Trustee Holloway ’76 Behind New T.S. Monk Album

Emerson College Trustee Doug Holloway ’76 executive produced the first live album from jazz drummer T.S. Monk, son of legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

T.S. Monk Sextet’s Two Continents One Groove will be released on Storyville Records on Friday, June 17. 

The seven songs on the album were recorded during two performances: Harlem’s Jazz Shrines Festival at Ginny’s Supper Club in May 2014, and a show at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland, in April 2016.

“This is my first live recording ever! It’s daunting and an uncertain kind of product,” Monk said in a press release. “Most live albums aren’t that good. I’ve been lucky to always have great people working with me.”

T.S. Monk, a percussionist, composer, and bandleader, got his start playing with his father until the elder Monk’s retirement in 1975. He played with various R&B groups in the late 1970s and ‘80s, scoring hits “Bon Bon Vie (Gimme the Good Life)” and “Candidate for Love” in 1980. He returned to jazz in the 1990s, forming the T.S. Monk Sextet in 1992.

Holloway also produced a lost album by Thelonious Monk, released in June 2021. Palo Alto: The Custodian’s Mix was named one of the most-wanted Record Store Day releases by Variety.

That album was released by Rhythm-A-Ning Entertainment (RAN Ent), the music and film production arm of Monk’s estate, of which Holloway is president.