**This Thelonious Monk stamp is a part of the jazz music set of the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page for this project.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of Black musicians to American and world music. One reason why the Legends of American Music series by the USPS is so important is because it features so many Black American musicians across genres. This blog has posts to a few Black music legends on stamps including W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and many others. This post is about the postage stamp featuring the amazing American jazz pianist, Thelonious Monk.
However, regular readers of this blog also know my mixed feelings about the project and the stamps. While it honors the immeasurable contributions of Americans to music, it is very inconsistent. Much of the art work borders on cartoonish depictions. Too many extraordinary musicians, such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, were not in the series because they were still living. Others, such as Scott Joplin, did not make the cut because they were on previous stamps.
Thelonious Monk
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Music Division
under the digital ID gottlieb.06191.T Public Domain
Thelonious Monk was born on October 10, 1917 in Rock Mount, North Carolina. In 1922, his family moved to Manhattan in New York City. He began to play the piano at the age of six with a neighbor who taught him to play stride piano. He also learned hymns and accompanied his mother in church. His first professional gig was touring with an evangelist preacher in his late teens, playing the organ.
Career
In the 1940s, Monk became the house pianist at the Manhattan nightclub Minton’s Playhouse. It was there that he began to develop his own improvisational style, especially in “cutting contests” that pitted soloists against each other. He regularly played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, and Charlie Parker. This group of musicians created the new genre of bebop in their long jam sessions and competitions. In 1944, Monk made his first recording as the pianist with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet.
In 1947, Monk met Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records, and his wife Lorraine Gordon. The latter became a tireless advocate for Monk’s musical genius. Shortly after meeting the couple, Monk made a recording as a bandleader for Blue Note, including playing several of his original tunes.
Initially, his music did not meet with critical or popular acclaim. However, with Gordon acting as a PR agent, he gradually built a reputation and in September of 1948 he had a weeklong showcase at the Village Vanguard. Monk would go on to have a highly succesful career, known for his many compositions and for his long improvisations. He had recording contracts with Blue Note, Riverside Records, and Columbia. Among his most famous songs are “Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” “Straight, No Chaser,” and “In Walked Bud.” Behind Duke Ellington, Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer. Monk died of a stroke on February 17, 1982.
The Thelonious Monk Stamp
Scott Number US 2990
A set of ten stamps featuring jazz musicians was issued in 1995. While some of the genre groups were weak (opera singers) and others controversial (rock & roll), the jazz group is a remarkable group of the greatest names in jazz over several generations. It includes Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Jelly Roll Morton, and Thelonious Monk.
The Armstrong stamp was issued on September 1, 1995 in New Orleans. The remaining stamps in the series became available two weeks later on September 16, at the Monterrey Jazz Festival. Like the other stamps in the Legends series, the jazz stamps are lithograph prints of an original acryllic painting. The stamp was the design of Thomas Blackshear II. You may also want to check out this page from the National Postal Museum.
Visually, the jazz stamps are among the best of the Legends series. They look less cartoony that other designs and each stamp has at the top, a faint background of a piano keyboard. This both unifies the set and makes it obvious that the subject is a musician. It works particularly well on the Monk stamp with his portrait in profile, as if he is seated at a piano playing.
Learn more about jazz stamps here, and make sure to check out Thelonious Monk’s music. Here is a short taste:
