on drums. They first recorded with Prestige in 1952.

66 Randy Weston interview, February 22, 1999 and July 30, 2003; Marcellus Green interview, October 19, 2001.

67 Ben Ratliff, “At 75, a Drummer Whose Beat Is Always Modern,” New York Times, June 4, 2000.

68 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

69 See ads in Amsterdam News, August 15, 1953; August 22, 1953, September 5, 1953.

70 Henri Renaud, “Monk Jusqu’ au bout Des Doigts,” Jazz Magazine 520 (November 2001), 17; Renaud, “Un Revolutionnaire du Piano,” Jazz Hot 393 (March 1982), 23; and quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 131.

71 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003. French pianist/composer/critic Henri Renaud was also in attendance at Tony’s that night and describes the events. Renaud, “Un Revolutionnaire du Piano,” 23; and quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 131.

72 Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 151; Renaud, “Un Revolutionnaire du Piano,” 23; Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 365.

73 Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 151; Renaud, “Un Revolutionnaire du Piano,” 23.

74 Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 106.

75 Theolonious Monk interview, January 30, 2004.

76 Gryce quoted in Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 151.

77 Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 106. Santoro, and his informant Celia Mingus Zaentz, date the performance, and thus the incident, to the summer of 1953, but given the personnel it could have only happened during the Tony’s gig because Gigi Gryce spent the previous summer as a regular member of Lionel Hampton’s band. The alleged events that provoked Monk recounted in Santoro’s book don’t make sense; they seem both illogical and unlikely. He writes: “Onstage, Mingus wanted to play ‘Memories of You.’ He liked soloing on it but Monk said Davis didn’t know the chords. Miles insisted he’d call out the changes on the bandstand, then deliberately mixed them up. [Oscar] Pettiford scolded him when the trumpeter came offstage. When they went back on, the pianist got his payback.” (p. 106)

78 They arrived by ship six days before Christmas. Manifest of In-bound Passengers (Aliens), S.S. Flanders, December 19, 1953, www.ancestry.com; Henri Renaud, “Trois Mois à New York,” Jazz Hot (October1954), 15–16. According to the Manifest, the Renauds were staying at 610 West 113th St. in Manhattan.

79 Renaud, “Un Revolutionnaire du Piano,” 23.

80 Renaud, “Trois Mois à New York,” 16.

81 Renaud, “Trois Mois à New York,” 16; Henri Renaud, “Thelonious Monk,” http://www.jazzmagazine.com/Interviews/Dauj/monk/monk.htm.

82 Advertisement in New York Times, February 26, 1954. On Gloria Davy, see Wallace McClain Cheatham, “African-American Women Singers at the Metropolitan Opera Before Leontyne Price,” Journal of Negro History 84, no. 2 (Spring 1999), 167–181.

83 “Thelonious Monk [Review],” Down Beat (March 24, 1954), 15, 17.

84 C. Andrew Hovan,“Rudy Van Gelder—Interview,” All About Jazz (January 30, 2004), allaboutjazz.com.

85 All of these recordings were released as Thelonious Monk Quintet with Frank Foster (Prestige PRLP 180), and can be heard on the Complete Prestige Recordings of Thelonious Monk.

86 Recorded December 15, 1944, it was first released on 78 on the Moe Asch label (Asch 552–3). It can be heard more readily on Folkways FA2966, Classics (F)1021 [CD].

87 Chilton, The Song of the Hawk, 224; Dahl, Morning Glory, 148–149. Collette Hawkins insists that her father had been playing “Rifftide” before he recorded with Mary Lou Williams, and that the song should have been listed as “Rifftide” instead of “Lady Be Good.” Collette Hawkins interview, November 5, 2004.

88 Quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 134; also, Henri Renaud, “Monk Jusqu’ au bout des Doigts,” 17.

89 The mainstream press actually misquoted Robeson, who purportedly said, “It is unthinkable that American Negroes would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against a country [the Soviet Union] which in one generation has raised our people to the full dignity of mankind.” He actually said something quite different. After pointing out that American wealth had been built on the backs of black and white workers, he resolved that “we [the peace movement] shall not put up with any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong. We shall not make war on anyone. We shall not make war on the Soviet Union.” Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson (New York: Knopf, 1988), 342, and on the revoking of his passport and the struggle to restore it, see pp. 381–449.

90 Martin Duberman mistakenly identifies May 24 as the date of the “Cultural Salute to Paul Robeson” (Paul Robeson, p. 425); Ingrid Monson, “Monk Meets SNCC,” gives May 25, whereas Chris Sheridan actually pushes the date back to May 22, which suggests he confused the date of the newspaper in which the ad appeared with the date of the event. (See Brilliant Corners, 366.) One can see how easy it is to make such an error, especially since the advertisement in the Amsterdam News identifies the date as “Wednesday, May 28,” which is impossible since the 28th was a Friday. Robeson’s FBI file provides the most compelling evidence for the actual date being the 26th, in part because agents were there at the event. FBI HQ File: Paul Robeson, 100-25857, p. 51.

91 Amsterdam News, May 22, 1954.

92 Stanley Dance, “Three Score: A Quiz for Jazz Musicians,” Metronome (April 1961), 48.

93 Duberman, Paul Robeson, 177.

94 Jean-Marie Ingrand, Monk’s bass player and informal guide in Paris, had a vivid memory of the items in his suitcase. See Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 138.

13 “France Libre!”

1 The plane employed for flight 076 was the F-BGNE, an Air France plane manufactured by Lockheed and known as LOCKHEED 1049C Super Constellation. General Declaration (In-Bound/Out-bound), Air France, Compagnie Nationale Air France, Flight #076/0530, May 30, 1954, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, Roll 8458, Records of the INS, National Archives, Washington, D.C. See also Claude Luisada, Queen of the Skies: The Lockheed Constellation (Raleigh, NC: Pentland Press, 2005).

2 See Chapter 7.

3 See for example, Eugene Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994).

4 James M. Doran, Herman Chittison: A Bio-Discography (The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors: Monograph 2, 1993), 9.

5 Nicola Cooper, France and Indochina: Colonial Encounters (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001); Martin Windrow, The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam (New York: Da Capo, 2004).

6 Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 137.

7 Dahl, Morning Glory, 235; Clarke, Billie Holiday, 68.

8 Quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 135.

9 Ibid., p. 135.

10 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16.

11 Jackie Bonneau interview, October 30, 2008.

12 Quoted in Raymond Horricks, “Thelonious Monk: Two Sides of an Enigmatic Musician,” Jazz Monthly (April 1956), 8, also reprinted in Horricks’s These Jazzmen of Our Time (London: Victor Golancz, 1959), as “Thelonious Monk: Portrait of the Artist as an Enigma.” This description is drawn from several eyewitness accounts besides Horricks: Mike Nevard, “Mulligan, Monk—and then a French Surprise,” Melody Maker (June 5, 1954), 9; “Le Troisième Salon Internationale Du Jazz,” Jazz Hot (July-August,1954), 8–9; and Ingrand’s account documented in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 136–37.

13 Quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 137. Ingrand’s account matches that of Horricks, “Thelonious Monk,” 8.

14 Ibid., 137. Pochonnet met Mary Lou in November of 1953, played with her a few times, and not long after Monk returned to the United States they became lovers. Dahl, Morning Glory, 239.

15 Horricks, “Thelonious Monk,” 8.

16 Nevard, “Mulligan, Monk,” 9. Coincidentally, both Nevard and Horricks comment on Monk’s foot movement, stating categorically that he’s reaching for the pedal but keeps missing it. What neither Horricks nor Nevard realized is that he wasn’t searching for the pedal. Having studied the instrument since he was at least eleven years old, he always knew the location of the pedals. They confused his tendency to move constantly and shuffle his feet in order to keep time with him reaching for the pedal.

17 “Le Troisième Salon Internationale Du Jazz,” 8. Mulligan had Bob Brookmeyer on trombone, Red Mitchell bass, and Frank Isola drums. Raymond Horricks, Gerry Mulligan’s Ark (London: Apollo Press Ltd., 1986), 43; Jerome Klinkowitz, Listen: Gerry Mulligan—An Aural Narrative in Jazz (New York: Schirmer Books, 1991), 107–108. Mulligan’s performance was initially released on the Vogue label as Paris Concert (Vogue 7381, 7383).

18 Horricks, Gerry Mulligan’s Ark, 43.

19 Mae Mezzrow, an African-American woman, was the ex-wife of clarinetist/saxophonist Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, author of the infamous memoir, Really the Blues (New York: Random House, 1946).

20 Christian Tarting, “Round About Monk—Douze Evidences et Reflections Sur Monk,” Jazz Magazine 361 (May 1987), 19.

21 Das Jazzbuch (Fischer Taschenbuch,1953); it has since been translated into English as The Jazz Book and appeared in several editions, most recently by Lawrence Hill Books, 1992.

22 Joachim E. Berendt, “A Note on Thelonious Monk,” Jazz Monthly (June 1956), 7.

23 Ibid., 7.

24 Ibid., 7. Berendt eventually understood that Monk was more interested in conversation than being interviewed: “I had no intention at the time of conducting an interview and I was concerned to get to know the man Monk. It is possible that this was the reason he accepted me.”

25 Berendt, “A Note on Thelonious Monk,” 7.

26 James Campbell, Exiled in Paris: Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), 88.

27 Horricks, Gerry Mulligan’s Ark, 43.

28 “Le Troisième Salon Internationale Du Jazz,” 9; Berendt, “A Note on Thelonious Monk,” 7.

29 Horricks, “Thelonious Monk,” 9.

30 Berendt, “A Note on Thelonious Monk,” 7.

31 Nadine Koenigswarter, “Nica,” in Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats (New York: Abrams Image, 2008), 17. Nica tells the story of meeting Thelonious backstage in Charlotte Zwerin, Straight, No Chaser. What she did not mention in her interview is that while she was there she helped put together a benefit/memorial service for Garland Wilson. See Dahl, Morning Glory, 236.

32 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101.

33 Max Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 119.

34 David Kastin, “Nica’s Story: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness,” Popular Music and Society 29, no. 3 (July 2006), 281; Nat Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” Esquire 65, no. 4 (October 1960), 99. On Nathaniel Charles Rothschild and the British wing of the Rothschild family, see Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild, Volume II: The World’s Banker, 1849–1999 (New York: Penguin, 1999), 444. Much has been written about Nica de Koenigswarter, most of it replete with errors, including the various biographies of Monk (i.e., Laurent de Wilde, Leslie Gourse, Thomas Fitterling, etc.) And nearly all the articles and books dealing with the Baroness draw heavily on Nat Hentoff’s profile of her in Esquire, which her son Shaun de Koenigswarter suggests is still the most accurate source available on her. (Shaun de Koenigswarter to author, April 23, 2005.) Recently, renewed interest in the Baroness has generated more comprehensive accounts of her life. The best of these are Nadine Koenigswarter’s wonderful introduction to Nica’s collection of photos, published posthumously as Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats, 14–25; David Kastin’s excellent article, “Nica’s Story” (cited above); and Hannah Rothschild’s provocative documentary film, The Jazz Baroness (Clandestine Films, 2008). As of this writing, Rothschild had yet to secure a distributor, though she was kind enough to share a DVD copy of the film with me. For other sources besides those cited below, see Ebbe Traberg, “Nica o el Sueno de Nica,” Revista de Occidente 93 (February 1989), 51–59; “L’Extraordinaire Destin de la Baronne du Jazz,” Le Journal du Dimanche (December 18, 1988); Di Giuseppe Piacentino, “Nica, Bentley and Bebop,” Musica Jazz (February 1989), 21–22; Malcolm Forbes and Jeff Bloch, “Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter,” in Women Who Made a Difference (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 156–159.

35 Hannah Rothschild, The Jazz Baroness (Clandestine Films, 2008).

36 Nica’s father suffered a terrible bout with Spanish influenza, leaving him with a severe neurological disorder which ultimately caused him to take his own life in 1923. Kastin, “Nica’s Story,” 282.

37 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 99.

38 Ibid., p. 100.

39 Shaun de Koenigswarter email to author, January 22, 2008.

40 She arrived in New York on September 24, 1935. List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States, S.S. Normandie, September 19, 1935, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, roll 5710, Records of the INS, National Archives.

41 Jules was on the Normandie’s next outgoing trip from Le Havre to New York. List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States, S.S. Normandie, October 2, 1935, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, roll 5717, Records of the INS, National Archives.

42 “Miss Rothschild Will Be Wed Here,” New York Times, October 11, 1935; “Miss Rothschild Is Married Here,” New York Times, October 16, 1935. They traveled west, leaving New York on October 19 and arriving in San Francisco on November 2. List or Manifest of Alien Passengers to the United States, October 19, 1935, S.S. Virginia, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, 1893–1953. Micropublication M1410. RG 085. 429 rolls. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

43 Shaun de Koenigswarter email to author, January 22, 2008 ; “Jules de Koenigswarter,” http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/525.html.

44 List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States, S.S. M.V. Britannic, June 11, 1940, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, roll 6476, Records of the INS, National Archives. According to the manifest, she was accompanied by the children’s “nurse,” Sheila Trude.

45 Shaun de Koenigswarter email to author, January 22, 2008.

46 “Free French Organizing Units in U.S. and Other Countries,” Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 1940; “France Forever Drive Launched,” Christian Science Monitor, January 30, 1941; “France Depicted Ready to Resist,” New York Times, December 18, 1940; “French Group Here Challenges Petain,” New York Times, January 21, 1941. On Houdry, see Charles G. Moseley, “Eugene Houdry, Catalytic Cracking, and World War II Aviation Gasoline,” Journal of Chemical Education 61 (August 1984), 65–66.

47 These were veritable “radio wars” between the Vichy regime, which broadcast their message from Dakar, and de Gaulle, whose base was Brazzaville. W. T. Arms, “Pick-Ups from Overseas,” New York Times, February 9, 1941; W. T. Arms, “Short-Wave News from Overseas,” New York Times, June 15, 1941.

48 List or Manifest of Alien Passengers, S.S. Santa Paula, December 3, 1941, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, roll 6606, Records of the INS, National Archives. She disembarked in New York on January 23, 1942.

49 “Torpedoes Miss U.S. Liner Twice, Navy Announces,” Chicago Tribune, January 24, 1942; Shaun de Koenigswarter email to author, January 22, 2008.

50 Hannah Rothschild, The Jazz Baroness; Barry Singer, “The Baroness of Jazz,” New York Times, October 17, 2008.

51 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101.

52 Shaun de Koenigswarter email to author, January 22, 2008.

53 Ibid., 101; “Jules de Koenigswarter,” http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/525.html.

54 Quoted in Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101.

55 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101; “Jules de Koenigswarter,” http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/525.html.

56 Nica quoted in Charlotte Zwerin, Straight, No Chaser.

57 Quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 138.

58 “Le Troisième Salon Internationale Du Jazz,” 9. Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer also participated in the solo piano performances, and their group was featured during the second half of the concert.

59 Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 139–40; Claude Carrière, “Thelonious Monk” Liner notes to Thelonious Monk: Solo 1954 (Vogue 74321115022).

60 First released as Thelonious Monk Piano Solo (Swing M.33.342) as a 10-inch LP, it has been rereleased several times by the French Vogue label. (See Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 322–323.) Another parallel with Herman Chittison is worth noting here: soon after he arrived in Paris in 1934, critic Hugues Panassie produced Chittison’s first solo recordings! The sessions also occurred in the spring, early summer—May 22 and June 2, to be exact. Doran, Herman Chittison, 9.

61 Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 141.

62 In a fascinating article, Milton L. Stewart suggests that Monk’s approach to the piano resembles that of mbira (“thumb piano”) players from Zimbabwe. Monk’s left hand plays a rhythmically separate melody featuring alternating pitches in the middle and bass registers. Monk’s playing here produces the effect of two independent instruments being played simultaneously. This is also characteristic of the playing of mbira players. Milton L. Stewart, “Thelonious Monk: Be-Bop or Something Different?” Jazz Research Papers 1, no. 5 (1985), 184.

63 Quoted in Ponzio and Postif, Blue Monk, 141.

64 Manifeste de Passagers/Passenger Manifest, Air France flight 29, June 10, 1954, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–195 (National Archives Microfilm Publication T715, Roll 8463), Records of the INS, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

14 “Sometimes I Play Things I Never Heard Myself”

1 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

2 Ibid.

3 Monk’s approach mirrored poet Kahlil Gibran’s oft-quoted injunction that your children “belong not to you/You may give them your love but not your thoughts/For they have their own thoughts.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1923), 17–18.

