[Thelonius Monk will] come in here [Minton's Playhouse, Harlem] any time and play for hours with only a dim light and the funny thing is he'll never play a complete tune. You never know what he's playing. Many times he's gone on so long I've had to come back and plead with him to quit playin' the piano so I could close up the place 'cause it was against the law to keep it open any longer.

Monk seemed more like the guy who manufactured the product rather than commercialized it. Dizzy had gotten all the exploitation because Dizzy branched out and got started. Monk stayed right in the same groove.