Robin D.G. Kelley is a professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. From 2003-2006, he was the William B. Ransford Professor of Cultural and Historical Studies at Columbia Univeristy. From 1994-2003, he was a professor of history and Africana Studies at New York University as well the chairman of NYU's history department from 2002-2003. One of the youngest tenured professors in a full academic discipline--at the age of 32--Kelley has spent most of his career exploring American and African-American history with a particular emphasis on African-American musical culture, including jazz and hip-hop.
"...a massive and impressive undertaking... Thoroughly researched,
meticulously footnoted, and beautifully crafted, Thelonious
Monk presents the most complete, most revealing portrait ever
assembled of the man known as the high priest of bebop."
--Steve Greenlee, The Boston Globe
"...as complete a picture of this complex, original and enigmatic
artist as possible... this very welcome book is certain to be a
go-to reference."
--Down Beat Magazine
"...extraordinary and heroically detailed... I doubt there will be
a biography anytime soon that is as textured, thorough and knowing
as Kelley's. The 'genius of modern music' has gotten the passionate
and compassionate advocate he deserves."
--August Kleinzahler, The New York Times Book Review
"Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
is one of the most anticipated books in jazz scholarship, and well
worth the wait. Robin D. G. Kelley represents one of this
generation's most important voices equipped with the knowledge,
passion, and respect for both jazz and jazz musicians required to
interpret the many details and nuances of Thelonious Monk's life.
This compelling book will both challenge old assumptions and
inspire new assessments of the life and legacy one of the world's
greatest musicians."
--GERI ALLEN, pianist, composer, and Director of the Jazz Studies
Department at the University of Pittsburgh
"A seminal examination of the man and his music."
--Bay State Banner
"A wealth of historical context is richly studded with details of
Monk's family background and the broader world in which he lived
and worked... Likely the most thorough possible illumination of the
man behind the legend."
--Library Journal
"An honest and eloquent treatment of one of our most important
artists, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American
Original is a stunning tour de force! It is the most comprehensive
treatment of Monk's life to date. Furthermore, in Monk's story,
Kelley has found the perfect medium to shed light on a nation's and
a people's history and persistent quest for freedom. In so doing he
has given us a book that is as bold, brilliant, and beautiful as
Monk and his music."
--FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN, author of If You Can't Be Free, Be a
Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday
"An omnibus of myth busting."
--Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
"Every step of Monk's musical journey is teased out in meticulous
detail...whether he's charting the highs or lows of Monk's
emotional swings, Kelley rarely strays from his central theme of an
extraordinary talent pushing against the boundaries of his
art."
--Publishers Weekly
"Kelley hopes to balance Monk's brilliance and historic
achievements with his quirks and serious problems (bipolar
disorder) to take the true measure of the man. Dedicated readers of
jazz history and students of Cold War and Civil Rights Era culture
won't be disappointed."
--The New Haven Advocate
"Monk's story, from roots in slavery, to the Great Migration north,
to the cultural explosions of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, encapsulates a
vivid tableau of twentieth-century American life and music. This
biography is, at its best, a fitting tribute to one of America's
most original and lasting creative geniuses."
--The Sacramento Book Review
"Powerful, enraging, and enduring.... In Robin Kelley's finely
grained and surely definitive life and-times study, Thelonious
Monk, an American original, has found an original biographer."
--DAVID LEVERING LEWIS, biographer of W. E. B. Du Bois and
Pulitzer Prize winner
"Robin D. G. Kelley's exhaustive, necessary, and as of now
definitive [book] offers a Baedeker of sorts...Kelley has created a
lush portrait of the private, off-camera Monk, one it would have
been difficult to paint without the unprecedented access he had to
the Monk family."
--David Yaffe, The Nation
"Robin Kelley's new biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times
of an American Original is a breath of fresh air among the
biographies of our legendary jazz musicians. This book is thorough,
detailed, and written with a true affinity for Monk's humaneness
and creative musical output. It fills in the missing pieces about
the growth of the jazz scene in New York through the forties,
fifties, and sixties, detailing each step of Monk's
development--who passed through his bands, what gigs he played, and
what happened on those scenes. It's an invaluable and close look at
the center of the world's most important creative musical
developments in those decades: New York City."
--Chick Corea, the Grammy-winning composer and pianist
"Thelonious Monk was a true original... This affectionate biography
fills in the fascinating and heart-wrenching backstory of an artist
the world has always longed to know better."
--The Christian Science Monitor
"This is an authoritative tome that pulls aside, without completely
lifting, the shroud of mystery that has long surrounded one of the
most enigmatic figures in the history of jazz."
--Russ Musto,
AllAboutJazz.com
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