4 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16.

5 Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 88.

6 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

7 Ibid.

8 Barry Ulanov, “Review: Thelonious Monk Quintet,” Metronome (September 1954), 26.

9 First released as Thelonious Monk Plays (Prestige LP 189).

10 Peter Keepnews, liner notes, Thelonious Monk: The Complete Prestige Recordings, 23. “Pastel Blue” was first released on Decca as John Kirby and his Onyx Club Boys, “Pastel Blue” (Decca 2367), but it can be heard on the CD John Kirby, 1938–1939 (Classics 750). The band consisted of Charlie Shavers (tp) Buster Bailey (cl) Russell Procope (as) Billy Kyle (p arr) John Kirby (b) O’Neil Spencer (d).

11 When Stanley Dance asked Monk to “Name a record you play on that you especially like,” Monk replied, “ ‘Blue Monk,’ with the trio.” Stanley Dance, “Three Score: A Quiz for Jazz Musicians,” Metronome (April 1961), 48.

12 Monk interview with Russ Wilson, KJAZ San Francisco, April 17, 1960, recording in author’s possession; also, Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

13 Thomas S. Hischak, The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 2002), 196–197.

14 Amsterdam News, September 25, 1954

15 Nisenson, Open Sky, 65.

16 These recordings were first released as a ten-inch, Sonny Rollins (Prestige PRLP 190), but later rereleased under Monk’s name or with Monk and Sonny Rollins as co-leaders.

17 Reisner, ed., Bird, 15; Russell, Bird Lives!, 334–36.

18 See ads in New York Times, October 24, 1954: Amsterdam News, October 30, 1954.

19 Russell, Bird Lives!, 336; Leonard Feather, “Novelles d’Amerique,” Jazz Hot (December 1954), 24.

20 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101.

21 “Hall Overton of Juilliard Dead; Symphonic and Jazz Composer,” New York Times, November 26, 1972; Oliver Daniel. “Overton, Hall.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20614 (accessed February 24, 2009).

22 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003.

23 Jimmy Raney Plays (Prestige PRLP 156) recorded April 23, 1953.

24 Paul H. Lang to Dr. John Krout, Vice President and Provost of the University, November 16, 1954, Columbia University Archives. Provost Krout seemed sympathetic to Lang’s concerns, but he had a much bigger circus to deal with that fall as a result of another IAS program. Potter had invited Pete Seeger to perform American folk music, which generated a huge anti-Communist backlash. Potter, for his part, refused to take part in the Red-baiting and defended his choice to the bitter end. Seeger did perform at Columbia University on October 21, 1954. Dr. John Krout to Paul H. Lang, December 29, 1954; “Statement by Russell Potter,” October 15, 1954; Robert Harron, Assistant to the President, to Russell Potter, Director of IAS, January 11, 1955, Russell Potter Correspondence, IAS Papers, Columbia University Archives.

25 “Music Notes,” New York Times, September 17, 1954; Herbert Mitgang, “Cool Class at Columbia,” New York Times Magazine, November 7, 1954.

26 Approximately a month or so before the class, Gross made several studio recordings with Jimmy Hamilton, Ernie Royal, and Lucky Thompson. He can be heard on Jimmy Hamilton and the New York Jazz Quintet (Fresh Sound FSCD 889677 [CD]) and Lucky Thompson, Accent on Tenor (Fresh Sound FSCD2001 [CD]).

27 Brendan Gill, “Magnetic Force,” The New Yorker (December 25, 1954), 16–17; Langston Hughes, “Adventures in Jazz,” handwritten notes, Box 481, Langston Hughes Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. According to Hughes’s notes, he participated on a Thursday night in October, which may mean that Gill was mistaken about the days the course met and the particular day Monk appeared, or Hughes might be mistaken.

28 Gill, “Magnetic Force,” 17.

29 Hentoff, Jazz Life, 188. On the other hand, British critic Raymond Horricks, who was not there but might have heard the story from Gross, reports that Monk was asked to play the same “as they would have played in the swing era, prior to modern changes exerted upon them.” According to Horricks, Monk unsuccessfully groped and fumbled for the chords. He then looked at the speaker and said, “Those simple chords ain’t so easy to find now.” I find this anecdote suspect, especially given alternative evidence, Horricks’s distance from the event, and his reviews’ general hostility toward Monk. Horricks, “Thelonious Monk: Two Sides of an Enigmatic Musician,” 9.

30 Ira Gitler liner notes, Miles Davis And The Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige PRLP 7150); Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 30; John Szwed, So What: The Life of Miles Davis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 115. Poet Sasch Feinstein even wrote a poem about the date and the tensions between Monk and Miles entitled “Christmas Eve,” in Christmas Eve (Bloomington, IN: The Bookcellar, 1994).

31 Miles Davis, with Quincy Troupe, Miles: The Autobiography, 187. In the interview with Quincy Troupe, Miles was even more concise: “I told him to lay out at the session. That didn’t mean we were going to fight or anything. He used to do it himself. I just told him when to do it.” Miles Davis, Interview with Quincy Troupe, February 16, 1988, Tape 13, Schomburg Collection. With less hindsight, Miles was not as generous about Monk’s playing. In a 1958 blindfold test for Down Beat magazine, Leonard Feather had Miles listen to Sonny Rollins and Monk’s Prestige recording of “The Way You Blow Tonight,” to which Miles responded, “You know the way Monk plays—he never gives any support to a rhythm section. When I had him on my date, I had him lay out until the ensemble. I like to hear him play, but I can’t stand him in a rhythm section unless it’s one of his own songs.” (Leonard Feather, “Blindfold Test: Miles Davis,” Down Beat [August 7, 1958], 29.)

32 Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 30.

33 Grover Sales, “ ‘I Wanted to Make it Better,’ ” 36–37.

34 Clouzet and Delorme, “L’amertume du prophète,” 41.

35 Jack Chambers, Milestones 1: The Music and Times of Miles Davis to 1960 (New York: William Morrow, 1983), 192; Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

36 See Chapter 14.

37 Clouzet and Delorme, “L’amertume du prophète,” 39.

38 Gourse, Straight, No Chaser, 96.

39 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007; Szwed, So What, 115; Chambers, Milestones 1, 192.

40 Van Gelder did exactly as Miles asked, including the exchange at the beginning of the track, though when these recordings were first released on 16 RPM LPs, only the second take of “The Man I Love” was included. Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige 7150). Also released under Esquire 32-100, and on CD on Original Jazz Classics OJC 2531-347-2.

41 The number of articles and books that speculate about this passage are too numerous to list here, but examples include Ian Carr, Miles Davis, 84; Chambers, Milestones 1, 193–196; Dick Katz, “Miles Davis,” in Martin Williams, ed., Jazz Panorama (New York: Collier, 1964), 173; André Hodeir, “Outside the Capsule,” in The Worlds of Jazz (New York: Grove Press, 1972), 79–99.

42 See Chapter 7.

43 Gitler liner notes to Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.

44 Clouzet and Delorme, “L’amertume du prophète,” 41.

45 Clouzet and Delorme, “L’amertume du prophète,” 41.

46 Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt, Little Labels–Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999), 107–110; Jesse Hamlin, “A Life in Jazz,” Columbia College Today (November 2004), www.college.columbia.edu/cct/nov04/features2.php; Keepnews, The View from Within, 120.

47 Kennedy and McNutt, Little Labels–Big Sound, 108–110.

48 These first two LPs were released as Randy Weston Plays Cole Porter In A Modern Mood (Riverside RLP 2508); The Randy Weston Trio With Art Blakey (Riverside RLP 2515). Initially, Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer wanted Weston to make a solo piano record while Weston wanted a trio. The duo was a compromise. Randy Weston interview, February 22, 1999; Gitler, “Randy Weston,” 17.

49 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003. Chris Albertson, who joined the staff at Riverside in 1960, was clear on Weston’s role in getting Grauer and Keepnews to hire Monk. “It was really Randy Weston who brought Monk to Riverside. Orrin takes credit for it, but it was really Randy Weston.” Chris Albertson interview, July 11, 2003.

50 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

51 Keepnews, The View from Within, 121; Peter Keepnews, liner notes, Thelonious Monk: The Complete Prestige Recordings, 29.

52 Quoted in Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the ’50s, 32.

53 Keepnews, The View from Within, 125.

54 The story of Bird’s death has been told in dozens upon dozens of articles and books. For Nica’s version of Parker’s death, see Reisner, ed., Bird, 132–135; Russell, Bird Lives!, 348–358.

55 Jules remarried immediately after the divorce was final in 1955. His new bride was Madeline Le Forestier. She was listed officially as his wife on the passenger manifest when the couple traveled from New York to Paris in August of 1956. Air Passenger Manifest, Air France Flight 0700827, August 27, 1956, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957, Microfilm T715, roll 8769, Records of the INS, National Archives.

56 “Musical Greats in Two Cities Pay Homage to Charlie Parker,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 9, 1955.

57 Russell, Bird Lives!, 362–63; Chan Parker, My Life in E-Flat, 54. According to Mary Lou Williams, one of the organizers of the event, they took in $16,000, but some of the money went to Local 802 and some of it was simply stolen. See Williams’s recollections in Gillespie, To Be or Not to Bop, 395.

58 Harvey Pekar, “Teo Macero: Tenor Player,” Jazz Journal, 25, no. 8 (1972), 22; Gary Marmostein, The Label: The Story of Columbia Records (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2007), 234–35.

59 Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 107.

60 Ad in Amsterdam News, April 23, 1955.

61 Mingus quoted in Sue Mingus, ed., Charles Mingus: More Than a Fake Book (New York: Jazz Workshop, Inc., 1991), 75.

15 The Greta Garbo of Jazz

1 Quoted in Ben Alba, Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005), 93.

2 Ibid., 93–95.

3 Ibid., 98–101; Allen also wrote about the incident in “Talent Is Color-Blind,” in White on Black: The Views of Twenty-two White Americans on the Negro, eds. Era Bell Thompson and Herbert Nipson (Chicago: Johnson Publishers, 1963), 78–80. This essay originally appeared in the September, 1955 issue of Ebony magazine.

4 “On Television,” New York Times, June 10, 1955. The Times notice listed him as “Theolonious Monk.”

5 Audio tape of the Tonight Show, June 10, 1955, in author’s possession.

6 The entire exchange transcribed from audio tape of the Tonight Show, June 10, 1955, in author’s possession.

7 Gordon Jack, “Eddie Bert [Interview],” Jazz Journal International, 52, no. 3 (March 1999), 8.

8 George Wein, with Nate Chinen, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music (New York: Da Capo Press, 2003), 458; Louis Lorillard, et. al., Newport Jazz Festival 1955 (Jacques Willaumez Associates, 1955); Szwed, So What?, 118.

9 All of this is audible from the Voice of America (VOA) Broadcast, Newport All Stars, July 17, 1955, released on Miles Davis: Misc. Davis, 1955–57 (Jazz Unlimited JUCD2050).

10 Wein, Myself Among Others, 458.

11 Miles Davis, with Quincy Troupe, Miles, 191.

12 Miles Davis: Misc. Davis, 1955–57 (Jazz Unlimited JUCD2050). Wein agrees that Miles’s performance was a triumph, but he attributes much of the positive response to his ability to overcome the inadequate sound system with a solid performance. “The clarity of his sound pierced the air over Newport’s Freebody Park like nothing else we heard onstage that year. It was electrifying for the audience out on the grass, the musicians backstage, and the critics—some of whom had opined that Miles’s career was already over.” Wein, Myself Among Others, 458.

13 Wein, Myself Among Others, 459.

14 Miles Davis, with Quincy Troupe, Miles, 191–192; Szwed, So What?, 119.

15 Keepnews, The View from Within, 122–123; Orrin Keepnews liner notes, Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington (Riverside RLP 12-201). When Riverside reissued the LP three years later, the title was streamlined to Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington.

16 Mark Tucker, “Mainstreaming Monk: The Ellington Album,” Black Music Research Journal 19, no. 2 (1999), 231–232.

17 Keepnews, The View from Within, 123.

18 Ibid., 122, 128. Keepnews’ descriptions of each session were first published as “The Thelonious Monk Sessions,” Liner notes, Thelonious Monk: The Complete Riverside Recordings (1986).

19 Keepnews, The View from Within, 123. Keepnews suggests in hindsight that Monk might have been transposing the music into a different key, and this is a reasonable assumption given aural evidence we have from homemade tapes in which he is working through a song (notably, “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” discussed below). But Monk chose to play every song on the album in the key in which it was written, with one exception: “Solitude.” He decided to play it in D^b, though originally written in E^b. Coincidentally, in 1957, when Ellington recorded a solo version of “Solitude,” he played it in D^b. Duke Ellington, Piano in the Foreground (Columbia CK 87042).

20 Jeremy Yudkin, The Lenox School of Jazz: A Vital Chapter in the History of American Music and Race Relations (South Egremont, MA.: Farshaw Publishing, 2006), 16–33.

21 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

22 Published by Oxford University Press in 1956. On Stearns and the “Jazz Roundtables,” see Gennari, Blowin’ Hot and Cool, 144–153; Yudkin, The Lenox School of Jazz, 28–29; Music Inn: A Documentary Film, prod./dir. By Ben Barenholtz (Projectile Arts, 2007).

23 Stephanie Barber quoted in Music Inn: A Documentary Film.

24 The Music Barn’s five-week summer festival of jazz and folk music was scheduled to coincide with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s residency at Tanglewood. “Berkshire Tempo to Add Jazz Beat,” New York Times, April 28, 1955.

25 Quoted in Charles Edward Smith, “Madness Turned Out to be Musicianship,” Nugget (October 1958), 68.

26 Weston quoted in Music Inn: A Documentary Film.

27 Milton R. Bass, “Thelonius Monk Disappoints in Music Barn,” Berkshire Eagle, July 25, 1955.

28 Thelonious Monk Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington (Riverside RLP 12–201).

29 Schuller, “Thelonious Monk,” 24; Max Harrison, “Thelonious Monk” in Just Jazz 3, eds. Sinclair Traill and Gerald Lascelles (London: Four Square Books, 1959), 19–20; Tucker, “Mainstreaming Monk,” 235–40; Nat Hentoff, “Review of Thelonious Monk plays Duke Ellington,” Down Beat (January 25, 1956), 23–24. Critics were divided, however, as the LP also earned its share of praise. See Bill Coss, “Review of Thelonious Monk plays Duke Ellington,” Metronome (February 1956): 27; Gerald Lascelles, “Review of Thelonious Monk plays Duke Ellington,” Jazz Journal 9, no. 10 (October 1956), 24.

30 The pre-eminent analysis of the Ellington album and Monk’s resistance to it is the late Mark Tucker’s excellent essay, “Mainstreaming Monk,” 227–244. While this is a smart, incisive essay, I strongly disagree with Tucker’s conclusion that Monk had little connection with or interest in Ellington, or that the recordings are restrained. Subtle, yes, but hardly restrained. The evidence of Monk’s appreciation for Ellington, not to mention Ellington’s admiration for Monk, is quite overwhelming and ought to be evident throughout my book.

31 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

32 Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 20.

33 Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

34 Sales, “I Wanted to Make it Better,” 37.

35 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (September 21, 1955), 39; Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 369.

36 See Stephen J. Whitfield, A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988); Mamie Till-Bradley, Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America (New York: Random House, 2003).

37 Signal was a small label that initiated the “play-along” recordings—records packaged with sheet music and instructions for young musicians learning to play with a rhythm section. Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 158; http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Labels/signal.htm.

38 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

39 Ira Gitler, liner notes Nica’s Tempo (Savoy MG 12137).

40 Quoted in Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 173.

41 Quoted in Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137.

42 I’m grateful to dance historian Jacqui Malone for helping me figure this out. Until now, the meaning of “Shuffle Boil” has been a mystery to all Monk fans. See also Jacqui Malone, Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 95, 109. On stop-time, or “disambiguation,” see Samuel J. Floyd, The Power of Black Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

43 Gigi Gryce, Nica’s Tempo (Signal S 1201), released later on the Savoy label (Savoy MG 12137).

44 On Kunstler’s role in establishing Melotone Music, see Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 165. The year before Gryce retained him, Kunstler had published two small books for Oceana publishers, The Law of Accidents (1954) and Corporate Tax Summary (1954). See David J. Langum, William M. Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer in America (New York: NYU Press, 2000), 47.

