Thelonious Monk  [1917-1982] was born in North Carolina and died in New Jersey. He revolutionized jazz with his oddball rhythmic thrust, his percussive way of playing where he’d oftentimes karate-chop the piano keys, his penchant for dancing around the piano while his band took solos, and, of course, his writing of some of the genre’s most beloved anthems—“’Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” “Straight, No Chaser,” “Ruby, My Dear,” “In Walked Bud” and “Well, You Needn’t.”