Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk October 10,1917 – February 17,1982Jazz music started doing acid long before the rock stars of the late sixties. Dizzy Gilespie, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk were all trying psychedelics long before Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, or Donovan came along.Psychedelics in jazz came from a number of sources. Zoot Sims picked up his LSD from reverb virtuoso Sandy Bull. Philosopher Gerald Heard was the main supplier for the West Coast Jazz scene. Michael Hollingshead provided LSD to Maynard Ferguson. Timothy Leary provided psilocybin to Dizzy Gillespie. Allen Ginsberg provided Thelonious Monk with both psilocybin and LSD.“A few days later Ginsberg dropped by Monk’s apartment to check on the results,” said Martin A. Lee. “Monk peered out from behind a crack in the door, smiled, and asked if he had anything stronger. Ginsberg also turned on Dizzy Gillespie, who was evidently quite pleased by the gesture. ‘Oh yeah,’ he laughed, ‘antyhing that gets you high.’ In a sense it was Ginsberg’s way of returning historical favor; the jazz musicians had given marijuana to the beats, and now the beats were turning the jazz cats on to psychedelics. Word of the new drugs spread quickly through the jazz scene, and numerous musicians, including many of the preeminent players in the field, experimented with psychedelics in the early 1960s. John Coltrane….”[iii]Tenor sax player Charlie Rouse and Thelonious Monk were playing at the Jazz Workshop in Boston when Timothy Leary paid them his first visit in 1961. He came backstage and provided them both with psilocybin pills. Word began to spread to other jazz musicians. When you’re in Boston - try this guy.Monk followed up in August 1962, asking for LSD. Leary referred him to Ginsberg while Monk was booked at the Village Gate. His opening act was Hugh Romney, an acid head comedian who later became famous at Woodstock as Wavy Gravy.By Showbiz Imagery and Forgotten History