Robin D.G. Kelley is the author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 2009), the already definitive biography that has received rave reviews in the press and is the topic of conversation of Monk fans and musicians everywhere.
Kelley offers the rich perspective of an African-American historian who knows a great deal about the music, and has researched his subject in depth and detail. Kelley explodes some of the myths about Monk and portrays the man and his music with depth, sensitivity, and circumspection, revealing a brilliant musician and a complex human being with an elusive and ever-changing persona.
AAJ Contributor Victor L. Schermer spoke with Kelley about the long road to creating this definitive biography, and how to capture the idiosyncratic quality of Monk and his music with only the written word.
Check out Robin D.G. Kelley on Thelonious Monk: The Man, the Myth, the Music at AAJ today!
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