Gale Monk

Music publisher Gale Grain Monk was born on July 30, 1958 to Dora and Walter Grain in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Monk attended Jamaica High School in Queens, New York and received her high school diploma in 1976. In 1984, she received her B.A. degree in broadcast journalism from the City College of New York and later attended Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York.

While in college, Monk spent two summers interning at CBS Records, working in the Black Music Marketing division her first summer and for the publishing company her second summer. In 1983, she was hired as a reporter at United Press International (UPI) where she remained until 1985. Monk then was a K-6 public school teacher for four years. On September 14, 1985, she married jazz musician Thelonious Sphere “T.S.” Monk, III in Brooklyn, New York. She began managing her husband’s music catalogue after the death of his “T.S. Monk” R&B group bandmates, his sister Barbara Monk and vocalist Yvonne Fletcher. Monk also assumed management of the music catalogue of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, the father of “T.S.” Monk. Alongside her husband, Monk co-founded the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in 1986, a non-profit jazz music education organization. In 1989, Monk became the manager of the Thelonious Monk Estate, making her one of the few African American females in jazz music publishing. In this role, she oversaw numerous projects from remastering Thelonious Monk’s works to reinstating the rights to his music. One of the songs Monk worked towards regaining the rights to was Thelonious Monk’s 1943 song “Round Midnight,” which became a jazz standard for jazz musicians and listeners and the most recorded song in the history of jazz. Monk was able to obtain one third of the rights to the song back from the record company and other individuals who had credited themselves on the Thelonious Monk’s songs. Other songs Monk worked on reinstating the rights to include the 1947 song “Ruby, My Dear” and the 1952 song “Bemsha Swing.” In addition to her with the Thelonius Monk Estate, Monk joined the Institution of Jazz Foundation in 2018.

Monk resides in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. She has two children, Sierre and Thelonious IV. Sierre is a senior content manager and Thelonious IV works for the Thelonious Monk Estate.

Gale Grain Monk was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 1924.