Bebop in San Juan Hill

Though Thelonious Monk was born in North Carolina, he was raised on San Juan Hill. This area of Manhattan almost entirely populated by African Americans became a central part of the development of jazz and particularly the bebop style. Anywhere there is a vast diversity of cultures and people, we see the jazz style expand and morph in order to accept more variety, which it then feeds off of. As in New Orleans, the black community within San Juan Hill may have seemed united from the outside perspective, however, the members of the community came from all over the United States and included immigrants from the Caribbean as well. As Monk says: “You go in the next block and you’re in another country” (Monk 19). Because of all the different people found within the Hill and Manhattan in general, there was a definite cultural clash that was perfectly encapsulated by the bebop movement with its heavy dissonance and unconventional modern approach to jazz. The community that raised Monk was also in return greatly affected by the musician whose genius and unorthodox musical style became central to the theme of the community and the culture.
Monk was not an especially active voice for civil rights or against racism, and though he definitely encountered his fair share of the latter, he never emerged as an activist and his relationship with the white woman Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, or “Nica” shows that race was not at the forefront of his mind. Nica was a great patron for jazz musicians and Monk, like Charlie Parker, lived out the remaining years of his life with her. In his arrest in Delaware with Nica, the police had found drugs in Nica’s car and after Monk refused to answer questions he was beaten. This was a perfect example of the type of racism Monk faced, and yet he did not hold any special resentment that he voiced. Instead, his musical styling proved to be the real source of his rebellion. As professor Stewart said: “His success in transcending race and class lines is perhaps embodied in his affectionate relationship with Nica, but also the way in which he adopted and became adopted by a young generation of Blacks and Whites who were rebelling against the strictures of American society” (Stewart 11/18). It was Monks musical style, not his actions that acted as rebellion. The bebop movement was all about changing from the simple dance music to a more complicated as well as personal style that allowed the musicians the most freedom and improvisation. It changed the focus of the music away from primarily serving the audience and towards the musicians own expression as an art form. For this reason, it could never gain the most popular following, but it did help change the previous image of the jazz musician which was mirrored by the change overcoming the nation in relation to the black community. The previous swing musicians were seen as catering to their white audience. This idea of the simple swing musician was almost reminiscent of slavery and the general degradation of the black community, but the beboppers were the symbol of the new way of the world, the new place that the black community was taking with the musicians as artists not as white entertainers. The bebop musicians were the first “hipsters” and were a major part of the counterculture movement that exploded in the 1960’s.
Monk was formed by his community in San Juan Hill and his bebop musical tradition, filled with dissonance and a wholly original approach to the piano, in turn became a distinct part of the community. The modernization of our American culture was fast approaching, and the bebop, hipster movement was one of the first examples of this evolution. Monk is a prominent figure in the history of jazz and especially in the mindset that changed the entertainer into the artist. The counterculture revolution was all about going against the status quo of everything in culture, and where the status quo included racism, the opposition proved especially strong.