Monk, Thelonious (Sphere)

(born Oct. 10, 1917, Rocky Mount, N.C., U.S.—died Feb. 17, 1982, Englewood, N.J.) U.S. jazz pianist and composer. Monk grew up in New York City. He worked as the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse in New York (1940–43), where the expanding harmonic vocabulary of bebop was developed. He performed with Coleman Hawkins, Cootie Williams (1908?–85), and Dizzy Gillespie before making recordings under his own name beginning in 1947. His highly idiosyncratic, percussive playing made frequent use of sharp dissonances and insistent rhythms unusual in jazz. His best-known composition, “'Round Midnight,” has become a jazz standard.

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