45 Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 117.

46 Kenny Mathieson, Cookin’: Hard Bop and Soul Jazz (Edinburgh, UK: Canongate Books, 2002), 127–128; Chris Sheridan, Dis Here: A Bio-Discography of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).

47 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (November 30, 1955), 3; Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 117; Priestley, Mingus, 65.

48 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003. In his memoir, he writes that he went to Monk’s house first and then Monk paid him a visit, but his recollections in the interview were quite clear, insisting that it was the other way around. See David Amram, Vibrations: A Memoir (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2001, orig. 1968), 224.

49 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Amram, Vibrations, 216–221. He discusses his arrival in New York Harbor in his memoir but never mentions the date. From the passenger manifest of the Groote Beer, the ship he arrived on from Rotterdam, I’ve determined the exact date to be September 10. David Amram, In-Bound Passenger List on ‘Groote Beer,’ September 10, 1955, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957; Microfilm roll: T715, 8633 (National Archives Microfilm); Records of the INS; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

50 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Amram, Vibrations, 228–230.

56 He was billed as “Theolonius Monk, The Genius of Modern Jazz.” Chicago Defender, December 3, 1955.

57 Griffin quoted in Mike Hennessey, The Little Giant, 73; see also Karl Seigfried, “ ‘At Once Old-Timey and Avant-Garde’: The Innovation and Influence of Wilbur Ware,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, Austin, 2002), 7; John Litweiler, “Remembering Wilbur Ware,” Down Beat (December 1979), 27; Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977 [transcript], Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Jazz Studies, p. 8; Dempsey Travis, An Autobiography of Black Jazz (Chicago: Urban Research Institute, Inc., 1983), 358–59.

58 Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977 [transcript], Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Jazz Studies, pp. 5–9, quote on p. 9. See also Seigfried, “ ‘At Once Old-Timey,’ ” 2–4; Orrin Keepnews, liner notes to Wilbur Ware Quintet, The Chicago Sound (Riverside RLP 12-252); Bill Crow, “Introducing Wilbur Ware,” Jazz Review 2, no. 11 (1959), 14.

59 Hennessey, The Little Giant, 73.

60 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16.

61 Segal quoted in Hennessey, The Little Giant, 73.

62 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16

63 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16; Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 13, 2004; Guy Warren, I Have a Story to Tell (Accra, Ghana: The Guinea Press, 1962), 79; Ed Veen, “Guy Warren Thrills Fans with N.T. Dance,” Gold Coast Sunday Mirror, January 22, 1956. Guy Warren played in both events.

64 Monk was booked through the week before Bud Powell was scheduled to come in, on December 23. “Ivory Joe Hunter, Arnett Cobb, Chuck Berry on Tavern Parade,” Chicago Defender, December 24, 1955.

16 “As Long as I Can Make a Living”

1 Both quotes from Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004.

2 Ibid. Alonzo White and Thomas Monk, Jr., also remember the debate over Barbara’s medical care.

3 Department of Health, City of New York, “Certificate of Death, Barbara Monk, #11105”; NYC Department of Health, Deaths Reported in the City of New York, 1955, 256.

4 Thomas Monk, Jr., interview, February 16, 2004. The details of the service are confirmed by Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004; Alonzo White interview, December 16, 2007. The Smith side of the family thought Thelonious did not show up to the funeral at all [Jackie Bonneau interview, October 30, 2008], but all three Monk nephews agreed that he was there, just egregiously late.

5 Blakey recorded live there the following week. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (December 28, 1955), 5.

6 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

7 Ibid.; Gourse, Art Blakey: Jazz Messenger, 56–57.

8 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

9 Ibid.

10 Explaining business arrangements in the late 1950s, Nat Hentoff explained, “By union rule a manager gets a five per cent commssion. Usually, however, he has a personal contract with the player for an additional five per cent.” Hentoff, The Jazz Life, 56.

11 Dr. Barry Zaret interview, August 19, 2007.

12 Arthur Lebowitz email correspondence, July 16 and 17, 2007.

13 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Their rent in the Phipps Houses might have been even less in 1956, but my estimate is based on the Monks’ rent in 1963—$39.00 a month. Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 88.

18 Jackie Bonneau interview, October 30, 2008.

19 Advertisement, Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1956.

20 Frank London Brown, “More Man than Myth, Monk Has Emerged from the Shadows,” Down Beat (October 30, 1958), 14.

21 Judith Smith interview, January 30, 2004.

22 Evelyn Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

23 The piano (serial #349651) was delivered to Nica at 230 Central Park West. Steinway Piano Books, microfilm roll 7, Wagner Archives, LaGuardia Community College. In the film Straight, No Chaser, Nica states Monk accompanied her to pick out the piano.

24 Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 164–66; Stewart Burns, ed., Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 135; Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, ed. David J. Garrow (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), 130–133.

25 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (March 21, 1956), 6; Down Beat (April 4, 1956), 3; Amram, Vibrations, 234.

26 He basically plays the same arrangement he played in his 1948 performance of “Just You, Just Me” for the American Music Festival. See chapter 12.

27 Keepnews, The View from Within, 129. Interestingly, Keepnews’s old employers, Simon & Schuster, published The Rodgers and Hart Song Book. Richard Rodgers, et. al., The Rodgers and Hart Song Book: The Words and Music of Forty-Seven of Their Songs from Twenty-Two Shows and Two Movies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1951).

28 Keepnews, The View from Within, 130.

29 I have not been able to determine the exact date of the fire. The New York Times daily “Fire Record” makes no mention of a fire on West 63rd Street during this period and a request for information submitted to the NYFD yielded no information. As far as the fire department was concerned, the blaze at Monk’s house was considered “trifling.” However, by putting together evidence from oral histories and other documentary evidence, I’ve determined that the fire occurred a few days after the March 17 recording date and about a week before the Easter Jazz Festival. This would place the date somewhere between the 20th and 24th of March. Details of the events that follow are derived from the following sources: Monk family group interview, January 30, 2004; Geraldine Smith interview, February 8, 2004; Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004; T.S. Monk, interview, April 5, 2005; Jackie Bonneau interview, October 30, 2008; Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; “Thelonious Monk Has a Fire,” Down Beat (March 16, 1961), 11. And with regard to the loss of Keepnews’s book, see Keepnews, The View from Within, 129.

30 Jackie Bonneau interview, June 17, 2005.

31 Thomas Monk Jr., interview, February 16, 2004.

32 Ibid. His sister, Charlotte Washington, tells essentially the same story. “The firemen broke through the place. You know how they smash everything. And he raced in there and said, ‘You better not smash my piano!’ ” Charlotte Washington interview, April 5, 2004.

33 Alonzo White interview, February 23, 2004.

34 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

35 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

36 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

37 Amram, Vibrations, 234.

38 Ibid., 234.

39 John S. Wilson, “Jazz Ensembles Sound Seasonal Note with an Easter Festival at Town Hall,” New York Times, March 31, 1956.

40 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

41 See Nick Catalano, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), esp. 183–185 for details on the accident.

42 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

43 Alfred W. Lion to New York State Liquor Authority, April 30, 1956, Blue Note Archives, Capitol Records.

44 Raymond Horricks, “Thelonious Monk: Two Sides of an Enigmatic Musician,” 10.

45 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16.

46 Ibid., p. 16.

47 Ibid., p. 16.

48 Ibid., p. 16.

49 Colomby quoted in Frank London Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 15.

50 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

51 Helen Graham interview, January 30, 2004; Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004; Jackie Bonneau interview, June 17, 2005.

52 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

53 Evelyn Smith interview, January 30, 2004.

54 Jackie Bonneau interview, June 17, 2005. These two characteristics led Jackie’s junior high school class to select her as “Most Talented” and “Class Clown.” JHS 40 Yearbook, 1953, p. 14.

55 Jackie Bonneau interview, June 17, 2005.

56 Monk family interview, January 30, 2004; Bertha Hope interview, July 15, 2003.

57 Hawes doesn’t mention the month he first encountered Monk at the Embers, but we know he was still in L.A. in March and that his trio was recorded at the Embers on May 15, 1956, with Red Mitchell bass and Chuck Thompson on drums. The recording was released on The Hampton Hawes Memorial Album ( Xanadu LP 161). By June 1, he was opening at Basin Street. “Ralph Cooper Presents,” Amsterdam News, May 5, 1956; Ad, Amsterdam News, June 9 and 16, 1956.

58 Hampton Hawes, with Don Asher, Raise Up Off Me (New York: Da Capo Press, 1979), 84.

59 Ibid., 85.

60 Hawes, Raise Up Off Me, 107.

61 Jack Cooke, “Fading Flowers: a Note on Ernie Henry,” Jazz Monthly, 7, no. 5 (1961), 9; Dieter Salemann, Dieter Hartmann, Michel Vogler, Ernie Henry: Solography, Discography, Band Routes, Engagements in Chronological Order (Basle, 1988).

62 Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

63 Down Beat reported that “Thelonious Monk is rehearsing with altoist Ernie Henry.” Down Beat (August 8, 1956), 5.

64 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

65 Derek Ansell, “The Forgotten Ones: Ernie Henry,” Jazz Journal International 40, no.9 (1987), 21; Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003; Keepnews, The View from Within, 131; Keepnews liner notes for Ernie Henry, Presenting Ernie Henry (Riv RLP12-222).

66 Ernie Henry, Presenting Ernie Henry (Riv RLP12-222). He also recorded with trombonist Matthew Gee for Riverside around the same time.

67 Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977, 64–66; Litweiler, “Remembering Wilbur Ware,” 82.

68 Gene Feehan, “Jazz Unlimited: New Club is Formed,” Metronome (November 1956), 17, 41; see also, Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 206.

69 Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977, 66–69; Seigfried, “ ‘At Once Old Timey,’ ” 105. After the Ernie Henry and Matthew Gee sessions in August of 1956, Riverside used Ware on only two other sessions (Zoot Sims in December and Kenny Drew in March and April) before Monk hired Ware in the spring of 1957.

70 Vail, Miles’ Diary, 83.

71 Szwed, So What, 125.

72 Lewis Porter, John Coltrane: His Life and Music (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Mich. Press, 1998), 63–97.

73 Released on Miles Davis, ’Round About Midnight (Columbia CK 85201).

74 Porter, John Coltrane, 104.

75 Theolonious Monk interview, January 30, 2004; Helen Graham interview, January 30, 2004.

76 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

77 Thelonious’s introduction and the song can be heard on the soundtrack to Charlotte Zwerin’s film Straight, No Chaser, released on CD as Straight, No Chaser (Columbia CK45358). Sheridan asserts that this recording was made at Monk’s home, but that’s impossible since he did not have a piano in his apartment throughout the fall of 1956.

78 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 101.

79 Keepnews, The View Within, 131.

80 Jack Cooke believes this to be the case. See Cooke, “Fading Flowers,” 10.

81 Keepnews, The View Within, 132.

82 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

83 Quoted in Nisenson, Open Sky, 99.

84 Max Roach conveyed a completely different story in Du magazine a few years ago. He tells us that Monk would not give anyone the music in hopes that the band might learn it by ear. But there was more to it: “The sidemen were only paid the minimum union [wage] based on a six-hour day. When finally the producer got tired of our messing up the tune, Monk took out the music and handed it out to us, and we managed to play that difficult tune without problems. Monk had had the music ready to hand out at any moment. . . . He just wanted us to be paid as long as possible.” Peter Ruedi, “Just Play These Goddam Drums!,” DU 12 (December1996), 32–33, 36–39, 42–43, 46, 48. This sounds unlikely for many reasons. It assumes that Monk knew they would fail, and thus prolong the studio time. And it assumes the four-hour-long, grueling experience actually generated more income for the band when it really didn’t. What might be true, however, is Roach’s claim that in the end Monk relented and shared the music.

85 Keepnews, The View from Within, 132.

86 Chambers, Milestones 1, 250; Vail, Miles’s Diary, 86–87.

87 Nat Hentoff, “Paul Chambers,” Jazz Hot, 109 (April1956), 14–15; Barbara Gardner, “Paul Chambers: Youngest Old Man in Jazz,” Down Beat (July 21, 1960), 31. In 1956 he recorded two albums as a leader, Chambers’ Music (Jazz West LP7) and Whims of Chambers (Blue Note BLP 1534).

88 Quoted in Frank London Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 45. Nellie refers to his gig in Philadelphia, which had to have been this one. Monk played at the Blue Note again in February of 1957, but Nellie did not come and he did not engage the audience. See Chapter 18.

89 Porter, John Coltrane, 104.

90 Shipton, Groovin’ High, 290; Dieter Salemann, Dieter Hartmann, Michel Vogler, Ernie Henry.

91 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

92 Keepnews, The View from Within, 132–33.

93 Ibid., 133.

94 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

95 Nica recorded Monk on her reel-to-reel on December 10, 1956. Reel #19, The Pannonica Collection (1956–1970), reel description.

96 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Evelyn Smith interview, July 6, 2005; Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 37.

97 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003. The precise date of the accident has been difficult to determine. Colomby thought it might have taken place in February of 1957, but the best evidence we have is Monk’s interview with Ira Gitler, which took place in January of 1957—the date confirmed by Gitler himself in an interview with me (August 13, 2007). The best clues are in the interview—he mentions having just been released from the hospital (he had spent about three weeks at Bellevue—see chapter 17); he mentions having just gotten a new Steinway for Christmas, and he expressed concern that the Mad Bomber (George Metesky) was on the loose—he was arrested on January 21, 1957. [Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 30, 37.] So the accident would have to have taken place around the third week of December, 1956.

17 “People Have Tried to Put Me Off As Being Crazy”

1 Frederick L. Covan, MD, with Carol Kahn, Crazy All the Time: On the Psych Ward of Bellevue Hospital (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), 3.

2 “Hospitals of City New Space Goal,” New York Times, January 15, 1957; “Wagner to Check Bellevue Charge,” New York Times, May 8, 1957.

3 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002.

4 A year later Nellie told writer Frank London Brown, “[Thelonious] doesn’t suffer on the surface. . . . Not even when he was sick in hospital. He’s like a rock.” Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 15.

5 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002.

6 See Santoro, Myself When I Am Real, 143; Paudras, Dance of the Infidels, 351; Ellis Amburn, Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998); Jonah Raskin, American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and the Making of the Beat Generation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004).

7 Patricia D. Barry, Mental Health and Mental Illness (New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1990, Fifth Edition), 260–69; Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched with Fire (New York: The Free Press, 1993), 12–30. Thelonious’s excessive drinking was likely a byproduct of the illness. Studies show that people suffering from bipolar disorder are not only prone to high rates of alcohol and substance abuse, but alcohol and drugs tend to worsen the clinical course of manic depression, making it more difficult to treat. Bipolar disorder complicated by alcoholism leads to increased hospitalizations and speeds up the onset of the disease. [Susan C. Sonne, Kathleen T. Brady, “Bipolar Disorder and Alcoholism,” Alcohol Research & Health, 26 (2002), 103–108; Jamison, Touched by Fire, 37–39.] To complicate matters, amphetamines such as Benzedrine—Monk’s drug of choice—are not only addictive but can actually produce “a toxic psychosis that is clinically indistinguishable from paranoid schizophrenia.” Quote in Patricia D. Barry, Mental Health and Mental Illness (New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1990, Fifth Edition), 234.

