Photo: William P. Gottlieb / Adam Cuerden / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States, Thelonious Monk was a pianist, composer and jazz musician. Thelonious Monk died on February 17, 1982 at the age of 64. Education on record includes Stuyvesant High School. Listed accolades include Guggenheim Fellowship, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1992, 1993), Grammy Hall of Fame (1998, 2000, 2002, 2006) and 1 more.
My Take
Thelonious Monk is one of those rare artists where the more you listen, the more you realize how far ahead of everyone else he was. Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and forged in the crucible of New York's bebop scene, he built a harmonic vocabulary that sounded almost wrong at first — those crunchy dissonances, the deliberate pauses, the angular phrasing — until suddenly it was the most logical thing you'd ever heard. He didn't just play jazz; he reshaped what the piano could mean in it, composing standards like Round Midnight and Straight, No Chaser that musicians are still wrestling with today. The Pulitzer Prize special citation in 2006, more than two decades after his death in 1982, said everything: genius sometimes takes the world a while to fully catch up.
This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Thelonious Monk
- Name (Japanese)
- セロニアス・モンク
- Reading
- せろにあす・もんく
- Born
- October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Snake
- Origin
- Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States
- Occupation
- pianist / composer / jazz musician / recording artist / musician
2. Background
- High school
- Stuyvesant High School
Awards & achievements
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1992 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1998 Grammy Hall of Fame
- 2000 Grammy Hall of Fame
- 2002 Grammy Hall of Fame
- 2006 Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards
- 2006 Grammy Hall of Fame
3. Links
- Official sitehttp://www.monkzone.com/
- Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/theloniousmonk/
- Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious%20Monk
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF
- Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109612
4. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.
Frequently asked questions
When was Thelonious Monk born?
Born October 10, 1917.
When did Thelonious Monk die?
Died February 17, 1982, aged 64.
Where was Thelonious Monk from?
Thelonious Monk was from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States.
What did Thelonious Monk do?
Thelonious Monk worked as pianist, composer, jazz musician, recording artist, musician.
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