For all the attention paid to the late Thelonious Monk in the 25 years since his death, one aspect of his life has drawn relatively little attention: his roots in Rocky Mount, where the pantheon-dwelling pianist was born in 1917. "Following Monk," a six-week series of events at Duke University, aims to correct that.

"Part of what we're doing is re-establishing the connection," says Sam Stephenson, director of the Jazz Loft Project at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies.

Southern states claim a long roster of jazz musicians as natives: John Coltrane (Hamlet and High Point), Max Roach (Newland), Woody Shaw (Laurinburg) and Dizzy Gillespie (Cheraw, S.C.). Most of them left when they were young, and their roots are rarely discussed, unless they're from New Orleans.

"The way jazz history has been written, the South is rarely mentioned even though most of the musicians were from here," Stephenson says. "Any other literature, whether African-American or Italian or Jewish or Eastern European, the homeland is a huge deal."

Most of "Following Monk" centers on performances and lectures with headliners who include the Kronos Quartet, critic Stanley Crouch, pianist Henry Butler and BattleWorks Modern Dance Company. But Stephenson has also arranged a continuing education course based on two day-long guided bus trips and walking tours of Monk's birthplace in Rocky Mount and the Newton Grove plantation where his father and grandfather were born.

The Monk events also include a Sept. 20 performance with echoes of his 1970 concerts at the Frog & Nightgown in Raleigh.

And on Oct. 13, the Charles Tolliver's Orchestra will attempt a note-for-note re-creation of Monk's 1959 Town Hall concert.

Read more about Monk in today's Arts & Entertainment section. Program details are available at www.followingmonk.org.

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