Editing Thelonious Monk (section)

===1933–1946: Early performing career===
Monk put his first band together at the age of 16, getting a few restaurant and school gigs.<ref>Kelley, Robin (2009), p. 35.</ref> At 17, Monk toured with an evangelist, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/thelonious-monks-quiet-slow-conquest-of-the-jazz-world/542937/|title=Thelonious Monk's Quiet, Slow Conquest of the World|last=Graham|first=David A.|date=October 18, 2017|work=[[The Atlantic]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518163803/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/thelonious-monks-quiet-slow-conquest-of-the-jazz-world/542937/|archive-date=May 18, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> In the early to mid-1940s, he was the house pianist at [[Minton's Playhouse]], a Manhattan nightclub.<ref name=":2" /> Much of Monk's style (in the Harlem [[Stride (music)|stride]] tradition) was developed while he performed at Minton's where he participated in after-hours [[cutting contest]]s, which featured many leading jazz soloists of the time. Monk's musical work at Minton's was crucial in the formulation of [[bebop]], which would be furthered by other musicians, including [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Charlie Christian]], [[Kenny Clarke]], [[Charlie Parker]], and, later, [[Miles Davis]].<ref name=":0" /> Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at the club. Monk's style at this time was later described as "hard-swinging", with the addition of runs in the style of [[Art Tatum]]. Monk's stated influences included [[Duke Ellington]], James P. Johnson, and other early [[stride piano|stride pianists]]. According to the documentary ''[[Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser]]'', Monk lived in the same neighborhood in New York City as Johnson and knew him as a teenager.

In March 1943, Monk reported for his Army Induction physical, but was labeled by the Army psychiatrist as "psychiatric reject" and not inducted into the Armed Forces during WWII.<ref>Thelonious Monk The Life and Times of an American Original p.244</ref>

[[Mary Lou Williams]], who mentored Monk and his contemporaries, spoke of Monk's rich inventiveness in this period, and how such invention was vital for musicians, since at the time it was common for fellow musicians to incorporate overheard musical ideas into their own works without giving due credit. "So, the boppers worked out a music that was hard to steal. I'll say this for the 'leeches,' though: they tried. I've seen them in Minton's busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, I'm afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming. Why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses."<ref name=":0" />

In 1944, Monk cut his first commercial recordings with the [[Coleman Hawkins]] Quartet. Hawkins was one of the earliest established jazz musicians to promote Monk, and the pianist later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him [[Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane|on a 1957 session]] with [[John Coltrane]].