The T.S. Monk Sextet’s highly anticipated live album with seven songs is characterized by the steady pulse and groove that the world has come to know and love as the “T.S. Monk Sextet Sound”.

Two Continents One Groove is out now on Storyville Records.

Monk, also known as “Toot”, leads his sextet with an innovative and dynamic approach. Since 1992, the drummer has worked exclusively with his co-players, making the sound of the sextet incredibly tight. When they roll out their arsenal, they soar and swing, and are indeed exciting to hear. In that regard, it might be quite surprising to learn that this is Monk’s very first live album!

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

Cat. #: 1018530
Format: Digital & CD
Release: 17-June-2022
Storyville Records
www.storyvillerecords.com

The seven songs on the album are taken from two performances at two similar jazz rooms over a two-year period; three are from “Harlem’s Jazz Shrines Festival: Jazzmobile presents Minton’s Playhouse” at Ginny’s Supper Club on May 7, 2014, while others were recorded at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland on April 24, 2016.

Drummer, percussionist, composer, producer and bandleader, T. S. Monk has taken his place in the pantheon of jazz royalty, to which he was born. The swing is DNA inherited and absorbed in this master drummer’s persona.

Monk’s sextet consists of some of the best jazz musicians in the business, each bringing something special to the table. Willie Williams on tenor saxophone is the original member of the sextet, who came up under the tutelage of Grover Washington, Jr. Additionally, we have the Chicago native, Kenny Davis on bass, who has worked with notables such as Cassandra Wilson and Kevin Eubanks, trumpeter Josh Evans, multi-reedist Patience Higgins, guitarist Dave Stryker and pianist and composer Helen Sung, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow.

Two Continents One Groove is a masterpiece, so follow him to a new
promised land. As he states:

“If there’s one thing this album is, it’s swingin’! I hope you agree.”

#tsmonk #twocontinentsonegroove #drumspercussion #helensung #piano #williewilliams #tenorsax #patiencehiggins #altosax #joshevans #trumpet #kennydavis #bass #davestryker #guitar

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With a vibrant and dynamic stage presence that is unequaled, Nita is comfortable singing in any setting, from an intimate club to the arena stages. She has sung with Andrea Bocelli and often travels with Multi-Grammy winner David Foster as his featured artist, and her performances invariably end in standing ovations. She has performed and shared the stage with countless celebrities including Faith Hill, Celine Dion, Richard Marx, Josh Groban, Stevie Wonder and Yolanda Adams. Nita’s current CD follows two other independent projects titled Nita Whitaker and One Voice.

Pamela Cooper
The Cooper Company
729 Seventh Avenue, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10019
212-302-5559 (o) || 212-302-1498 (f)

www.TheCooperCompany.biz || @CooperCompany || on Facebook

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Previews begin Off-Broadway January 15, Opens January 19

“The Clearing shows all the characteristics of a Jake Jeppson play: complex human beings with a desire and inability to connect, and from his eloquent heart, the author’s own empathic urgency to connect to us all.” ~ Pulitzer Prize Winner Paula Vogel

Theatre at St. Clement’s will host the World Premiere of The Clearing, written by Jake Jeppson (Jerome Fellowship recipient) and directed by Josh Hecht (Drama Desk Award winner for Christine Jorgensen Reveals). The Clearing runs Off-Broadway from January 15 – February 9, 2014. Previews begin January 15 for a January 19 opening. Theatre at St. Clement’s is located at 423 West 46^th Street between 9^th and 10^th Avenues in New York City.

Performances are Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm with a special opening night show on Sunday, January 19 at 7pm. Tickets are $49.50 and can be purchased online at www.TheClearingPlayNYC.com or by calling 1-866-811-4111. A limited amount of student rush tickets will be available at the box office before each performance. The running time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. The space is accessible from the 1,2,3,7,A,C,E,N,Q,R or S train to 42 Street. For more info visit www.TheClearingPlayNYC.com.

Jake Jeppson’s The Clearing is the story of two brothers bound together by a terrible secret they’ve guarded for 18 years. The Ellis’s are a typical American family. But the intense and all-consuming love they share for each other has kept them locked in their tight-knit world for almost two decades. When a handsome stranger inserts himself into their circle, mother and sons must decide whether they are willing to break the bonds that have forced them together for so long. The Clearing is an exploration of the difference between loving someone and living for them by an exciting new theatrical voice.

The cast includes Allison Daugherty (Sir Peter Hall’s An Ideal Husband on Broadway, Holiday on Broadway, As Bees in Honey Drown Off-Broadway), Gene Gallerano (Ivanov at Classic Stage Company, Sheila Callaghan’s Kate Crackernuts at The Flea), Brian McManamon (Bodega Bay at Abingdon, It or Her at P.S. 122, upcoming World Premiere of Rolin Jones and Billie Joe Armstrong’s These Paper Bullets at Yale Rep), and Brian P. Murphy (Stephen King’s A Good Marriage, upcoming film Back in the Day, two-time Golden Gloves boxing tournament competitor).

The creative team includes Daniel Zimmerman (Set Design), Gertjan Houben (Lighting Design), Tilly Grimes (Costume Design), Sam Kusnetz (Original Music & Sound Design) and Choreographic Movement by Lorin Latarro (Broadway’s Waiting For Godot). Emily Paige Ballou is the Production Stage Manager and Robert Levinstein (22Q Entertainment) is the General Manager.

Josh Hecht is a Drama Desk Award-winning director of new plays. His productions have been seen in New York at The Duke on 42^nd (Wearing Lorca’s Bowtie), New World Stages (Bradford Louryk’s Christine Jorgensen Reveals – Drama Desk Award, GLAAD Media nomination), Culture Project (Drew Larimore’s Out Of Iceland), MCC Theater (Bob Morris’s Assisted Loving), The Cherry Lane (Megan Mostyn-Brown’s (girl), 13P (Winter Miller’s The Penetration Play), the DR2 (Anna Ziegler’s BFF), PS 122 (Joseph Keckler’s JOBZ), Ars Nova (The Gay Agenda), Partial Comfort (Ross Maxwell’s Open House), Joe’s Pub, the Ontological and others. He’s directed regionally at the Humana Festival (Allison Moore’s Slasher), The Guthrie Theater (Megan Mostyn-Brown’s Lizards…), No Rules / Signature Theatre D.C. (Brian Sutow’s The Personal(s)) and The Berkshire Theatre Festival (Rachel Schroeder’s Heliantha). Christine Jorgensen Reveals also played internationally at the Dublin Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Fringe First Award). He is a NYTW Usual Suspect.

Jake Jeppson’s plays include Fox Play, The Clearing, and Turtle. His work has been developed and seen at the Orchard Project, American Theater Company, Ars Nova, the University of Minnesota, Axial Theater, the New Riga Theater (Latvia), and the Playwrights Center, where he is a 2013-2014 Jerome Fellow. Jake graduated from the MFA Playwriting Program at the Yale School of Drama, where he studied under Paula Vogel and won the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize.

Lorin Latarro (Choreographic Movement) choreographed Broadway’s Waiting For Godot, Broadway’s American Idiot, Encore’s Fanny (City Center), Queen Of The Night (Diamond Horseshoe Theatre), Scandalous The Musical (Broadway), Cy Coleman’s The Best Is Yet To Come (Drama Desk Award), Sendak’s Hansel and Gretel for PBS (Live From Lincoln Center), among others.

The Clearing is produced by 22Q Entertainment and Jennifer Franz.

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