8 Hentoff, The Jazz Life, 187–88.

9 Quoted in Jean Bach, A Great Day in Harlem (Home Vision Entertainment, 2005, 1994), Disc Two, Bonus material.

10 There is an extensive literature suggesting that bipolar disorder is conducive to creativity, and that many if not most significant artists in all genres suffer from some form of manic depression. While this may be true, the scholarship on the subject tends to be impressionistic, inconclusive, and limited primarily to white men. The literature is voluminous and the association with genius and “madness,” or at least melancholia, can be traced back to Aristotle. In the twentieth century, the link between artistic genius and manic depression, in particular, was made even more explicit. See Ernst Kretschmer, The Psychology of Men of Genius. Translated by R. B. Cattell (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931); Lord Russell Brain, Some Reflections on Genius (New York: Pitman Medical Publishing Co., 1960); H. Akiskal and K. Akiskal, “Reassessing the Prevalence of Bipolar Disorders: Clinical Significance and Artistic Creativity,” Psychiatry and Psychobiology 3 (1988), 295–365; N. C. Andreasen, “Creativity and Mental Illness: Prevalence Rates in Writers and Their First Degree Relatives,” American Journal of Psychiatry 144 (1987), 1288–1292; D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb, M.D., Manic Depression and Creativity (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998); and of course, Jamison’s popular Touched with Fire. Yet, as popular as these claims may be, there is a significant and persuasive body of scholarship questioning the link between mental illness and artistic temperament. See Albert Rothenberg, Creativity and Madness: New Findings and Old Stereotypes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990); George Becker, The Mad Genius Controversy: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1978); Arnold M. Ludwig, The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy (New York: The Guilford Press, 1995); and the important work by Judith Schlesinger, whose forthcoming book, Dangerous Joy: The Mad Musician and Other Creative Myths, not only deals specifically with jazz musicians but challenges assertions that highly creative people are prone to mental disorder. See her essays, “Issues in Creativity and Madness Part One: Ancient Questions, Modern Answers,” Ethical Human Sciences and Services 4, 1 (2002), 73–76, and “Issues in Creativity and Madness. Part two: Eternal flames,” Ethical Human Sciences and Services 4, 2 (2002), 139–142.

11 He was committed on August 16, 1941. North Carolina State Board of Health, Certificate of Death: Thelonious Monk. Registrar’s Certificate No. 521.

12 Olivia Monk, Pam Kelley Monk, Marcella Monk Flake, interview, August 6, 2007. He also went by Theodoras.

13 Olivia Monk interview, August 6, 2007. Olivia Monk was married to Conley Monk, son of Theodore “Babe” Monk.

14 Ibid.

15 A. M. Rivera, Jr. “Negro Mentally Ill in N.C. Need Much Better Care,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 27, 1949.

16 Ibid. The conditions were allegedly worse prior to a 1937 investigation, resulting in significant reforms. Maurice H. Greenhill, “The Present Status of Mental Health in North Carolina,” North Carolina Medical Journal, 5 (January 1945), 10, 12; Karen Kruse Thomas, “The Hill-Burton Act and Civil Rights: Expanding Hospital Care for Black Southerners, 1939–1960,” Journal of Southern History 72, no. 4 (November 2006), 843. However, when Rivera conducted his own investigation in 1949, he produced a damning report.

17 Rivera, “New State Mental Hospital.” M. M. Vitols’s publications include, M. M. Vitols, “The Significance of the Higher Incidence of Schizophrenia in the Negro Race in North Carolina,” North Carolina Medical Journal 22 (April 1961), 147–58; M. M. Vitols, H. G. Waters, and M. H. Keeler, “Hallucinations and Delusions in White and Negro Schizophrenics,” American Journal of Psychiatry 120 (November 1963), 472–476; M. H. Keeler and M. M. Vitols, “Migration and Schizophrenia in North Carolina Negroes,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 33 (April 1963), 554–7; A. J. Prange and M. M. Vitols, “Jokes Among Southern Negroes: The Revelation of Conflict,” Journal of Nervous Mental Disorders 136 (February 1963),162–7; A. J. Prange and M. M. Vitols, “Cultural Aspects of the Relatively Low Incidence of Depression in Southern Negroes,” International Journal of Social Psychiatry 8(1962), 104–12.

18 North Carolina State Board of Health, Certificate of Death, Theodoras Babe Monk, December 6, 1949.

19 Olivia Monk, Pam Kelley Monk, Conley F. Monk, Jr., Marcella Monk Flake, Evelyn Pue, interview, August 6, 2007. As one can imagine, the death of Theodore “Babe” Monk has been a source of immense family controversy and division, especially since the much-coveted land ended up in the hands of Mamie Lofton Monk and Leroy and Isabella Cole.

20 Olivia Monk interview, August 6, 2007.

21 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; he tells a similar story to Leslie Gourse, Straight, No Chaser, 116.

22 Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.

23 Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 30.

24 Interview with Albert “Tootie” Heath, January 22, 2008.

25 Ibid. On Saturday night, February 9, part of the gig was broadcast on local radio. See Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 63.

26 Monk family interview, January 30, 2004. See also the photograph of Monk at his piano in Lewis Lapham’s profile. Since it was taken in 1964, it is not the same piano, but the configuration is the same. Lewis H. Lapham, “Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” Saturday Evening Post 237 (April 11, 1964), 72.

27 Homemade tape in author’s possession, ca. 1957.

28 T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005.

29 Original recording in author’s possession. This particular recording was released on Thelonious Records as Thelonious Monk Transforms “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” Solo Piano and Concert Performance (TMTS).

30 Kastin, “Nica’s Story,” 283; Evelyn Smith interview, February 12, 2004. Nica was notorious for street racing with this car. See Hawes, Raise Up Off Me, 87.

31 “Coltrane Learns Monk’s Mood at Algonquin,” Reel #14,The Pannonica Collection (1956–1970). These tapes are in the possession of pianist Barry Harris. The handwritten reel description in author’s possession. Coltrane also tells the story of how he asked Thelonious to teach him “Monk’s Mood.” “John Coltrane interview by August Blume, June 15, 1958, Baltimore,” Audio copy on http://www.melmartin.com/html_pages/interviews.html. Although a transcript of the interview originally appeared as August Blume, “An Interview with John Coltrane,” Jazz Review 2, no. 1 (1959): 25, I chose to transcribe directly from the recording.

32 “John Coltrane interview by August Blume, June 15, 1958, Baltimore.”

33 “ ’Round Midnight” [in Progress], Complete Riverside Recordings.

34 Recorded on April 14, 1957, “Reflections” and “Misterioso” were first released on Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note 1558). Eric Nisenson suggests that it was Monk who dropped by and Silver had been hired for the date. (Open Sky, 112–113.) Silver’s memoir does not indicate one way or another, and he devotes one sentence to the session. Rollins states that “Monk was originally supposed to be there and Horace also came by or was there or was invited or something.” Silver, Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty, 84; Sidran, Talking Jazz, 174. The most plausible explanation is that they both were hired for the date, but Rollins wanted Monk to play on his own tunes.

35 Keepnews, The View from Within, 124; Down Beat (August 16, 1962).

36 I discuss Monk’s connection to the Harlem stride pianists in Chapter 6.

37 Quoted in Thomas, Chasin’ the ’Trane, 85. The story of Davis punching Coltrane is legendary and has been told repeatedly. Besides J. C. Thomas, with whom the story apparently originates, see, Porter, John Coltrane, 104–105; Szwed, So What, 140; Chambers, Milestones 1, 257. It is repeated in Miles’s memoir with Quincy Troupe (Miles, 207), but he places the event in October 1956, not April 1957. Perhaps Miles’s version is correct, though most of the evidence points to his April engagement at the Bohemia. Moreover, Miles never mentions the incident in the many hours of taped interviews Quincy Troupe donated to the Schomburg Library. These tapes were the basis for the memoir.

38 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003. The gig had been booked already in January because Colomby mentions it during Gitler’s interview with Monk. Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 30.

39 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

40 Ibid.

41 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

42 “Two Bass Hit!,” Jazz Journal International 30, no. 11 (November 1977), 12, and see Alan Groves, “The Loneliest Monk,” 12.

43 Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977, p. 80. Blakey’s version is slightly different: “Halfway through one number we heard this great thump and looked round to see the bass player slumped on the floor dead drunk with the bass on top of him.” Hennessey, “The Enduring Jazz Message of Abdullah ibn Buhaina,” 9.

44 “Two Bass Hit!,” 12.

45 Ibid.

46 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

47 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

48 See Reel #21, The Pannonica Collection (1956–1970), reel description.

49 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004; Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003. Nat Hentoff reported that Monk spent a month working on the “inside” to “Crepuscule with Nellie” ( Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137), whereas Lewis Lapham later suggested it took three months. Lapham, “Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” 74. See also Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the 50s, 38.

50 Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland is overactive, causing the body to metabolize at a faster rate and producing a greater demand for oxygen, nutrients, and other material. See, Kenneth Ain, The Complete Thyroid Book (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005); Jay K. Harness, Lit Fung, Norman W. Thompson, Richard E. Burney, and Michael K. McLeod, “Total thyroidectomy: Complications and technique,” World Journal of Surgery 10, no. 5 (October 1986), 781–785; P. Ruggieri, A Simple Guide to Thyroid Disorders: From Diagnosis to Treatment (Omaha, NE: Addicus Books, 2003); Irving B. Rosen, “A Historical Note on Thyroid Disease and its Surgical Treatment” (April 2006), http://www.thryvors.org/pdf/Rosen_Apr_06.pdf. Although there were other methods to treat thyroid conditions—medications, radioactive iodine—it appears that a complete thyroidectomy was the most popular in the late 1950s, as evidenced by an article published in Science News Letter just two months before Nellie’s surgery. “Overactive Thyroid is Best Treated by Removal,” Science News Letter (March 2, 1957), 133. Although Geraldine Smith, then a nurse, seems to remember Nellie suffering from hyperthyroidism, her low-grade fever may have indicated hypothyroidism, or the slowing down of the thyroid gland. Hypothyroidism could affect some endocrine control of body temperature, which means running a low-grade fever. See Elbert T. Phelps, “Fever—Its Causes and Effects,” American Journal of Nursing 56, no. 3 (March 1956), 319.

51 David Dean Brockman and Roy M. Whitman, “Post-Thyroidectomy Psychoses,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 116 (1952), 340–345; Leslie S. Libow and Jack Durrell, “Clinical Studies on the Relationship Between Psychosis and the Regulation of Thyroid Gland Activity,” Psychosomatic Medicine 27 (July-August, 1965), 377–382.

52 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

53 Chilton, The Song of the Hawk, 292.

54 Keepnews, The View from Within, 134–135. The first takes of “Crepuscule with Nellie” are on The Complete Riverside Recordings of Thelonious Monk.

55 Keepnews, The View from Within, 135; Cohen and Fitzgerald, Rat Race Blues, 226–227. It appeared as part of a compilation album billed as the “East Coast All-Stars.” East Coast All-Stars, Blues for Tomorrow (Riverside RLP 243).

56 Henry Francis Lyte, Abide with Me (Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1878), 1–2. “Abide with Me” can be found in virtually any hymn book.

57 This story was told by Gigi Gryce. Quoted in Hentoff, The Jazz Life, 183.

58 Ibid.

59 Blakey quoted in Thomas, Chasin’ the Trane, 90.

60 He did record both songs in Paris in 1954 for his first solo LP. See chapter 13.

61 J. C. Thomas, Chasin’ the Trane, 82.

62 Keepnews remembered it this way and Alonzo White, Monk’s nephew, was in the studio that night and confirms the story. (Alonzo White interview, February 23, 2004.) See also, Porter, John Coltrane, 109.

63 Nat Hentoff, “Review Brilliant Corners,” Down Beat (June 13, 1957), 28; Metronome 74, no. 7 (June 1957), 26.

64 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 14.

65 Paul Bacon interview, July 30, 2001.

66 Ibid.

67 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 15.

18 “My Time for Fame Will Come”

1 Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 86; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137; Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003. All of the press accounts credit the Baroness with getting Monk’s cabaret card back, but Colomby doesn’t remember Nica playing any significant role in the process. On the contrary, he was worried that her involvement might send the wrong signal to the police and the state liquor authority, given her reputation for hanging out with jazz musicians. On the other hand, the idea that she hired a lawyer who was able to get a hearing with an inspector—apparently a requirement for restoring one’s card—seems plausible. Paul Chevigny and Maxwell T. Cohen, the leading crusader against the cabaret identification cards, pointed out that in cases where an applicant is denied a card, he or she can hire a lawyer and get a hearing. Chevigny, Gigs, 60.

2 Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

3 His card number is listed in the late Joe Termini’s Cabaret notebooks from the Five Spot, in the possession of his daughter, Toni Behm. I’m eternally grateful to Toni for giving me access to these precious volumes.

4 Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802, Contract, June 3, 1958; Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957, Joseph Termini Personal Papers. The Terminis did not have the original 1957 contract, but the terms are the same.

5 Thelonious was so committed to making his gig that he missed out on an opportunity to go to Hollywood to appear on the television program Stars of Jazz with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers on July 29, 1957. They performed three Monk compositions, “Blue Monk,” “I Mean You,” and “Evidence,” with Sam Dockery subbing on piano. The recordings were released on Art Blakey, Sessions Live (Calliope CAL 3008).

6 Several others have also taken credit for bringing Monk to the Five Spot. Larry Rivers claims he hounded the Terminis to hire Monk until they finally relented. But Rivers, whose account is questionable on many fronts, also claims Monk was the first black musician to perform there and that he suggested Monk because “jazz is black.” He makes no mention of Taylor’s 1956 date. Larry Rivers, with Arnold Weinstein, What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 341–42. Randy Weston, who played there in April, made a strong case for bringing Thelonious, just as he lobbied Grauer and Keepnews to sign him to Riverside. Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003.

7 Salvatore Termini Draft Registration Card, Serial U 3003, United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. National Archives; U.S. Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930: Population Schedule, Manhattan Borough, ED 118; Toni Behm interview, March 15, 2008; Joe Termini resume, n.d., in possession of Toni and David Behm; John S. Wilson, “ ‘Village’ Becomes Focal Center for Modern Jazz,” New York Times, October 27, 1960; Burt Glinn, “New York’s Spreading Upper Bohemia,” Esquire 284 (July 1957), 50.

8 The notorious gangster Harry Rich (aka Arthur Clayton) lived in an apartment at 5 Cooper Square. In 1934, he earned the distinction of becoming the first organized crime figure arrested under New Jersey’s new “public enemy” law. “First Gangster Convicted Under New Jersey’s New Law,” New York Times, June 28, 1934. He was involved in an armed robbery at the Newark Farmer’s Market.

9 U.S. Census, 1930, Population Schedule, Manhattan Borough, ED 118. Their children were John (age 19), Katherine (14), Ignacio or “Iggy” (11), Joe (6), and Antoinette (3). Their eldest son, Frank, no longer lived at home, which at the time was 11 Stanton Street. Salvatore immigrated in 1906; his wife Angelina arrived in 1904.

10 Salvatore Termini Draft Registration Card, Serial U 3003, United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. National Archives. In the 1940s, they moved to 122 Bay Street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. Bureau of the Census,1930, Population Schedule: Manhattan Borough, ED 118.

11 Iggy ended up using “Ignazio” because few people could pronounce Ignatze. Iggy Termini interview, March 8, 2008.

12 “Ignazio Termini,” “Joseph Termini,” World War II Army Enlistment Records, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64; Iggy Termini interview, March 8, 2008. Frank went on to earn a law degree and briefly took on the lion’s share of the administrative responsibilities for the Bowery Café. Both Joe and Iggy were decorated for their combat duty. Iggy was assigned to a B-26 bomber unit in the Pacific theater, mainly China, India and Burma, while Joe’s B-17 bomber unit was stationed in Africa.

13 Iggy Termini interview, March 8, 2008.

14 Lawrence Stelter, By the El: Third Avenue and its El at Mid-Century (New York: Stelterfoto LLC, 2007); Ralph Katz, “Last Train Rumbles on Third Ave. ‘El’,” New York Times, May 13, 1955; Harrison E. Salisbury, “Cars are Packed for Last ‘El’ Trip,” New York Times, May 13, 1955; Charles G. Bennett, “3rd Ave. Must Pay for Lights and Air,” New York Times, June 2, 1955; “3rd Ave. to Emerge Broad and Beautiful,” New York Times, August 3, 1955. The demolition of the downtown sections of the El was complete by December of 1955. In the planned redevelopment, however, many of the flop houses were razed without provisions for alternative shelters for homeless men. See, “Big Rise Is Feared in Vagrant Cases,” New York Times, October 20, 1955.

15 Wilson, “ ‘Village’ Becomes Focal Center for Modern Jazz”; Gene Balliett, “Busman’s Holiday,” Cincinnati Inquirer, October 28, 1958.

16 “Thursday Jazz Piano,” radio show, October, 1998, Joe Termini interview by Henry Wales. Audio copy in author’s possession, courtesy of Toni Behm.

17 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1956. Some of the first wave of musicians include Raymond Charles, Jay Chasen, and Mike Dacek.

18 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Amram, Vibrations, 261; Wilson, “ ‘Village’ Becomes Focal Center for Modern Jazz.”

