Fifty years after Thelonious Monk’s landmark Town Hall concert

The World

Fifty years ago this week, virtuoso jazz pianist Thelonious Monk gave a landmark concert at New York City’s Town Hall. It was a coming-out for an underground jazz scene called bebop. Monk’s 1959 concert marked bebop’s shift from New York’s nightclubs to center stage. We celebrate the anniversary of that concert with WNYC music host, Terrance McKnight.

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