T.S. Monk is a voluble speaker. Which stands to reason since he is also an exceptionally engaged man. Not only does Monk have a new release due this August, Higher Ground , he will also launch his own label, Thelonious Records, open his father's archives, continue in his capacity as chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute, and proceed with his work on a Broadway play.

T.S. Monk has been on the scene for quite some time, working first within the straight ahead jazz environment. He then spent several years in the Funk and R & B arena before returning to jazz where he made an immediate splash with the tribute recording Monk on Monk. In addition, he has kept a touring band together for over a decade.

T.S. not only has a lot to say, he says it freely, with great humor, excitement, and joy. It is a rare treat to speak with someone as forthcoming, insightful, and exuberant. The long conversation we had via cell phone covered many topics including his current projects, his childhood, jazz history, various anecdotes, and much more. Having taken place over a week ago now, the conversation still has me thinking, smiling'and laughing.

All About Jazz: You've got a lot going on. There's the new album, the Thelonious Monk archives, the new label, and I've just heard about a Broadway play?

T.S. Monk: The Broadway thing! Well, it actually started two years ago. I've been working with some people for about two years on a musical featuring Thelonious's music and the working title is 'Brilliant Corners'. In the process of doing that we've become a little bogged down with the writer. Not the musical writer, the scriptwriter. Broadway's difficult man! And with an artist like Thelonious, it's not quite as simple as'it's not quite the Benny Goodman Story'so it's been difficult. But in the process, I ran into a gentleman by the name of Hinton Battle. If you're not familiar with him, he won a Tony for Tap Dance Kid , and Little Miss Saigon.

In fact, I think not only is he the only African-American to win three Tonys, he's the only male to win three Tonys on Broadway. The third one is for something years ago, I'm not sure which. I ran into him because he's a friend of one of my cousin's and we got to talking. He always had an interest in Thelonious's music, and we talked some more, and next thing I know we we're putting together a production. So right now we're in the early stages of a production called, 'Monk and Battles' Hinton is doing the choreography and this guy who just won a Tony himself for Swing, Harold Wheeler'he just might be the most successful musical director over the last decade in Broadway'I think he's gotten two or three in a row'he's doing the music. It's going to be a collaboration of Monk and dance'A lot of people are not familiar with early Thelonious Monk.

They don't know that Thelonious grew up in the era when if you were a young musician'it didn't matter if you were a jazz musician or not'how did you earn a living? You played dances. I think that to a great degree that is the reason that the music which came out of the Be-boppers and the modern jazz players has always been so rhythmically'swinging! It's because it was all dance music, initially, and the grooves, the general ambience of the music was centered on dance until the dance floors were closed-off in the late forties and early fifties and we all started sitting and drinking and listening to the music instead of dancing. So this has become a lot of fun. There's a great deal of interest among the dancers because they don't get an opportunity to interact with music, particularly music as stylized as Thelonious's. He's a rare artist, period. So this is a great opportunity, Hinton feels'and I feel'he's coming up with some great stuff! I think it's going to be a whole lot of fun. Father would never believe it! But then, he would never believe his face is on a stamp...[or that] he's got a star on the Hollywood walk along with Bob Hope and all those people. You know, the skies the limit for Thelonious and I'm very excited about this particular project.

AAJ: That's very interesting. Just like you said, there seem to be so many myths about Monk's career'probably many more which you could tell me about than I can image'but particularly that early period. There's always this idea that he was totally obscure and unknown until Be-bop came along, that all the music took place alone in the dark at the back of Minton's.