But Thelonious might lay there for an hour, an hour-and-a-half. Now, I knew he wasn’t sleeping because I told him Miles is at the door, and Thelonious told me to let him in. Thelonious would be in the bedroom laying down with his hand over his head. I would go to the door and open the door, and he would say, “Could you tell Monk that Miles is here?” Miles would come in and sit down at the piano.
He used to knock on the door, and I was the official door-answerer. I have to tell you, Miles used to come to the door, and he was a mouse. It’s funny because everybody thinks of Miles as this incredibly arrogant guy, telling everybody to kiss his butt all the time. But I have to tell you, at 6 or 7 years old, this guy coming through the door with these weights in his hand and a Mohawk hairdo was … very strange.ĪND THEN YOU’VE GOT MILES DAVIS coming through the door. And of course, this was because the old tenor saxophone cases were these big heavy boxes, and he felt like it was jammin’ him up by carrying it, so he had to balance himself out by carrying that 35-pound weight. But then he had his tenor saxophone in one hand, and he had like a 35-pound dumbbell in the other hand. For instance, I distinctly remember Sonny Rollins coming through the door. YOU HAD THESE GUYS coming through the door. And then Thelonious turns to Nellie and he said, “You’d never pull no dirty shit like that on me?” My mother and father were at the top of the bed, and we watched this whole thing about Elvis’ chauffeur. My sister and I were laying at the foot of the bed. He liked the neighborhood.Ī NEWS REPORT came on the television, and it was about Elvis Presley’s chauffeur, who wrote, sort of, the first inside, tell-all about the celebrity. I AM MYSTIFIED at how Thelonious was able to mentor Miles and mentor John Coltrane and mentor Bud Powell and a whole host of other lesser-known musicians, and run the jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse for eight hours, and run all over the world … and I think of him as Daddy absolutely first. They are detailed, loving and insightful. This interview is presented solely in T.S.’s words. calls “Daddy.” The younger Monk’s family memories offer a rare glimpse into Monk’s legacy and genius. Among its board and supporters is an A-list of stars like the institute’s chairman, Herbie Hancock, as well as Bill Cosby, Billy Dee Williams, Wayne Shorter, Clint Eastwood, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to name a few.Īll of this has been born from a most unlikely source, one of the most iconoclastic, quirky figures in jazz history-the man T.S. With Washington, D.C., as its home base, the Monk Institute has also become a de facto international lobbying firm for jazz, successfully reaching out to both sides of the political aisle, and a go-to resource for the White House. The Monk Institute has blossomed behind the famous name, helping discover as many top-level artists as any record company in the business-including Marcus Roberts, Joshua Redman, Jane Monheit and many others. His music has been rediscovered, and reinterpreted, by generation after generation of jazz artists with dozens of Monk tributes coming out in the last two years alone (see a few below). Nearly 30 years since his death, Monk’s influence grows almost exponentially. It’s a side of the playful genius of jazz that adds to his legacy. But many of you may not know, he was a real family man.” revealed, “Thelonious is such a mystery to some, a mystery to so many people. In front of more than 250 music students and educators at the Midwest Band Clinic last December, Monk Jr. Monk Jr., a fine drummer in his own right, namesake of the Hall of Fame pianist and chairman of the board of trustees of the Monk Institute, to fly out to Chicago for a live interview. With the 25th anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz approaching, DownBeat invited T.S. What’s it like to grow up the child of a famous father, the son of jazz royalty? What’s it like to share the name Thelonious Sphere Monk?
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