“‘Round Midnight” is a 1944 jazz standard by pianist Thelonious Monk. Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982) was one of the giants of jazz, and one of the most unusual. As Monk’s Wikipedia entry notes, “His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk’s unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This was not a style universally appreciated; poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as ‘the elephant on the keyboard.'” But this elephant, and his music, could dance — “at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano” — and Larkin, a famous curmudgeon who disliked all jazz once bebop sprang on the scene around 1940, apparently just couldn’t appreciate the intricate strangeness of Monk’s elephantine beauty. Oh well, to each his own.

Monk was famously smart and idiosyncratic. The saxophonist Steve Lacy, who worked with Monk in 1960, was given some handwritten advice by Monk (click through for image), which really captures the flavor of Monk’s mind at work.

Monk’s Mini-Manifesto to Young Musicians

Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.

Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head, when you play.

Stop playing all those weird notes (that bullshit), play the melody!

Make the drummer sound good.

Discrimination is important.

You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?

ALL REET!

Always know….(MONK)

It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.

Let’s lift the band stand!!

I want to avoid the hecklers.

Don’t play the piano part, I’m playing that. Don’t listen to me. I’m supposed to be accompanying you!

The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.

Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined. What you don’t play can be more important that what you do.

A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.

Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig, and when it comes, he’s out of shape and can’t make it.

When you’re swinging, swing some more.

(What should we wear tonight? Sharp as possible!)

Always leave them wanting more.

Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene. These pieces were written so as to have something to play and get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal.

You’ve got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (To a drummer who didn’t want to solo)

Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.

They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along and spoil it.

Monk’s trademark syncopated, percussive piano style was dubbed “Melodious Thunk” by his wife Nellie. Legend also has it that Nellie usually referred to her husband in public as “Melodious Funk.” Quite a namer, that Nellie.

You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?