What instrument does thelonious monk play?

Answer 1

Thelonious had incredible array of techniques that he used in soloing and comping. This was known to his wife as Melodius Thunk. I could go on forever on his style, but I just wrote a few paragraphs.Soloing: When unaccompanied he'd often use stride, a technique when on the first and third beat played the root of a chord and on the second and fourth beat voicings that suited the hand position were played. On top of the stride, he would play melodic phrases often relating to the main melody of the song. He would explore the melody by putting it to alternate rhythms, playing statements and bop licks in between space, and keeping the rhythm of the melody but putting different notes to it. For good examples of unaccompanied soloing, check out "The London Collection Volume 1" on the "Black Lion" label. When accompanied, he would leave a lot of empty space and play these dramatic and sudden chords. Like in his unaccompanied soloing, he would explore ways of playing the melody in his soloing. In mostly slower songs he would do harmonic runs down the piano (Listen to him playing the melody on Trinkle, Tinkle on "Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane". Notice how he incorporates these runs in between the space of the melody and yet he still plays the melody instaed ohf just chords. On a slower song like Monk's Mood or Crepuscule with Nellie he would place it anywhere to fill dead silence.) often using a whole tone scale on a flat 5th chord, for example. Comping: Thelonious would very oftenly (like in his soloing) use dramatic and sudden chords in his comping. This would often distract soloist, but he always to concentrate on what they were doing instead of what he was. A particular type of chord that Monk used was an open chord. This contained the root and the seventh above. The chord would disclude thirds and fifths. Monk used several of his soloing techniques in his comping as well, like harmonic runs and melody exploration. Sometimes (mostly on a second solo for a horn) he wouldn't play at all! For a better observation of his style check out Hal Leonard's Monk Fake Book C Edition. It has a section in the back about his style.

Answer 2

he played the piano

Answer 3

Monk played the "up-right" piano =)