19 Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s: An Illustrated Survey (New York School Press, 2003); Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists (New York School Press, 2000).

20 Glinn, “New York’s Spreading Upper Bohemia,” 50; On Herman Cherry, see H.H. Aranson, 60 American Painters, 1960 (Minneapolis: Walker Arts Center, 1961), 78; “Herman Cherry, Artist, Is Dead; an Abstract Painter and Poet,” New York Times, April 14, 1992.

21 Michael Magee, “Tribes of New York: Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka, and the Poetics of the Five Spot,” Contemporary Literature, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter, 2001), 694–726; Larry Rivers, What Did I Do?, 341–42; Amram, Vibrations, 262; Dan Wakefield, New York in the Fifties (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1992), 306–311; Ted Joans interview, December 15, 1995.

22 Larry Rivers played a competent saxophone; Howard Kanovitz began as a jazz trombone player before turning to the canvas; and writer Mike Zwerin was a seasoned practitioner of the bass trumpet and trombone, having recorded with Miles Davis and others. Larry Rivers, What Did I Do?, 340–41; Mike Zwerin, “Larry Rivers: A Look into Two Camps of the Painter-Jazzman,” Down Beat (August 11, 1966), 20–21; Jorn Merkert, “Between Worlds, Howard Kanovitz, Painter of Contradiction,” Howard Kanovitz (Berlin: Akademie der Kunste, 1979), translated from German and posted on http://www.howardkanovitz.com.

23 Helen Tworkov quoted in Wakefield, New York in the Fifties, 307.

24 LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography, 124–133; see also, Michael Magee, “Tribes of New York,” 694–726.

25 Ted Joans interview, December 15, 1995.

26 LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography, 133. Baraka tells a version of Ted Joans’s story in his memoir, but uses the pseudonym Tim Poston. See also Hettie Jones, How I Became Hettie Jones, 36.

27 LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography, 133.

28 See Robin D. G. Kelley, “Dig They Freedom: Meditations on History and the Black Avant-Garde,” Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interartistic Inquiry 3 (1997), 13–27; see also Lorenzo Thomas, “Alea’s Children: The Avant-Garde on the Lower East Side, 1960–1970,” African American Review 27, no. 4 (1993), 573–78; Calvin Hernton, “Umbra: A Personal Recounting,” African American Review 27, no. 4 (1993), 579–83; Rashidah Ismaili-Abu-Bakr, “Slightly Autobiographical: The 1960s on the Lower East Side,” African American Review 27, no. 4 (1993), 585–89; Sarah E. Wright, “The Lower East Side: A Rebirth of World Vision,” African American Review 27, no. 4 (1993), 593–96; Hettie Jones, How I Became Hettie Jones (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1990); Jon Panish, The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in Postwar American Culture (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), 23–41. Many of these artists actually lived in the same neighborhoods in the East Village and the Lower East Side. As John Szwed points out in his biography of Sun Ra, many of the leading figures associated with the jazz avant-garde lived around Third Street, including Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, Giuseppi Logan, Sonny Simmons, Burton Greene, Henry Grimes, Charles Tyler, Charles Moffett, Sunny Murray, James Jackson, and Cecil Taylor. Szwed, Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (New York: Pantheon, 1997), 195.

29 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1956.

30 For background on Cecil Taylor, see Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 3–76; Wilmer, As Serious as Your Life, 45–59; Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the Fifties, 213–227; Bill Coss, “Cecil Taylor’s Struggle for Existence; Portrait of the Artist as a Coiled Spring,” Down Beat (October 26, 1961), 19–21; “Cecil Taylor: The Space of 61 Years Danced Through,” Village Voice (June 26, 1990).

31 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

32 Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 67.

33 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Amram, Vibrations, 261–62.

34 Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 67–68.

35 This same band had just recorded Taylor’s first LP, Jazz Advance (Transition TRLP 19) a couple of months earlier.

36 See also Steve Lacy interview, May 12, 1995; “Jazz and Sculpture: Interview by Alain Krili,” in Jason Weiss, ed., Steve Lacy: Conversations (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 160.

37 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957; David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Amram, Vibrations, 262. Williams was a black Canadian out of the “Bud Powell school” of piano who was better-known for being the son of a prominent Harlem chemist than for being a musician. See Jesse H. Walker, “Theatricals,” Amsterdam News, April 13, 1957.

38 Reil Lazarus, “Bassist John Ore,” All About Jazz (March 15, 2004) www.allaboutjazz.com. According to Termini’s cabaret books, Ore was hired on February 9th. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

39 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003; Amram, Vibrations, 262–63.

40 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957; Randy Weston interview, July 30, 2003; David Amram interview, July 15, 2003. According to the Cabaret books, Mal Waldron and Freddie Redd alternated a couple of Monday nights (May 20 and 27), but through June and early July they had longer gigs—two weeks each. From June 20 to July 3, Waldron’s group expanded to a quartet with Art Farmer. There was quite a bit of shuffling going on with regard to rhythm sections, but generally Williams retained Ahmed Abdul-Malik and Al Harewood (who played with Randy Weston); Redd used Wilbur Ware and Wilbur Campbell, and Waldron generally hired bassist Julian Euell, drummer Williams James and others. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

41 Glinn, “New York’s Spreading Upper Bohemia,” 46–52.

42 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

43 LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography, 175.

44 Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige LP 7027); Monk (Prestige LP 7053); and under Sonny Rollins’ name, Sonny Rollins: Moving Out (Prestige LP 7058); Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music, vol. 1 (Blue Note 1510); Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music, vol. 2 (Blue Note 1511); and sessions with Milt Jackson, once again released under Jackson’s name as Milt Jackson (Blue Note 1509). Both labels advertised the discs and the Blue Note albums sold well enough to yield Monk $170 in royalties after the first year. Francis Wolff to Morris Zuckerman, November 21, 1961, Blue Note Archives, Capitol Records.

45 Nat Hentoff, “Review Brilliant Corners,” Down Beat (June 13, 1957), 28.

46 Metronome 74, no. 7 (June 1957), 26.

47 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957. We now know that Down Beat’s announcement that Monk’s group opened on July 19, after Payne and Jordan left is mistaken. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (July 25, 1957), 8. But other sources that identify Frankie Dunlop as the drummer, or that have the group beginning on the 18th of July, are also mistaken. The Cabaret Books kept by Joe Termini are clear evidence of who played when. Mack Simpkins was an unknown quantity at the time, but he did go on to work with Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine.

48 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

49 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137.

50 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

51 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

52 On Dunlop’s background, Scott K. Fish, “Frankie Dunlop: Making it Swing,” Modern Drummer, 9, no. 8 (1985), 22–25; Ira Gitler, “Monk’s Drummer: Frankie Dunlop,” Down Beat (January 16, 1964), 16; Laura Dunlop interview, March 1, 2008.

53 Dunlop quoted in Fish, “Frankie Dunlop: Making it Swing,” 84; Gitler, “Monk’s Drummer: Frankie Dunlop,” 16. Although Dunlop remembered working about two or three weeks, he actually began on the 16th and technically stayed on until July 21, but he was replaced by Shadow Wilson on the 18th. Joe Termini kept him on just so he could get paid. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

54 He was listed in the cabaret book as “R. Vandella Wilson.” Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957. His middle name “Vandella” was confirmed by his army records. “Rossiere Vandella Wilson,” enlistment date May 28, 1944, U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946, National Archives.

55 Harry Colomby interview, March 24, 2008; see also Korall, Drummin’ Men, 68–69.

56 Joe Termini Interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

57 Ibid.

58 Dom Cerulli, “Thelonious Monk Quartet,” Down Beat (September 5, 1957), 33.

59 LeRoi Jones, “The Acceptance of Monk,” Down Beat (February 27, 1964), 21; also reprinted in Amiri Baraka, Black Music (New York: Quill, 1967), 26–34.

60 Coltrane quoted in Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 133.

61 Private recording, Thelonious Monk Estate.

62 Cerulli, “Thelonious Monk Quartet,” 33.

63 In 1958, Nellie told writer Frank London Brown, “last year he did a dance . . . during the solos.” Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 45.

64 John Coltrane interview by August Blume, June 15, 1958.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid.

67 Oral History Interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977, p. 29. Other works that explore Coltrane and Ware’s incredible rapport during the Five Spot engagement include Martin Williams, “What Kind of Composer Was Thelonious Monk?” The Musical Quarterly 76 (Fall 1992), 439; J. C. Thomas, Chasin’ the Trane, 88; Porter, John Coltrane, 111, 112.

68 Andrew W. Bartlett’s remarkable essay, “Cecil Taylor, Identity Energy, and the Avant-Garde African American Body,” Perspectives of New Music 33 (winter-summer, 1995), 274–293, reminds us of the importance of the body in public performance in late 50s, early 60s bohemian cultural politics. See also, Sally Banes’s Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-Garde Performance and the Effervescent Body (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993). Bartlett points to the extraordinary political importance the white avant-garde invested in the body, particularly in its performance of pleasure and excess. In this context, it is easy to see how Monk’s spontaneous dance, combined with his drinking during and between sets, might be attractive to the generation Banes writes about.

69 Monk family interview, January 30, 2004.

70 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 137.

71 Peter Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” Coda Magazine 187 (1982), 7–8.

72 Ben Riley interview with Quincy Troupe, Media Transcripts, Inc., p. 12. Monk’s bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik says much the same thing. Ahmed Abdul-Malik Interview with Ed Berger, “Jazz from the Archives,” WBGO, recorded January 30, 1984 (tape at IJS).

73 Quoted in Wilmer, “Monk on Monk,” 22; Monk interview with Valerie Wilmer and John Hopkins, March 16, 1965.

74 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003. The fact that Monk linked dancing to sacred traditions is significant. Historian Sterling Stuckey, who saw Thelonious perform in person, described Monk’s movement as a variation on the “ring shout,” a West African derived dance form in which men and women move in a circle counterclockwise, shuffling their feet and gesticulating with their arms. It was a group dance that demanded individual improvisation, and it was deeply sacred. Sterling Stuckey, Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 96. See also Chapter 5, and Hugh J. Roberts, “Improvisation, Individuation, and Immanence,” 50–56.

75 Jack Kerouac, The Subterraneans (New York: Grove Press, 1994, orig. 1958), 84. I have to thank my daughter, Elleza, for insisting I read The Subterraneans.

76 Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 84. For an excellent bird’s-eye view of the Beats and jazz in the 1950s, see Ted Joans’s entertaining essay, “Bird and the Beats,” Coda (June 1981), 14–15.

77 Norman Mailer, “The White Negro,” Dissent (November 1957), 276–93; Panish, The Color of Jazz, 56–66; and on the crisis of masculinity in the 1950s, see Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (London: Routledge, 1983); Andrew Ross, No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 65–101.

78 At least this is precisely how Steve Lacy described Monk’s music in the pages of Jazz Review. He not only said that Monk’s music possessed, among other things, a “balanced virility” but in the context of a discussion about Sonny Rollins observed “[Rollins’s] masculinity and authority can only be matched in jazz by that of Thelonious Monk.” In the liner notes to his first all-Monk album Reflections (1958), penned by critic Ira Gitler, Lacy also characterized Monk’s music as “masculine.” Gitler concurred, calling Lacy’s remark “an interesting and pointed observation in the light of the numerous effeminate jazz offerings we have heard in the past five years. The inner strength of songs like Ask Me Now and Reflections demonstrates that it is not slow tempos and lower decibels which necessarily indicate an effeminate performance.” “Introducing Steve Lacy,” in Martin Williams, ed., Jazz Panorama (New York: Collier Books, 1964), 269, 271; Gitler liner notes on Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk (Prestige 8206). For an extended discussion of gender and masculinity, in particular, in Monk’s music, see my essay, “New Monastery: Monk and the Jazz Avant-Garde,” Black Music Research Journal 19, no. 2 (Fall, 1999), 135–168.

79 Albert Goldman, “Man, You Gotta Dig that Cat, Thelonius [sic] The Thinker, The Skull, the Long Medulla,” New Leader (October 19, 1959), 27.

80 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (December 12, 1957), 12.

81 Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the 50s, 35.

82 Jones, How I Became Hettie Jones, 34.

83 Ted Joans interview, December 15, 1995.

84 J. C. Thomas, Chasin’ the Trane, 88.

85 Ted Joans interview, December 15, 1995.

86 Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

87 Monk was supposed to “hit” around 9:15 and play until 3:00 a.m., but he usually showed up around 11:00 or sometimes even midnight. Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989. Monk’s hours are clearly established on the Local 802 contract. Although we don’t have a contract from 1957, we do have one for his second gig in the summer of 1958, and according to Iggy Termini the terms were the same. See Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802, Contract, June 3, 1958.

88 Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

89 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003.

90 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

91 Bob Lemkowitz interview, July 15, 2003.

92 Ibid. Mr. Lemkowitz kindly shared a photograph of all of these items with me.

93 Bob Lemkowitz interview, July 15, 2003.

94 Marcel Romano, “De Saint-Germain des Pres au New York: Au Five Spot,” Jazz Hot 125 (October 1957), 24.

95 Evelyn Smith interview, February 12, 2004.

96 Every niece and nephew I spoke to, as well as Toot, said the same thing.

97 Charlotte Washington interview, April 4, 2004. Robert A. Perlongo observed Monk falling asleep at the piano, as well. See Perlongo, “A Night of Thelonious,” Metronome (August 1959), 18–19.

98 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (September 5, 1957), 8. Miles was there from July 8 to August 11. Vail, Miles’ Diary, 102–103.

99 First released on LP as Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Jazzland JLP 946).

100 Gerry Mulligan, Mulligan Meets Monk (Riverside RLP 12-247); Keepnews, The View From Within, 136; Horricks, Gerry Mulligan’s Ark, 43–44; Jerome Klinkowitz, Listen: Gerry Mulligan, 107–108.

101 They were off the night before, August 12. That night Cecil Payne led a sextet at the Five Spot and the gig was recorded and released as A Night at the Five Spot (Signal S1204).

102 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

103 Oral History interview with Wilbur B. Ware Sr. by Gloria L. Ware, December 18, 1977, p. 79.

104 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 3, 1957), 14; Ahmed Abdul-Malik Interview with Ed Berger, “Jazz from the Archives,” WBGO, recorded Jan. 30, 1984 (tape at IJS).

105 U.S. Census, 1930, Population Schedule, Kings County, Brooklyn, ED 24-571. According to the union directory, in 1948 Abdul-Malik went by Jonathan Timm and lived at 687 Halsey Street, apt. 33, Brooklyn. The following year’s directory, 1949, he is listed as “Ahmad H. Abdul-Malik,” still living on Halsey Street. Local 802 of AFM Directory (Newark: International Press, 1948), 125.

106 “Abdul-Malik, Ahmed,” Questionnaire for Leonard Feather’s Encyclopedia of Jazz, 1959, typescript, Institute for Jazz Studies, Rutgers; Ahmed Abdul-Malik Interview with Ed Berger, “Jazz from the Archives,” WBGO, recorded Jan. 30, 1984. During the second half of 1956, Abdul-Malik was Weston’s regular bass player and he appeared on two LPs recorded that fall, namely Jazz a la Bohemia (Riverside RLP 12-232) and The Modern Art of Jazz (Dawn DLP 1116).

107 Randy Weston interview, August 20, 2001.

108 Ahmed Abdul-Malik Interview with Ed Berger, “Jazz from the Archives,” WBGO, recorded Jan. 30, 1984. For more on Ahmed Abdul-Malik, see my forthcoming book Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

109 Bill Coss, “The Philosophy of Ahmed Abdul-Malik,” Down Beat (July 4, 1963), 14. His group consisted of Naim Karacand (violin), Jack Ghanaim (kanoon), Mike Hamway (darabeka—a metal vase with skin stretched across top), Bilal Abdurrahman (duf—large tambourine, without cymbals; and reed instruments).

110 Ahmed Abdul-Malik Interview with Ed Berger, “Jazz from the Archives,” WBGO, recorded Jan. 30, 1984.

111 John S. Wilson, “Jazz Calms Down,” New York Times, August 25, 1957.

112 A group led by Lou Donaldson and Donald Byrd substituted for Monk while he was on vacation. Shadow Wilson missed the first week, so Philly Joe Jones stepped in until September 12. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

113 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (November 14, 1957), 10.

