Blog #4: Thelonious Monk

           Although named after a ferocious battle in the Spanish-American War, San Juan Hill retained its name due to its “reputation for violence” (Kelley 16). Famous between 1900 and 1917 for its race riots, San Juan Hill was the culturally diverse and vicious community that Thelonious Monk was raised (Kelley 17). He refers to this violence when he speaks of “fighting the ofays” and even having to “fight each other” because “every block [was] a different town” and that “it was mean all over” (Kelley 19). The fighting was not limited to just whites and blacks as well, there were conflicts between the different blacks too. By the time his family arrived in San Juan Hill, its “reputation as a violent community was as strong as ever” (Kelley 19). Although it was an arduous setting to live in, San Juan Hill contributed significantly to Monk’s musical style and racial outlook and developed a man who was tolerant and eccentric.

            Monk alludes to the miscellany of San Juan Hill when he asserts that “you [can] go to the next block and you’re in another country” (Kelley 19). San Juan Hill had a diversity of people that with it came a “diversity of cultures” (Kelley 18). There were whites (mostly “Irish, Germans, and Italians”) who lived along the avenues, and the blacks (mostly from the “South or the Caribbean”), who lived on the other streets (Kelley 18). Furthermore, a “fairly large youth population” was present in the neighborhood in which “virtually every kid became a kind of cultural hybrid” due to San Juan Hill’s ethnic atmosphere (Kelley 18, 23). In addition to the variety of influences, Monk learned piano from his mother whom taught him a “few hymns she had learned by ear” and his father’s piano rolls and later an “Austrian-born Jew”, Simon Wolf, who trained him in the classical European style of piano. Moreover, he also learned from the many jazz musicians that lived in his community. Ultimately, the constant battling and conflicts between the differing cultures and overall incompatible races dwelling in the neighborhood of San Juan Hill can coherently be heard, reflected through Monk’s musical style; his music has a scattered and striking sense with much dissonance and complexity. As Professor Stewart states, Monk “embodied the beauty of dissonance.” Monk was raised in a strongly dissonant community and that dissonance can be heard through his music where he also released his frustrations relating to the racial tensions he experienced.

            Through his music, Monk found a vent for his frustrations with the racism and issues in his neighborhood and New York. Though haunted by the “daily violence young people endured” in San Juan Hill, when spoken to about “Black Power” and “whites calling [blacks] ‘boys’”, Monk almost dismisses the statements, as if he accepts the way of society  and its racial discrimination as it is natural in America. Growing up in San Juan Hill, he had seen racial conflicts between whites and whites, whites and blacks, and blacks and blacks. He was raised in an environment of racial tensions and so accepts it as a way of life; however, as Professor Stewart states, he “adopted and became adopted by a young generation of blacks and whites who were rebelling against the strictures of American society.” Although he “refused to respond by becoming more race conscious”, Monk indirectly spoke his frustrations through his music. He was able to transcend above the racial conflicts and move beyond them.

            While Monk was able to accept the racial tensions of his community and release it through his music, he was unable to avoid the racial injustice of American society altogether. Specifically in Delaware in 1958 when he was wrongfully arrested, Monk was pummeled by cops while “he lay handcuffed” and the police unconstitutionally searched Nica and Rouse (without a search warrant and did not read Nica her rights) and arrested them for “possession of narcotics” (Kelley 254). The owners refused to serve him and so called the police, though Monk was simply just ill. Ultimately, Monk attempted to avoid the conflicts of racism, but the racism found him instead.