Soul And / Or Related Artists
t.s.monk

T.S. Monk

T.S. Monk comprised of:

Thelonius Sphere Monk Jnr (vocals / drums)

Boo Boo Monk (vocals)

Yvonne Fletcher (vocals)

Russell Blake (bass)

Jeff Sigman (guitar)

Floyd Fisher (keyboards and synthesiser)

Victor See Yuen (percussion)

and

Cliff Anderson, Ronnie Taylor, Courtney Wynter (horns)

T.S. Monk were formed by New Yorker Thelonious Sphere Monk Jnr., the son of the legendary and revolutionary jazz pianist.

Jazz greats Max Roach and Art Blakey started him on the road to being a drummer by giving him his first drum kit.

He played in his father's group for a couple of years in the early 70's and can be heard on two of tenor man Paul Jeffrey's albums.

In 1974 he recorded on Atlantic with Natural Essence, which was where he met singer Yvonne Fletcher.

Together with Fletcher and his sister Boo Boo he formed the group Cycles in 1976 and played on backing sessions for hit producer Sandy Linzer.

Linzer, known for his work with Odyssey, then worked with the trio and placed them (with the new name T.S. Monk) on Mirage Records.

Their first single (recorded at the Hit Factory Studio's in New York City) , 'Bon Bon Vie', made the R & B Top 20 and hit the UK charts, as did the follow-up 'Candidate For Love', both being taken from their US Top 100 album 'House Of Music'.

The album also contained the tune 'Last Of The Wicked Romancers', popular on the UK soul scene.

Despite the encouraging start, their subsequent album, 'More Of The Good Life', made a lesser impact and the act, which also included an eight-piece band disbanded after one final release 'Human' in 1982.

That final album featured background vocal input from Eric Mercury and Roberta Flack amongst others.

Tragedy hit the group in 1983 when both Boo Boo and Yvonne died from breast cancer within a year of each other.

Later Thelonius and Eric teamed up to form the group Merc and Monk.

Real Player

Albums:

House Of Music (Mirage Records 1981)

More Of The Good Life (Mirage Records 1982)

Human (Mirage Records 1982)

top of the page

SoulwalkingStart HereThe ArtistsListen Out ForThe ChartBeen MissedRespectReal AudioOpinionNetworkJazz & FusionLinksMotown