Blog 4: Harmony in the Community

            Both Robin Kelley’s biography on Thelonious Monk and the film, Leimert Park show the relationship that exists between art and the community that surrounds it.  San Juan Hill and Leimert Park shared similar characteristics such as the violence that corrupted the streets, as well as the tight community that was created among the residents.  The dialogue between the community and the artists of the area shaped their music as we see reflected in Leimert Park as well as in Monk’s music as they respond to the social issues that haunted both of these areas.  In both San Juan Hill and Leimert Park, we see jazz serving as an outlet to the community trying to escape violence and reestablish a healthy cultural identity. 

            San Juan Hill “earned the dubious distinction of being one of the ‘busiest crime areas in New York City.’”  While much of the focus of the white community was on the violence that wrecked havoc in the area, residents utilized the “rich musical culture” as an outlet (Kelley 19).  Monk’s outlet came when his family received a piano as a gift when they moved to a new apartment complex.  Throughout Thelonious’s entire childhood, his community of friends congregated to his house to play music.  “The Monk’s apartment was a popular hangout for many of the young neighborhood musicians” (Kelley 32).  This is similar to how 5^th Street Dick’s served as a place for artists to express themselves in a safe place in Leimert Park.  In this sense, the saying “Jazz is New York” is reflected by the influence San Juan Hill and Leimert Park had on Monk as well as other local artists.

            Throughout the short documentary, Richard Fulton, the owner of 5^th Street Dick’s discusses the importance of having harmony amongst a community.  When violence was disrupting Leimert Park and San Juan Hill, the residents found harmony among their music.  Though Thelonious was a “big guy,” the daily violence that existed in San Juan Hill “haunted him for many years to come” (Kelley 18).  His piano, as well as the Children Center served as a sanctuary of harmony amiss the continued violence. 

            San Juan Hill presented Thelonious with many opportunities that had a major influence on his career as a pianist.  The piano the Monk’s received, inspired Thelonious’s passion and began his musical career, and San Juan Hill’s community, populated with a “surprising number of musicians,” provided Thelonious with resources to develop his art.  These included his first piano instructor, Simon Wolf who was “highly regarded among the parents who hired him,” and instilled classical training from “works by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach and Mozart” (Kelley 26).  Thelonious’s next mentor was a local jazz musician Alberta Simmons, who “was able to make a living playing ragtime and stride piano in the tiny speakeasies.”  The local church also proved important in Thelonious’s musical development as he became “steeped in the sacred music of the black Baptist tradition” (Kelley 27).  Thelonious’s local friend group developed in the Columbus Hill Community Center, and in 1933 Thelonious and two other kids formed their first band.  The trio competed in local “Amateur and Audition Nights,” and “Thelonious won so many times, for five or six weeks the Apollo became a steady source of income” (Kelley 36).  These beginning jazz influences not only jumpstarted Thelonious’s abilities but were the beginning to a long and legendary career.

            Though San Juan Hill and Leimert Park are in areas that were traditionally plagued with violence, both communities found harmony through the power of jazz.  The art provided an outlet for the creative minds such as Thelonious Monk to prosper.  Jazz music formed a community in the same way that the community allowed for the development of the genius within Thelonious’s.