114 The gig was announced in “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 3, 1957), 62.

115 “Notables Support Benefit Concert,” New York Times, October 2, 1955; “Opera Benefit October 25,” New York Times, August 15, 1956.

116 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (December 26, 1957), 6; Whitney Balliett, “Jazz,” The New Yorker (December 7, 1957), 208; “Center Plans Benefit,” New York Times, November 3, 1957; “Benefit Jazz Concerts,” New York Times, November 29, 1957; John S. Wilson, “Jazz Is Presented at Carnegie Hall,” New York Times, November 30, 1957.

117 Whitney Balliett, “Jazz,” The New Yorker (December 7, 1957), 208; John S. Wilson, “Jazz is Presented at Carnegie Hall,” New York Times, November 30, 1957.

118 See liner notes to Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note 35173).

119 Jack Gould, “TV: Accent Was on Jazz,” New York Times, December 9, 1957.

120 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134.

121 First released in 1958 on Count Basie, et. al., The Sound of Jazz (Columbia CL1098).

122 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 14.

123 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003.

124 New York Times, December 8, 1957.

125 On a few occasions Philly Joe Jones and Kenny Dennis subbed for Wilson. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

126 Nat Adderley sat in on December 20. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957.

127 Thomas Monk, Jr. interview, January 30, 2004.

128 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1957. According to Down Beat, Oscar Pettiford’s quintet joined Thelonious Monk’s group for New Year’s Eve, but the personnel rosters kept by Joe Termini indicate clearly that Monk’s last night was the 26th. It is possible that Monk’s band played with Pettiford’s but without Monk. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (February 6, 1958), 8.

129 The ring begins to appear in photos of Monk in 1958. All of his family members have talked about this ring and how precious it was to him, and he tells the story of its origins in an interview with Pearl Gonzalez. See Gonzalez, “Monk Talk,” Down Beat (October 28, 1971), 113.

130 Derek Ansell, “The Forgotten Ones: Ernie Henry,” Jazz Journal International 40, no.9 (1987), 21; Jack Cooke: “Fading Flowers: a Note on Ernie Henry,” Jazz Monthly, 7, no. 5 (1961), 9

19 “The Police Just Mess With You . . . For Nothing”

1 Josef von Sternberg, Fun in a Chinese Laundry (London: Secker and Warburg, 1965); John Baxter, The Cinema of Josef Von Sternberg (London: A. Zwimmer, 1971).

2 Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).

3 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 108; Kastin, “Nica’s Story,” 289.

4 Quoted in Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Three Wishes, 31–32.

5 Hentoff, “The Jazz Baroness,” 99; Dore Ashton, “Art: Face of New York,” New York Times, June 20, 1958.

6 Keepnews, The View from Within, 137; see also “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (April 3, 1958), 8 for rumors on the session.

7 The one usable take wasn’t released until after Monk died. It first appeared on Thelonious Monk, Blues Five Spot on Keepnews’s Milestones label (M-9124).

8 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (April 17, 1958), 61. At the same time, Coltrane frequented Nica’s place throughout April and May and rehearsed with Monk and Wilbur Ware, despite having already joined Miles Davis. “Rehearsal at Mad Pad with Coltrane, and Wilbur Ware and Monk,” April 1958, Reel #49, The Pannonica Collection, 1956–1970.

9 Sheridan has Monk there for two weeks (Brilliant Corners, 378), but the Vanguard advertised Monk’s second opening on May 6. New York Times, May 6, 1958; see also, New York Times, May 11, 1958.

10 Village Voice, April 2, 1958; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (May 1, 1958), 8; Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (June 12, 1958), 8. A band made up of Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Jerry Segal, Knobby Totah, and Wynton Kelly substituted for Monk the night of April 1st. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (May 15, 1958), 8.

11 Max Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 99. Later in the year, Monk told writer Frank London Brown that he generally refused to do matinees. Brown, “More Man than Myth,”15.

12 It worked out well because on a few Sunday nights, customers had the privilege of hearing Langston Hughes read his poetry with a jazz combo. New York Times, May 11, 1958; Jesse H. Walker, “Theatricals,” Amsterdam News, May 10, 1958.

13 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

14 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

15 Ibid.

16 Keepnews, The View from Within, 125.

17 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (June 26, 1958), 8.

18 Wilbur Ware was slated for the session but never showed up.

19 Clark Terry Interview with Steve Voce, part II, Jazz Institute of Chicago, www.jazzinstituteofchicago.org. Originally published in Jazz Journal (1985).

20 Clark Terry, In Orbit (Riverside RLP 12-271).

21 John S. Wilson, “Jazz Musicians Kick Over Old Traces on LP,” New York Times, October 19, 1958.

22 Clark Terry Interview with Steve Voce, part II.

23 Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802, Contract, June 3, 1958, copy in David and Toni Behm’s possession.

24 Ad, Village Voice, July 23, 1958; Joe Termini resume (undated), in possession of Toni Behm; Iggy Termini interview, March 5, 2008.

25 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1958. According to Johnny Griffin, Monk had tried several times to hire Art Blakey in place of Haynes, but I’ve not found any other corroborating evidence. Johnny Griffin interview, February 2, 2004; Hennessey, The Little Giant, 81.

26 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (July 24, 1958), 52; Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1958. On a typical night, by the beginning of the second set “there were no empty tables . . . and there were clusters of standees along the length of the bar. Robert A. Perlongo, “A Night of Thelonious,” Metronome (August 1959), 19.

27 Johnny Griffin interview, February 2, 2004. He tells the same story in Jean Bach, A Great Day in Harlem (Home Vision Entertainment, 2005, 1994), supplemental DVD.

28 Griffin quoted in Ben Sidran, Talking Jazz, 201–202.

29 Ibid., 202.

30 Robert Perlongo witnessed the band play “A Night in Tunisia” during one of his visits to the Five Spot that summer of 1958. See Perlongo, “A Night of Thelonious,” 19.

31 “Dreamland” has been mislabeled and misrepresented many times. Sheridan confuses it with the E. Ray Goetz and John Ringling North composition of the same title, and when it was released on the Black Lion label in 1971, it was listed as “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” the 1904 composition by Leo Friedman and Beth Slater Wilson. But I have reviewed both songs, along with dozens of other songs with the title “Dreamland” (Harry L. Newman’s “Take Me Back to Dreamland,” Harold Arlen’s “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” Francis Paul, “Dreamland,” ad nauseam.) None of these songs bear any resemblance to what Monk played on those two occasions. After ten years of searching, querying, and digging, I have come to the same conclusion that Jacques Ponzio and François Postif have come to: it is a Monk original. Perhaps it is a sketch of a song never quite finished.

32 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 2, 1958), 10; Keepnews, The View from Within, 138–139.

33 Released in 1984 as Blues Five Spot (Milestone M-9124)

34 Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 13, 2004.

35 “Jazz Star from Africa Shines on Radio Airer,” Chicago Defender, October 16, 1956; Al Monroe, “So They Say,” Chicago Defender, March 12, 1956; Baker E. Morten, “African Drummer Beats His Way to Music Fame,” Chicago Defender, March 2, 1957. He recorded the album with the Gene Esposito band and it was released as Africa Speaks, America Answers (Decca 8446). For more on Warren, see my forthcoming book, Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa (Harvard University Press).

36 Warren’s biography is drawn from Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 13, 2004; Warren, I Have a Story to Tell, 13–17.

37 Guy Warren, Themes for African Drums (RCA/Victor LSP 1864).

38 Liner notes, Themes for African Drums; Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 13, 2004.

39 Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 13, 2004.

40 It was recorded on October 22, 1959, and released on Thelonious Monk, Alone in San Francisco (Riverside RLP 12-312).

41 Kofi Ghanaba [Guy Warren] interview, August 15, 2004.

42 Ibid.

43 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

44 Ads and press releases, Village Voice, June 18, 1958; Chicago Defender, July 5, 1958; Michael Jackson, “Backstage with Henry Grimes,” Down Beat (July 2005), 14; Bob Reisner, “The Newport Scene,” Village Voice (July 23, 1958), 7. On Monk’s repertoire that afternoon, see Sheridan, Brilliant Corners, 84.

45 Anita O’Day, with George Eells, High Times, Hard Times (New York: Limelight Editions, 1989), 243–44; Wein, Myself Among Others, 189; Scott Saul, Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2003), 113–117.

46 Saul, Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t, 114–117; Brook Cormer, “Reminiscing About ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day,’ ” American Cinematographer, 79, no. 1 (January 1998), 20, 22; Wein, Myself Among Others, 189. The boat race apparently did not take place during Monk’s performance, but was added later for effect. On the America’s Cup, see Leonard O. Warner, “Rhode Island’s Specials—Yachting and Jazz,” New York Times, June 8, 1958.

47 All of the artists in the film were paid less than $1,000, except for Louis Armstrong. Joe Glaser, Armstrong’s agent, demanded $25,000 for his client. Cormer, “Reminiscing About ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day,’ ” 22.

48 See ads in Amsterdam News, August 2, 1958; “If You Can’t Dig, Don’t Read This,” in Amsterdam News, August 2, 1958; New York Times, August 3, 10, and 21, 1958; Village Voice, August 20, 1958.

49 John S. Wilson, “Jazz: Playing It Safe,” New York Times, August 25, 1958.

50 “International Jazz Critics Poll,” Down Beat (August 21, 1958), 13. He did well in the Readers’ Poll as well, placing second behind Garner and just ahead of Peterson. Down Beat Music ’59: Fourth Annual Yearbook (1959), 97.

51 Altschuler quoted in Jean Bach, A Great Day in Harlem (Home Vision Entertainment, 2005, 1994).

52 Jean Bach, A Great Day in Harlem.

53 Ibid.

54 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003.

55 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 2, 1958), 51; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 30, 1958), 6; “Monk et les liaisons dangereuses,” Jazz Magazine 52, no. 5 (October 1959), 20.

56 Marcel Romano, “De Saint-Germain des Pres au New York: Au Five Spot,” Jazz Hot 125 (October 1957), 24.

57 Szwed, So What, 151–56.

58 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (August 21, 1958), 6.

59 “Ivan Black, 75, a Publicity Agent.” New York Times, March 27, 1979.

60 Frank London Brown, Trumbull Park (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1959); Les Brownlee, “Frank London Brown—Courageous Author,” Sepia (June 1960), 26–30; “Ex-Trumbull Resident Pens Short Story,” Chicago Defender, May 2, 1957. On the integration of the Trumbull Park Homes, see Arnold R. Hirsch, “Massive Resistance in the Urban North: Trumbull Park, Chicago, 1953–1966,” Journal of American History 82, no. 2 (September 1955), 522–550; Adam Green, Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940–1955 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 184–192. Stephen Grant Meyer, As Long as They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods (Lantham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 121.

61 “Personality Spotlight,” Chicago Defender, December 19, 1959; Sterling Stuckey, “Frank London Brown: A Remembrance,” in Abraham Chapman, ed., Black Voices: An Anthology of Afro-American Literature (New York: New American Library, 1968), 669–676 (quote from p. 670); Mary Helen Washington, “Desegregating the 1950s: The Case of Frank London Brown,” Japanese Journal of American Studies 10 (1999), 22. Trumbull Park was reprinted by Northeastern University Press in 2005, and it includes an excellent foreword by Mary Helen Washington. Sterling Stuckey’s moving memoir of Brown was also published as the introduction to The Myth Maker (Chicago: Path Press, 1969), 1–11.

62 Quoted in Brownlee, “Frank London Brown—Courageous Author,” 30.

63 Frank London Brown to Ivan Black, August 13, 1958, Box 7, Ivan Black Papers, JPB 06-20, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. (Hereafter Ivan Black Papers.)

64 See Chicago Defender, June 16 and 23, July 14, 1958; Lee Blackwell, “Off the Record,” Chicago Defender, August 14, 1958 and October 13, 1958; Frank London Brown to Ivan Black, August 13, 1958, Box 7, Ivan Black Papers; Evelyn Colbert interview, January 26, 2009.

65 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 14; Evelyn Colbert interview, January 26, 2009.

66 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 15.

67 Ibid., 45. He later recanted the quote in an interview for the French jazz magazine Jazz Hot. François Postif, “ ’Round ’Bout Sphere,” Jazz Hot (April 1963), 41.

68 Paul Bacon interview, July 30, 2001.

69 Ibid.; Chris Albertson interview, July 11, 2003; Philadelphia Bulletin, August 31, 1959; Jesse H. Walker, “Theatricals,” Amsterdam News, July 25, 1959.

70 In the liner notes for the re-issue of Monk Plays Ellington, Keepnews was clear that the redesign was inspired by the fact that Monk’s audience “has clearly become many times broader than it was when this album was first issued.”

71 Paul Bacon interview, July 30, 2001

72 Ibid.

73 Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, Modern Art (New York: Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams, 1992, 3rd Ed.), 165. Frank London Brown described Monk’s music as “mathematical.” He wrote that Monk’s “facility with mathematical problems has been a guide in the study of basic musical problems of harmony, rhythm, and melody.” Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 15.

74 Perlongo, “A Night of Thelonious,” 19.

75 Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1958; Coltrane quoted in Porter, John Coltrane, 136. These recordings were released by Blue Note in 1993 as Thelonious Monk, Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! (Blue Note CDP7-99786-2).

76 Coltrane is listed as a frequent visitor on the reel list for The Pannonica Collection, 1956–1970. Monk family members confirm Coltrane’s jam sessions with Monk at Nica’s house.

77 Porter, John Coltrane, 136.

78 Johnny Griffin interview, February 2, 2004.

79 Ibid.; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 30, 1958), 39. Even before Rollins joined Monk, rumors were flying that the two were about to go on tour together. Down Beat reported, “Sonny Rollins is scheduled to go to England and the continent in October, for a three- to five-week tour, with Thelonious Monk, Johnny Griffin, and a bass man and drummer to be named.” “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (August 21, 1958), 6.

80 Rollins was with Monk from September 19 to October 1, 1958. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1958. The concert took place on Saturday, September 20. Ad, Amsterdam News, September 20, 1958. As a result of the concert, Monk missed the first set at the Five Spot; pianist Myke Schiffer sat in for Thelonious during the first set. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 30, 1958), 39. On the Bel Canto Foundation, see Dahl, Morning Glory, 265–76; Kernodle, Soul on Soul, 190–199.

81 Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” 6; David A. Franklin, “Charlie Rouse Interview,” Cadence 13, no. 6 (1987), 7; see also, “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (November 13, 1958), 54.

82 Nellie Monk interview January 12, 2002. This story was confirmed for me by Herbie Hancock. (Conversation with Herbie Hancock, Washington, D.C.)

83 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

84 See Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” 5–6; DeMicheal, “Charlie Rouse,” 17–18; Franklin, “Charlie Rouse Interview,” 5–6; J. L. Ginibre, “La Longue Marche de Charlie,” Jazz Magazine 105 (1964), 20–21; Jef Langford, “Monk’s Horns,” Part II Jazz Journal (January1971), 7; Peter Keepnews, “Rouse and Nica,” Down Beat (April 1989), 59–60.

85 Sandra Capello interview, July 19, 2003; T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005. Rouse never denied his addiction. See, Eric C. Schneider, Smack: Heroin and the American City (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 29; Ira Gitler, ed., Swing to Bop, 281.

86 Paul Jeffrey interview, August 31, 2003; T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005. Orelia first managed Les Jazz Modes, but then took on Rouse as an individual client. “Les Modes Quintet Masters Refreshing New Jazz Sound,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 31, 1958; “Izzy Rowe’s Notebook,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 29, 1956. On Princess Orelia Benskina, see “Orelia Benskina.” Marquis Who’s Who™, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC; John O. Perpener, African-American Concert Dance: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 125. Known as Margarita Orelia Benskina, she would go on to a distinguished career as a poet, scholar, socialite and Harlem celebrity. Her volumes of poetry include I Have Loved You Already (Hicksville, NY: Exposition, 1976); I Thank You Father (Hicksville, NY: Exposition, 1976); No Longer Defeated and Other Poems (New York: Carlton Press, 1972). She passed away in 2002.

87 U.S. Census, 1920, Population Schedule, Kingston Ward 4, Lenoir, North Carolina, ED 60. Both of his parents were literate.

88 U.S. Census, 1930, Population Schedule, Washington, D.C., ED 234. They lived at 401 M Street near 4th Street, worth $8,000 in 1930. Mary and Williams were eighteen and twenty-two, respectively, when they were married. Also, the 1930 Census states that Mary was born in West Virginia and both children, Charles and his older sister, were born in D.C. Rouse himself says he was born in West Virginia, however. Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” 5.

