Thelonious Monk

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1982 of jazz musician Thelonious Monk at the age of 64. PBS has a dedicated page on Monk. NPR has a profile and an audio program. All About Jazz has a biography and links. There's a biography at the official web site. Monk has a Facebook page.

There is a Thelonious Monk Institute, which was founded in 1986. It has an official website. Its Facebook page says,

The Institute's mission is to offer the world's most promising young musicians college level training by America's jazz masters and to present public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the world.

All of these programs are offered free of charge to the students and schools.

You can see lesson plans and other resources here.

'Round Midnight, which was written in 1944 and is reportedly "the most-recorded jazz standard composed by a jazz musician":



Straight No Chaser (originally recorded in 1951, this performance is from 1965):



"Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy" - Thelonious Monk

His last tour was in 1971.