Thelonious Monk Historical Marker

This historical marker is dedicated to jazz legend Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982) who was born in Rocky Mount. Monk only lived here for around five years before moving to New York in 1922 with his family. The marker shares information about the pianist's music career as well as his family tree with roots in the experiences of the enslaved.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) was born in Rocky Mount in 1917, and he lived in this community for almost five years before moving to New York in 1922 with his mother and siblings. The Grammy Hall of Fame inductee helped develop the "bebop" class of jazz music, and he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1964.

While in Rocky Mount, Monk lived close to the railway. Between 1917 and 1922, the years Monk lived in the South, Rocky Mount was a busy town due to its thriving tobacco industry. Railroads were an important part of this industry and essential to the town's earlier economic success. There is an area known as the "Y" where two railroad tracks curve into the shape of the letter it is named for. People who lived in the area called the neighborhood "Around the Y."

Sam Stephenson published an article about the musician that asserts the South influenced the famed jazz musician’s music more than most realize. Stephenson stated Monk "was almost five years old when he left here, and certainly he was well old enough to remember, there would be train whistles all throughout this neighborhood all day long and all night long... There aren't any train whistles in New York City." Monk lived only one block away from the “Y” and it has been proposed that his song “Little Rootie Tootie” is inspired by the train whistles he heard day and night. The song even features a train whistle.

As you reflect on this historical marker, you may enjoy listening to a couple of Monk's songs. You can find two of them, including "Little Rootie Tootie," below.

[1] Biewen, John. Digging Up Thelonious Monk's Southern Roots, NPR. October 10th 2007. Accessed December 6th 2020. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15159351.

[2] The Complete Biography of Thelonious Monk, Rocky Mount Review. February 19th 2019. Accessed December 8th 2020. https://rockymountreview.com/home/entryid/386/complete-biography-thelonious-monk.