Thelonious Monk

Pianist and composer, Monk was the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse during the early-1940s sessions where bebop incubated, and his angular harmony and percussive touch shaped the emerging style from within. His compositions, among them "'Round Midnight," entered the standard repertoire and made him one of the most recorded composers in jazz. Idiosyncratic and unhurried, he stood slightly apart from his peers' speed, prizing space and dissonance.