T.S.Monk @ Newport

This footage has a special place for me:



This piece featuring drummer T.S. Monk's sextet is from a 1992 A&E Channel televised special that featured performances from the Newport Jazz Festival. Most notably were footage of Monk's hard swinging outfit and Max Roach's quartet (including Roach performing a piece for solo hi-hat!) as well as Shirley Horn and Maceo Parker.

Being a young person, having only been exposed to Jazz music shortly before this, watching this program was a huge revelation for me (in fact, I videotaped this and watched it over and over again for years...) Growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan wasn't exactly a hot bed of Jazz music during the early 1990s so myself and my peers who were also hungry for anything Jazz-related were always eager to get our hands on anything we could. This one certainly made a huge impression on me. It's really amazing how formative experiences like this shape our direction, even years later. Watching that video of T.S. Monk instantly brings me back to another lifetime....