Thelonious Monk
was perhaps the greatest true original that jazz ever produced. His music has been described as impregnable and inscrutable, as well as playful and childlike. Though his piano style sounds strongly influenced by the rhythmic bounce of the “left hand
” of Harlem stride piano (a style of playing used in ragtime), he was mainly self-taught and often seemed to inhabit his own musical universe. Monk was unique and his music is almost a genre of its...