“All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.”
Interview in Down Beat magazine (28 October 1971)
Thelonious Sphere Monk war ein US-afroamerikanischer Jazz-Musiker, der als Pianist und Komponist bekannt wurde.
Er war neben Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian und Kenny Clarke einer der Mitbegründer des Bebops. Mit seinem eigenwilligen Klavierstil und seinen unverwechselbaren Kompositionen gilt Monk als einer der großen Individualisten und bedeutenden Innovatoren des Modern Jazz.
Wikipedia
“All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.”
Interview in Down Beat magazine (28 October 1971)
Thelonious Monk Documentary DVD.
When questioned as to the future of jazz, as quoted in Jet magazine (31 March 1960), p. 30
“Which is the way to the toilet?”
Circa 1966, reviewing "Easy Listening Blues" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKavK4naYM from Oscar Peterson's With Respect to Nat, for DownBeat's "Blindfold Test"; reproduced in The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties (1966) by Leonard Feather, p. 30
“The piano ain't got no wrong notes.”
Attributed by WKCR jazz host Phil Schaap, after a guest commented on how Monk played a lot of "wrong" notes. (March 1976)
Quelle: Evan Spring, Phil Schaap Interview https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/content/phil-schaap-interview, WKCR, 5 October, 1992