b. October 10, 1917 Rocky Mount, North Carolina
d. February 17, 1982 in seclusion New York City
parents - Barbara Batts and Thelonious Monk
1947 married his long-time love Nellie Smith and later had two children, Thelonious, Jr. and Barbara (1954-1984)
raised in New York and received piano lessons at age 11
two years later he accompanied his mother's singing at a local Baptist church and began playing piano at parties in Harlem
led a trio at a neighborhood bar around 1934, then spent two years touring with an evangelist
by the age of 13 he had won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was barred from entering
briefly attended New York's Juilliard School of Music in the late '30s
at the age of 19 joined the house band at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, where along with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and a handful of other players, he developed the style of jazz that came to be known as bebop
The Official Thelonious Monk Website
The Life and Times of Thelonious Sphere Monk
Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz