Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two new interpretations of Monk's complete works: Monk's Dreams, by pianist Frank Kimbrough, and Work, by guitarist Miles Okazaki.

Thelonious Monk, circa 1947. A cousin wants to erect a statue of the jazz legend in the musician’s birthplace of Rocky Mount, N.C. (William P. Gottlieb Collection/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS ...

In 1968, a teen got Thelonious Monk to play a concert at his high school. 50 years later, the recording set off a battle with the jazz legend's label.

Monk was born in 1917 in Rocky Mount, N.C., and his family moved to Manhattan when he was 4. At 9, after briefly studying the trumpet, Monk started playing the piano in church and at rent parties.