Jazz in the Community and the Community in Jazz: Thelonious Monk, San Juan Hill, and Leimert Park

The childhood of Thelonious Monk was characterized by his immersion, involvement, and growth in the tight knit San Juan Hill neighborhood. San Juan Hill was a small neighborhood located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but it contained a richness of community that made it “a small town unto itself” (Kelley, 35). Monk’s formative years were greatly influenced by this community and the exposure to various people, cultures, and experiences that it afforded him. For Monk, “the neighborhood was the center of his social universe” (Kelley, 32). There was the Columbus Hill Community Center, where Monk, his siblings, and his friends would spend their time hanging out—it was “a true center of social life for black youth in the neighborhood” (Kelley, 28). Indeed, it was the Friday night dances at the Community Center where a teenage Monk and his first band had their most important gigs, where “they had a good time and always received an enthusiastic response” (Kelley, 37). Much of Monk’s early exposure to music came from his experiences within the community. He would watch his mother sing at church services and one of his early music instructors was a woman named Alberta Simmons, “a local jazz musician who had the greatest impact on Thelonious’s early development” (Kelley, 27).

Music often has that adhesive effect on a community. Both San Juan Hill and Leimert Park shared that quality, and it helped both neighborhoods develop a strong community bond despite the adversity they faced. The two places had seen their share of violence, much of it stemming from racial tensions. During the early 20th century, San Juan Hill “was famous for its race riots,” including one notorious riot in 1917 in which “over 2,000 people took part in indiscriminate fighting” (Kelley, 17). And in Leimert Park, rising crime as well as the 1992 Rodney King riots caused damage to the predominantly black neighborhood. But to characterize these neighborhoods by these instances of violence would be a disservice to the strong sense of community and culture that these neighborhoods forged. Like San Juan Hill, Leimert Park was incredibly tight knit, and music was a shared experience that would bring various people within the neighborhood together. Thelonious Monk had places where he could have a shared musical experiences with those within San Juan Hill—places such as the Columbus Hill Community Center, and even his apartment, which was a “popular hangout…for many of the young neighborhood musicians” (Kelley, 32). In Leimert Park, there’s 5th Street Dick’s and The World Stage, where music and art is used as a focal point for community. With neighborhoods such as Leimert Park and San Juan Hill, crime, violent histories, and adverse conditions are overcome by the deeper, stronger connections of music, culture, and community. 

I don’t think I can make any definitive, universal statements with regards to the relationship between musicians and their respective communities—each relationship is so unique, so personal. But what I will say is that neighborhoods which foster identities of close community and strong culture create good conditions for the growth and development of a jazz musician. Jazz is often understood as an aesthetic of urban life, trying to find the rhythm within the dissonance, and the individuality within the collaboration. So in the quote “Jazz is New York, Man!?,” New York could easily be replaced with Leimert Park. Jazz is an expression of community, it is music that reflects experiences and influences, and with the work of Thelonious Monk, we see not only the effects of San Juan Hill, but the very life of the neighborhood itself. 


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