89 Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” 5.

90 Ibid., 5; Franklin, “Charlie Rouse Interview,” 5–6.

91 The first rehearsal tapes Nica made with Rouse and Monk begin on October 2, though this is not to say they did not rehearse before then. Reel #1—October 2, 1958, Reel #56—October 1958, The Pannonica Collection, 1956–1970, Reel list.

92 Franklin, “Charlie Rouse Interview,” 7; see also Humphrey Lyttelton, “Monk is Fantastic,” Melody Maker (June 17, 1961), 5.

93 Ibid., 7.

94 Ibid., 8.

95 Danson, “Interview: Charlie Rouse,” p. 6.

96 DeMicheal, “Charlie Rouse,” 18.

97 Thelonious Records released these tapes on CD as Thelonious Monk, Live in New York: Vols. 1 and 2 (Thelonious Records TMNY).

98 Franklin, “Charlie Rouse Interview,” 8.

99 Nica de Koenigswarter quoted in Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 119–120. Nica remembers it being “blistering hot,” but the highs between New York and Baltimore were between 55 and 60, perhaps a little warm for October but hardly “blistering hot.” “Weather Reports Throughout Nation and Abroad,” New York Times, October 15, 1958.

100 Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County, The STATE of Delaware v. Nica DE KOENIGSWARTER, also known as Kathleen de Koenigswarter. Jan. 19, 1962, 177 A.2d 344 (Del. Super. 1962); Baker E. Morten, “Nabbed in Motel with Baroness Koenigswarter,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 25, 1958; “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops,” New York Post, October 16, 1958; On the Park Plaza Motel, see “Route 40 Scrapbook,” http://route40.net/scrapbook/de/page03.shtml.

101 Quoted in Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 120; Lapham, “Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” 74.

102 One columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American compared the response to racial mixing in Delaware with that of Mississippi. Baker E. Morten, “Monk’s Mysterious Arrest in Delaware,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 25, 1958.

103 “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops.”

104 Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County, The STATE of Delaware v. Nica DE KOENIGSWARTER; Baker E. Morten, “Nabbed in Motel with Baroness Koenigswarter”; “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops.”

105 Quoted in Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 120.

106 Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County, The STATE of Delaware v. Nica DE KOENIGSWARTER.

107 Quoted in Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 120.

108 Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County, The STATE of Delaware v. Nica DE KOENIGSWARTER; “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops.”

109 Lapham, “Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” 74.

110 “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops”; Director of FBI to Legat, Tokyo (163–2971), cablegram, September 3, 1970, Thelonious Monk FBI File; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134; Baker E. Morten, “Nabbed in Motel with Baroness Koenigswarter.”

111 Nica told Max Gordon that they, in fact, did make the gig (Gordon, Live at the Village Vanguard, 120), but the press reports at the time state unequivocably that the engagement had to be postponed. “Collapses on Way to Court,” Amsterdam News, October 25, 1958

112 “Baroness, Jazz Pianist in a Jam—with Cops.”

113 “Collapses on Way to Court”; Irma Lawson, “Stormy Hearing for Pianist Monk,” Baltimore Afro-American, November 1, 1958.

114 On Nix, see Jeanne D. Nutter, Delaware (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 120.

115 Irma Lawson, “Stormy Hearing for Pianist Monk.”

116 “Monk Fined for Using His Hands,” Amsterdam News, November 29, 1958.

117 Irma Lawson, “Stormy Hearing for Pianist Monk”; Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County, The STATE of Delaware v. Nica DE KOENIGSWARTER; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134.

118 Eric Larrabee, “Jazz Notes,” Harpers (January 1959), 97.

119 Brown, “More Man than Myth,” 14–15; Down Beat Music ’59: Fourth Annual Yearbook (1959), 21. In the wake of Brown’s article, several essays came out referring to Brown’s interview. See for example, Charles Edward Smith, “The Mad Monk,” Nugget (October 1958), 53, 68, 70; Gene Balliet, “Busman’s Holiday,” Cincinnati Inquirer, October 27, 1958.

120 Copy in author’s possession. Registered with Library of Congress October 2, 1958, It was released in October of 1958 and included three songs: “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are,” “Brilliant Corners,” and “Functional.”

121 Gunther Schuller, “Thelonious Monk: Review,” Jazz Review 1 (November, 1958), 22–27, quote on p. 27. There were several essays that followed celebrating Monk’s work and newfound importance. See, for example, G. Coulter, “Clark Terry with Thelonious Monk: In Orbit,” Jazz Review 2 (Jan. 1959): 37–38; J. McKinney, “Giants in Jazz,” Music USA 76 (January 1959), 21.

122 Curiously, Charlie Rouse did not lose his cabaret card. He continued to work on and off at the Five Spot in the months of November and December. Personnel Roster, Five Spot Cabaret Books, 1958.

123 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005.

124 Amsterdam News, November 8, 1958.

125 John S. Wilson, “Music: Jazz Concert,” New York Times, November 29, 1958.

126 Stephen Fleischman, A Red in the House: The Unauthorized Memoir of S. E. Fleischman (New York: Universe Inc., 2004), 31–43, 52–58. The best historical overview of the show can be found in Richard C. Bartone, “The Twentieth Century (CBS, 1957–1966) Television Series: A History and Analysis” (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1985).

127 “Generation without a Cause: Part I—Self-Portrait,” The Twentieth Century (CBS), aired March 1, 1959. Copy of episode in author’s possession, courtesy of CBS.

128 Joe Termini remembered that they shot the segment around 8:00 a.m., but his recollections of who filled the space differed. He remembered having to stop passers-by and offering them a dollar “and you get all the beer you can drink” in order to create an audience. Perhaps a few members of the audience came that route, but it is clear from the footage that the same young people sitting in the Five Spot are the same people who appear on campus at Rutgers. Joe Termini interviewed by Phil Schaap, WKCR, October 10, 1989.

129 Harry Colomby interview, March 30, 2008.

130 Discerning viewers might have noticed four black men and one black woman seated in a distant corner behind the bass player. They appear for a split-second as the camera covers the bandstand from another angle, but otherwise remain beyond the camera’s frame.

131 “Generation without a Cause: Part I—Self-Portrait,” The Twentieth Century (CBS), aired March 1, 1959.

20 “Make Sure Them Tempos Are Right”

1 Hentoff, “Just Call Him Thelonious,” 16.

2 Gitler, “Ira Gitler Interviews Thelonious Monk,” 20.

3 The exact address was 821 Sixth Avenue.

4 David X. Young claims that he rented three floors, made some minor improvements, and sublet two of the floors to Overton and Cary. Sam Stephenson, Eugene Smith’s biographer, discovered that all three men moved in at the same time and rented directly from the owner, Al Esformes. On Young, see “DXY on DXY,” http://www.davidxyoung.com/artist/dxy/index.html; David Szpunar and Melanie Dante, “ ‘There Are Pictures in Your Paintings!’: An Interview with David X. Young,” http://www.black-dahlia.org/dxy.html.

5 Jim Hughes, Shadow and Substance: The Life and Work of an American Photographer (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishers, 1989), 369–70; Sam Stephenson, “Nights of Incandescence,” DoubleTake Magazine, 18 (Fall 1999), 48–49. For the definitive history of the loft, see Sam Stephenson, The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957–1965 (New York: Random House, 2009).

6 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003.

7 Quoted in Stephenson, “Nights of Incandescence,” 48.

8 Young also recorded some of these impromptu jam sessions, some of which were released as the two-CD set, David X. Young’s Jazz Loft, 1954–1965 (Jazz Magnet B00004YL9T).

9 Overton had been subletting the space to artist Harold Feinstein before Smith moved in. Jim Hughes, Shadow and Substance, 376.

10 See Sam Stephenson’s introduction to Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith’s Pittsburgh Project (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003); Stephenson, The Jazz Loft Project. See also Jim Hughes, Shadow and Substance, 371–388.

11 Virtually all of these precious tapes have been preserved by Sam Stephenson and the Jazz Loft Project, housed at the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University. I’m grateful to Sam for granting me early access to these materials, which I will refer to as the Eugene Smith Collection.

12 CCP 28 (Disc 1): “Thelonious and Hall,” “More of Thelonious and Hall (Some of Hall playing fragments, still preliminary searchings and rehearsals),” Eugene Smith Collection.

13 Monk quoted in “CCP 30 (Disc 1): Monk, Hall Rehearsal Tapes, 1959,” Eugene Smith Collection.

14 One can hear this process on most of the tapes with just Monk and Overton (and often Jules Colomby can be heard in the background). See especially, “CCP 30 (Discs 1 and 2): Monk, Hall Rehearsal Tapes, 1959,” “CCP 112 Monk and Overton, 1959,” and “CCP 24: ‘Little Rootie Tootie’—Mostly Dialogue & Search,” Eugene Smith Collection, Duke University.

15 CCP 24: “Little Rootie Tootie” “Mostly Dialogue & Search,” Eugene Smith Collection.

16 CCP 24: “Little Rootie Tootie” “Mostly Dialogue & Search,” Eugene Smith Collection.

17 CCP 30 (Disc 1): Monk, Hall Rehearsal Tapes, 1959, Eugene Smith Collection.

18 CCP 112 Monk and Overton, 1959, Eugene Smith Collection.

19 CCP 30 (Disc 1): Monk, Hall Rehearsal Tapes, 1959, Eugene Smith Collection.

20 CCP 24: “Little Rootie Tootie” “Mostly Dialogue & Search,” Eugene Smith Collection.

21 Gunther Schuller criticized the ensemble for being “too bottom-heavy.” Schuller, “Thelonious Monk at Town Hall,” Jazz Review 2 (June 1959), 7.

22 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

23 Quoted in Dan Gilgoff, “Brother from Another Planet,” Washington City Paper 20, no. 5 (February 4–10, 2000), http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com. Northern is better known as Brother Ah. He went on to a distinguished career in both the jazz and classical world, playing with the likes of John Coltrane, Gil Evans Orchestra, and Sun Ra. He later joined the faculties at Dartmouth College and Brown University.

24 Brother Ah interview by Sam Stephenson, June 29, 2008. Used by Permission.

25 CCP 112 Monk and Overton, 1959, Eugene Smith Collection.

26 Ad, Chicago Defender, January 31, 1959; “Jazz Concert,” Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1959; “Jazznotes,” Down Beat (February 19, 1959), 47.

27 Frank London Brown, “Magnificent Monk of Music,” 121.

28 Evelyn Colbert interview, January 26, 2009.

29 Arthur Taylor interview, conducted by Warren Smith, July 26, 1994, Jazz Oral History Project, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

30 Paul B. Matthews, “Eddie Bert: Interview, Part 2,” trans. Susan F. Matthews, Cadence (February 1992), 15.

31 Brother Ah interview with Sam Stephenson, June 29, 2008.

32 Quoted in Sidran, ed., Jazz Talk, 214.

33 CCP 39 (Disc 2): “Thelonious Monk in Early Rehearsals . . . Made at Hall’s, 1959,” Eugene Smith Collection.

34 CCP 37: “Thelonious Monk, February 27, 1959,” Eugene Smith Collection. Nat Hentoff, who was at this rehearsal, recounted the same exchange from memory, though he never mentions the trumpet player by name. According to Hentoff, Monk said, “If you know the melody . . . you can make a better solo and you won’t sound as if you’re just running changes.” Quoted in Hentoff, The Jazz Life, 201–202.

35 CCP 31 (Disc 1): February 27, 1959, “Rootie Tootie, etc.” and CCP 32 (Disc 1): “February 27, 1959” “Thelonious Monk Rehearsals at Hall’s,” Eugene Smith Collection.

36 Brother Ah, interview with Sam Stephenson. He tells the same story in Dan Gilgoff, “Brother from Another Planet,” http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com.

37 Matthews, “Eddie Bert Interview, Part 2,” 15.

38 Bob Rolontz, “Much Town Hall—Too Little Monk,” Billboard 71, no. 10 (March 9, 1959), 16.

39 Rolontz, “Much Town Hall—Too Little Monk,” 16. See also Orrin Keepnews liner notes, The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (RLP 12–300).

40 Three of the five recordings were released on Thelonious Monk, San Francisco Holiday (Milestone 9199) and all recordings are available on The Complete Riverside Recordings of Thelonious Monk.

41 Keepnews, The View from Within, 139.

42 Whitney Balliet, “A Celebration for Monk,” New Yorker (March 7, 1959), 156.

43 John S. Wilson, “Thelonious Monk Plays His Own Works,” New York Times, March 2, 1959.

44 All quotes and references from the segment are taken directly from “Generation without a Cause: Part I—Self-Portrait,” The Twentieth Century (CBS), aired March 1, 1959. Copy of episode in author’s possession, courtesy of CBS.

45 The first march took place on October 25, 1958, and a follow-up march was already in the works when “Generation without a Cause” aired. The second march occurred on April 18, 1959. See, “Set D.C. Youth March October 25,” Chicago Defender, October 20, 1958; “Negro, White Youths March in D.C. Today,” Atlanta Daily World, October 25, 1958; “Harry Belafonte, Jack Robinson Lead Integrated Schools March,” Washington Post, October 26, 1958; Evelyn Cunningham, “10,000 Jam Capitol for Youth March,” Pittsburgh Courier, November 1, 1958; “Ike Plays Golf; Youth for Integration Rebuffed,” Chicago Defender, October 27, 1958; “State ‘Day’ Proclaimed,” New York Times, October 26, 1958; Clayborne Carson, et. al., ed., The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Volume 5: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959–December 1960 (Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992 ), 14–18.

46 Wilson, “Thelonious Monk Plays His Own Works.”

47 Rolontz, “Much Town Hall—Too Little Monk,” 16.

48 Robert A. Perlongo, “Tristano and Monk,” Metronome (April 1959), 33.

49 Balliet, “A Celebration for Monk,” 154.

50 Ibid., 155.

51 Schuller, “Thelonious Monk at Town Hall,” 6.

52 T. S. Monk interview, April 4, 2005; Pepper Adams says the same thing, see Sidran, ed., Jazz Talk, 214–215.

53 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003; Bar-Thel Music was officially incorporated on April 3, 1959. Thelonious Monk and Nellie Monk, federal tax returns, 1972, in author’s possession; Press release, “Thelonious Monk Joins BMI,” from New Department of BMI, Vertical Files, Institute for Jazz Studies; “Thelonius [sic] Monk Hits Jackpot with Records,” Chicago Defender, May 23, 1959; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (June 25, 1959), 49. As compensation for administering Bar-Thel Music, Colomby took 20 percent of the proceeds, though he told me that he returned most of his share to the estate.

54 “Jazz Star Miles Davis Shares With Ruth Brown at Apollo Theater,” New York Age, March 14, 1959.

55 Schiffman quoted in Ted Fox, Showtime at the Apollo (New York: Da Capo Press, 1993), 271.

56 Fox, Showtime at the Apollo, 271; “House Reviews,” Variety 214 (March 18, 1959), 87; Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

57 John S. Wilson, “Concert at Town Hall,” New York Times, March 30, 1959. They performed two shows that night. Ad, Village Voice, March 4, 1959; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (April 16, 1959), 56.

58 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134.

59 Wein, Myself Among Others, 218.

60 Conversation with Ananda Sattwa, n.d.

61 (Quote) Wein, Myself Among Others, 218; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134.

62 Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134.

63 “Castro Departs to Joy of Police,” New York Times, April 26, 1959; “Students Impress Castro,” New York Times, April 27, 1959.

64 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134; Wein, Myself Among Others, 218; Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 85

65 “Grafton State Hospital,” http://www.1856.org/grafton/grafton.html. In 1945, Grafton State Hospital counted 1,730, with a total staff of 250 with 241 vacancies, but the number of patients began to decline slowly by the late 1950s. My figure of 1,500, therefore, is purely an estimate.

66 Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002; Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Hentoff, “The Private World of Thelonious Monk,” 134; Wein, Myself Among Others, 218; Farrell, “Loneliest Monk,” 85.

