Thelomius Monk

“I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing, even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

“Wrong is right.” --Thelomius Monk

Thelomius Monk is an famous American jazz pianist and composer, who had the second biggest amount of jazz compositions. He displayed an originality amounting almost to genius. Starting from 1940s, he gradually developed his own styles with his unusual technique. Monk’s compositions and improvisations have a special inner logic and a delicate balance, featuring irregularly arranged dissonances and melodic twists. He liked to switch keys in an abrupt and dramatic way, but he also liked to leave silences and spaces in his rhythmic solos.

Innovators and revolutionaries, like Thelonius Monk, are not easy to be understood. He did not care about how the audience think and did not modify his style to cater to audience’s tastes. His compositions were so advanced that many people at that time, including some bebop players, thought he was an inferior pianist. However,