A Bohemian Monk: Thelonius and his Jazz Community

        San Juan Hill was one of the roughest neighborhoods in one of the roughest parts of the sprawling metropolis of New York. Its name, taken from a bloody battle in the Spanish-American War, underlines the violence and crime that ran rampant in the mostly-black neighborhood. However, just one street over was “another country” (Thelonius Monk, 19) populated by Italians, or Poles, and each group was constantly engaged in a battle for turf. Thelonius Monk lived and breathed this racially-charged environment, and learned how to handle himself in a fight. He walked to school in a pack in order to avoid the roving gangs of white boys. This is why he says there is “no reason” for him to do “that Black Power shit” – he had already lived it. However, the San Juan Hill community had many positive influences on Monk's developing musical style as well. The area was named “Black Bohemia” (19) for its huge number of black musicians and artists. The cultural and racial diversity was not always a source of conflict; many of Monk's unique styles (like his Latin tinge) come from a mixture of Southern black and West Indian cultural influences, and he received formal musical education from a Jewish Austrian. The local church helped Monk learn piano hymns and gave him an introduction to the energy of gospel while the nearby boy's club provided him with a positive social atmosphere to escape the danger of city life by making bands with other boys (29). Monk's virtuosic playing did not merely arise from his own genius – Monk's community helped shape the young man into a stellar musician and instilled in him an appreciation of music regardless of the player's race or culture.

        This attitude of acceptance and friendliness is integral to Monk's music and his persona. He turned away from the race politics espoused by many artists like Miles Davis and instead focused purely on his music. However, this is not to say that race was not important to his musical expressions. Norman Miller characterizes Monk as a “emotionally driven, uninhibited, strong black [man]” (232) who offered an alternative masculine identity for the black man, one centered on style and free expression. This is reflected in his playing, which while influenced by traditional jazz, West Indian/Latin music and classical music was still a completely unique sound that could only be defined as “Monk's style”. He had his own music, molded through his childhood community in San Juan Hill and refined by the jazz community in New York. The avant-garde/Bohemian community that formed around his music also transcended racial and gender boundaries, drawing whites, blacks, men and women. The Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter was the most illustrious of his fans and exemplified the diversity of Monk's musical community. The patronage of such highly influential (white) individuals proved invaluable whenever Monk did suffer from racism and discrimination. Nica first helped Monk regain his cabaret card after it was revoked following a narcotics charge reeking of racism where two white police officers approached Monk's car without provocation and found his friend's heroin between his feet. Another time in Delaware, she was driving with Monk and one of his friends when police officers pulled her over, beat Monk's fingers with blackjacks and found marijuana in a suitcase. She claimed the case in order to save Monk from losing his card again, as the officers would be more lenient to a pretty white lady than to a black man. The devotion of such fans to Monk helps add credence to his image as a genuine, friendly, truly skilled musician who inspired a community of free-living Bohemian artists and garnered fans from all walks of life with his truly unique sound.