67 See Michael J. Gitlin, M.D., The Psychotherapists Guide to Psychopharmacology (New York: Free Press, 1990), 75, 130, 287–88, 290–94; Wes Lindamood, “Thorazine,” Chemical and Engineering News, 83, no. 25 (June 20, 2005), http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8325/8325thorazine.html; “Thorazine Side Effects,” http://www.drugs.com/sfx/thorazine-side-effects.html. Nellie Monk and her cousin, Dr. Anna Lou Smith, noticed most, if not all, of these side effects in Monk. Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002; Anna Lou Smith interview, April 7, 2004.

68 Clifton Smith interview, July 27, 2004. Monk’s reliance on Chapstick was confirmed by virtually all of my interviews with family members, though they did not know the chapped lips were a side effect of the Thorazine.

69 See Wes Lindamood, “Thorazine”; “Thorazine Side Effects,” http://www.drugs.com/sfx/thorazine-side-effects.html. Smith remembers clearly that Monk was on Thorazine when he and Nellie visited Los Angeles in October of 1959. This kind of involuntary movement is also known as tardive dyskinesia.

70 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003.

71 Robert Freymann, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? (New York: Playboy Paperbacks, 1981).

72 Boyce Rensberger, “Two Doctors Here Known to Users as Source of Amphetamines,” New York Times, March 25, 1973.

73 T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005.

74 R. Rondanelli, Clinical Pharmacology of Drug Interaction (Pavia, Italy: PICCIN, 1988), 696.

75 Geraldine Smith interview, February 12, 2004; T. S. Monk, interview, April 4, 2005; Evelyn Smith interview, July 5, 2005.

76 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (May 28, 1959), 45; “Thelonious, Dinah, Her Sons at the Apollo,” Amsterdam News, June 6, 1959. Sheridan has Monk’s quartet at Hank’s for two weeks, but the only notice for the gig appeared in Down Beat and it indicates that the club will be offering “two weeks of jazz nightly with Thelonious Monk, the Duke Ellington orchestra, Maynard Ferguson’s band, Buddy Rich’s big band, and Lionel Hampton, all following each other.” In other words, they appeared on successive days within a two-week period rather than one two-week show with all of these bands on the same bill. Therefore, Monk’s group might have played two or three days at most. On the Apollo engagement, Monk’s group was there from June 5–11.

77 His last studio date was as a sideman with Clark Terry in May of 1958. The last studio album he had made was with Gerry Mulligan, recorded in August of 1957.

78 According to Keepnews, Monk believed Thad was “seriously underappreciated.” Orrin Keepnews liner notes, Thelonious Monk, Five by Five (RLP 12-305).

79 Tony Gieske, “Accent on Jazz,” Washington Post, September 13, 1959.

80 A Lydian mode runs from the fourth degree of the major scale to an octave above, so for B^b Lydian, the notes are: B^b–C–D–E–F–G–A–B^b. The anchoring chord for Monk is B^b maj. 7 #11. On Monk’s use of Lydian harmony, see Lawrence Koch, “Thelonious Monk: Compositional Techniques,” Annual Review of Jazz Studies 2 (1983), 67.

81 Jackie Bonneau interview, January 30, 2004.

82 Art Taylor once said that his solo on “Jackie-ing” was his most famous drum solo, but besides the introduction he really doesn’t solo on this recording. Arthur Taylor interview, conducted by Warren Smith Jazz, July 26, 1994, Oral History Project, Schomburg.

83 “Thelonious Monk en Europe,” Jazz Hot 12 (April 1959), 7; “Jazz et Cinema,” Jazz Hot 143 (May 1959), 5.

84 “Set Swing Concert at the Sutherland Tonite,” Chicago Defender, June 23, 1959.

85 Ad, Chicago Defender, June 16, 1959; “Thelonious Monk Sutherland Ace,” Chicago Defender, June 10, 1959; “Thelonious Monk Hits Stand at Sutherland,” Chicago Defender, June 18, 1959, and June 23, 1959; Ad, Chicago Defender, June 23, 1959.

86 Charles Walton, “Jazz in the Sutherland Lounge,” http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/SutherlandLounge.pdf

87 Harry Colomby interview, August 12, 2003. Colomby told me of the incident and the weather somewhat supports his account. During the final week of the gig, Chicago was hot and very muggy, scattered rain, mid-90s by day. On the other hand, at night the temperature dropped to the upper 70s, low 80s, which suggests that there may be more to the story than just the weather. “Official Weather Report,” Chicago Tribune, June 27, 28, 1959.

88 “Band, Pianist are Added to Jazz Festival,” Newport Daily News, June 11, 1959.

89 Dan Morgenstern, “Newport ’59,” Jazz Journal 12 (August 1959), 4.

90 Charlotte Washington interview, April, 2004.

91 Wein, Myself Among Others, 190.

92 The remaining numbers were “Well, You Needn’t,” and Rhythm-a-ning.” Unreleased recording in author’s possession.

93 Dan Morgenstern, “Newport ’59,” 4.

94 Wilson died on July 11, 1959. Korall, Drummin’ Men, 69. It should be noted that heroin users are prone to tuberculosis and fungal infections, including cryptococcal meningitis. John C. M. Brust, “Opiate Addiction and Toxicity,” Handbook of Clinical Neurology, eds. P. J. Vinken, G. W. Bruyn, vol. 21, no. 65: Intoxications of the Nervous System: Part II, ed., F. A. de Wolff (Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences, 1994), 355.

95 David Amram interview, July 15, 2003.

96 John Tynan, “Blakey: The Message Still Carries,” Down Beat (June 21, 1962), 20; Art Blakey, Les Liaisons Dangereuses-Film Soundtrack: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (EmArcy 848245-2 [CD]). The Jazz Messengers, which included Barney Wilen, recorded their contribution to the soundtrack on July 28 and 29, 1959, just a day after Monk’s group. Some of Duke Jordan’s songs include “Prelude in Blue,” “Valmontana” nos. 1 and 2, “No Hay Problem,” and “Weehawken Mad Pad,” clearly dedicated to Nica’s house where the band rehearsed along with Monk’s quartet.

97 “Annette Stroyberg,” The Times, December 17, 2005, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article766995.ece; See also Roger Vadim, Bardot, Deneuve, Fonda (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986).

98 “Monk et les liaisons dangereuses,” Jazz Magazine 52, no. 5 (October 1959), 23–24. For Nica, it must have been strange to see her friend Boris Vian in the small role of Prévan, a prolific writer and well-known French jazz critic. Exactly a month earlier, the thirty-nine-year-old Vian died of a heart attack at a screening of the film version of his 1946 novel, I Shall Spit on Your Graves [J’irai cracher sur vos tombes]. On Boris Vian, see Mike Zwerin, ed. and trans., Round About Close to Midnight: The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian (London and New York: Quartet Books, 1988), vii-x; Boris Vian, Chroniques de Jazz (Paris: French and European Publications, 1971); Alfred Cismaru, Boris Vian (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974).

99 The same quintet led by Kenny Clarke had just recorded the soundtrack for “Un Temoin Dans La Ville” in April, and the same group (sans Clarke) had a short engagement at the Club Saint Germain during the same month. See Un Temoin Dans La Ville: Film Soundtrack (Fontana (F)660226HR); Barney Wilen Quintet, Barney (RCA (F)430.053); Hennessey, Klook, 131–32. Oddly, in the cameo appearance Clarke’s group is actually pantomiming the recording Blakey and the Jazz Messengers made in New York.

100 “Monk et les liaisons dangereuses,” 20–23.

101 These may not have been Romano’s exact words, but this is the story he conveyed to Jazz Magazine—add, too, that this is translated from French. “Monk et les liaisons dangereuses,” 24.

102 There are a couple of tapes listed as rehearsals for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” from Reel #6, The Pannonica Collection (1956–1970), reel description.

103 Hennessey, Klook, 131.

104 Unfortunately, for years this song has been misidentified as either an “untitled blues” or Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s “Bye and Bye” from the musical Dearest Enemy. See footnote 28 of Chapter 4 for an accounting of the error.

105 “1,000 Students to Take Part in U of I Summer Program,” Chicago Tribune, May 31, 1959; Wein, Myself Among Others, 202–203.

106 Len Lyons, “Lyons Den,” Chicago Defender, August 17, 1959; New York Post, August 11, 1959.

107 Ad, from the Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 1959.

108 “The Night Monk Forgot the Music,” Amsterdam News, August 13, 1960.

109 John S. Wilson, “Jazz: Changing Pattern,” New York Times, August 24, 1959.

110 “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 29, 1959), 47; ad, Washington Post, August 31, 1959.

111 Tony Gieske, “Accent on Jazz,” Washington Post, September 13, 1959; Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002.

112 “Newport Jazz Festival to be Introduced Here,” Chicago Defender, August 11, 1959; Chicago Tribune, September 9, 1959; “Newport Jazz Festival Stars Hit Chicago,” Chicago Defender, September 12, 1959; John S. Wilson, “Music: English Jazz,” New York Times, September 18, 1959. By some accounts, the tour was supposed to travel to fifteen cities, though I have only been able to confirm nine. The other cities mentioned include Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus. “Newport Jazz at Mosque,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 19, 1959; “Theolonious Monk (sic) on Jazz Tour,” Atlanta Daily World, September 6, 1959.

113 Joy Tunstall, “A Little Bit About Everything,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 24, 1959. According to Tunstall, Monk missed a plane, but Humphrey Lyttelton reports that the tour traveled by bus. The story is a little more complicated. George Shearing had had a dispute with Town Hall’s stage manager after he brought the curtain down on Shearing because they were running overtime. Shearing threatened to quit the tour and gave his sidemen notice, and some of the headliners considered following his lead. He was persuaded to change his mind the next day, but by then he had missed the bus to Pittsburgh. He chartered a plane and offered to take other musicians with him. Tunstall is referring to Shearing’s chartered plane, though it is worth noting that the flight still did not make it in time for the gig. Pittsburgh Courier, September 26, 1959; Dorothy Kilgallen, “Around New York,” Mansfield News-Journal, September 26, 1959; “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (October 29, 1959), 48.

114 “Tony Gieske, “Newport Jazz Stars Shine in D.C. Concert,” Washington Post, September 20, 1959.

115 Joy Tunstall, “A Little Bit About Everything,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 24, 1959.

116 Humphrey Lyttelton, “Monk . . . Genius in a Straw Hat,” Melody Maker 34 (October 10, 1959), 13.

117 Humphrey Lyttelton, “That Hat Again,” Melody Maker 34 (October 17, 1959), 3.

118 Lyttelton, “Monk . . . Genius in a Straw Hat,” 13.

119 Barbara Gardner, “Along Came Jones,” Down Beat (March 10, 1966), 15. When Nica asked Jones to name his three wishes, he responded: “Two of my wishes were already carried out: to play with Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie.” Quoted in Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Three Wishes, 183.

120 Chris Sheridan suggests that Sam Jones and Art Taylor left Monk after the Hollywood Bowl gig in October, but both men were already recording with other artists during Monk’s engagement at Club 12 in Detroit. Jones appears on Blue Mitchell, Blue Soul (Riv RLP12-309), recorded in New York, September 24, 1959; Taylor on Lem Winchester, Winchester Special (New Jazz LP8223), recorded at Van Gelder’s studio on September 25, 1959. Finally, Prophet Jennings confirms that Jones and Taylor had just left before Monk opened at Club 12. Prophet Jennings interview, May 12, 2005, and see below.

121 Prophet Jennings interview, May 12, 2005.

122 Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert, Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920–1960 (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 112.

123 Stanley Dance asked Monk in 1961 to name his biggest “headache” on the job. Monk: “Trying to get proprietors to have a good piano in tune on the stand.” Stanley Dance, “Three Score: A Quiz for Jazz Musicians,” Metronome (April 1961), 48.

124 Joy Tunstall, “A Little Bit About Everything,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 24, 1959. The story was also reported in Down Beat, but because it was taken from the Pittsburgh Courier, the writer assumed Club 12 was in Pittsburgh—an error that has been repeated many times, most recently in Sheridan’s Brilliant Corners, 386. “Strictly Ad Lib,” Down Beat (November 26, 1959), 66. Joy Tunstall was the Detroit correspondent for the Courier.

125 Both quotes from Prophet Jennings interview, May 12, 2005.

126 “Jazz Festival at Bowl Tonight,” Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1959.

127 “Thelonius Monk Makes Debut Here at Jazz Festival,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 17, 1959.

128 Monk quoted in Gover Sales, “I Wanted to Make It Better,” 36.

129 Don Alpert, “Bowl Goes Hip for Jazz Fete,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1959; A. S. Doc Young, “L.A. Goes ‘Major League’ with First Jazz Festival,” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 1, 1959.

130 Hope was working mainly with bassist Curtis Counce, drummer Lenny McBrowne, and saxophonist Harold Land. Harold Land Quintet, The Fox (Hi-Fi Jazz J612); Lenny McBrowne, Lenny McBrowne and the Four Souls (Pacific Jazz PJ1).

131 Gover Sales, “I Wanted to Make It Better,” 33. Butler and Hope play together on Harold Land, The Fox (see above). On Frank Butler, see Valerie Wilmer, “What the Butler Plays,” Melody Maker (September 4, 1976), 35.

132 Dr. Anna Lou Smith, interview, April 7, 2004.

133 Ibid.

134 John Tynan, “The Bowl Fest,” Down Beat (November 12, 1959), 18.

135 Stanley Robertson, “Are Negroes Becoming ‘Jazz Bums’?” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 15, 1959.

136 Mimi Clar, “Both Jazz Concerts Dull; Programming Bad,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1959.

137 Robertson, “Are Negroes Becoming ‘Jazz Bums’?”

138 Harry Colomby interview, August 11, 2003; Arrested for Assault to Do Bodily Harm, October 3, 1959, Los Angeles. No Disposition. Director of FBI to Legat, Tokyo (163-2971), cablegram, September 3, 1970, Thelonious Monk FBI File. I do not know where the Monks stayed during this trip. Colomby thought it was Gene Autry’s Continental Hotel, where they stayed during their 1964 visit (see Chapter 26), but that hotel wasn’t built until spring of 1963.

139 Dr. Anna Lou Smith, interview in Los Angeles, April 7, 2004.

140 Ibid.

141 Bertha Hope interview, June 30, 2003, July 15, 2003. Rollins was at the Hillcrest Club the third week of October, and Elmo Hope had become a fairly regular participant in the club’s Tuesday night jam sessions. Ads, Los Angeles Sentinel, October 16 and 23, 1958.

142 Elmo Hope, Elmo Hope Trio (Hi Fi Jazz J(S)616). He had recorded “B’s-a-Plenty” and “Minor Bertha” on this LP, which he made with Jimmy Bond (bass) and Frank Butler (drums).

143 Oakland Tribune, October 18 and 20, 1959.

144 Nellie Monk interview, January 12, 2002; Photographer Doug Quackenbush, who spent quite a bit of time with Nellie, recounts the same story in his personal notes. See “Doug Quackenbush Typed Notes,” n.d., in author’s possession.

145 Gover Sales, “I Wanted to Make It Better,” 33; Hentoff, “Jazz Baroness,” 102.

146 Gover Sales, “I Wanted to Make It Better,” 32.

147 Ibid., 31.

148 Ibid., 37.

149 Something Else !!!: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Contemporary M3551) was completed in Los Angeles in March of 1958, and had Walter Norris on piano, Don Payne bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Ornette Coleman, Tomorrow is the Question! (Contemporary M3569), was completed a year later, March 1959, and included drummer Shelly Manne and bassists Red Mitchell (on three tunes) and Percy Heath. Finally, The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic Atl LP1317) and Change of the Century (Atlantic Atl LP 1327) were recorded in May and October of 1959, respectively, with the group that had, for the time being, become his regular ensemble: Charlie Haden (b) Billy Higgins (d).

150 Martin Williams, “Letter from Lenox,” Jazz Review (October, 1959), 29–32.

151 John Litweiler, Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life (New York: William Morrow, 1992), 70; see also Peter Niklas Wilson, Ornette Coleman: His Life and Music (Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books, 1999), 24; Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business, 80–81.

152 Helen McNamara, “This Jazz Hero Can Do No Wrong,” Toronto Telegram, May 8, 1959.

153 Julian Cannonball Adderley, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco (Riverside RLP 12-311). Although Keepnews states that Monk opened the week after the Adderley recording dates, they actually took place the same week. Monk opened on the 19th and Addereley’s quintet was recorded on the 18th and 20th of October. Keepnews, The View from Within, 141.

154 Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (Riverside RLP 12-312).

155 See Chapter 19.