T S Monk

Jazz is a work in progress. We’ll be defining traditions in Jazz for 200-300 years.

It’s not what they think, it’s about what’s best for the music.

From hard rhythms of Be-bop, the mellow harmonies of Cool, to atonal forays of Free and the Straight Ahead delivery of Modern, it’s all Jazz.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

Some twenty years ago, during the course of a memorable evening at the Stravinskys’ home in Los Angeles, the venerable maestro turned to me and said in no uncertain terms: ‘My dear, you should conduct your own music. All composers should conduct their own music!

Jazz – it takes passion to make it happen!

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I’m trying to do more. When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.

Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

You don’t rehearse Jazz to death to get the camera angles.

I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an’ my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another.

The other day I came across a recording I made of a night at my apartment when I was living with Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan had been around earlier and we were all passing around the guitar. Whenever it came to my turn I would run into the kitchen and say I’d left the coffee on the stove or something. Shyness. Scared to perform.

A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.