
Monks Jazz Club's Upcoming Shows
Sun, Sep 20
Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for ACME & Monks Jazz Present: Mark Scott III feat. Rudy Royston!
Mark Scott III - Guitar
James Suter - Bass
Rudy Royston - Drums
About Mark Scott:
Austin-based guitarist, composer, and educator Mark Scott III has emerged as a distinct voice in the modern jazz landscape, blending technical precision with a deeply personal, narrative approach to the instrument. His debut album, Soft Light, reached #60 on the Roots Music Report Top 100 Jazz Albums chart, marking a significant entry into the guitar trio tradition. Drawing from the lineage of Barney Kessel and Kenny Burrell, Scott’s playing is defined by what critic Brice Boorman calls a "quiet confidence," a style that rejects bravura in favor of control, patience, and the "power of less is more." Performing widely across the state, Scott has become a fixture of the Texas music scene. Originally from Dallas, Scott moved to Austin in 2021 and has called it home ever since. He has performed alongside jazz luminaries such as Branford Marsalis, Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker, John Fedchock and others, and has collaborated internationally through tours with Finnish guitarist Niklas Winter. Whether leading his trio or contributing as a sideman, Scott’s emotive touch remains a constant, celebrated for its dynamic sensitivity and harmonic flow. Currently serving on the faculty at Tarleton State University, he mentors the next generation of musicians through applied guitar and the study of popular American music. A former Teaching Assistant at the University of Texas at Austin and a judge for the TMEA All-State jazz guitar competition, Scott bridges the gap between the classroom and the bandstand.
About Rudy Royston:
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, and raised in Denver, Colorado, Royston has been a professional teacher, drummer and percussionist for almost twenty years. He studied classical percussion at University of Denver where earned undergraduate degrees in Music and English, and accomplished teacher certification credentials from Metropolitan State College of Denver. Rudy grew up playing drums in church, and found his voice under the auspices of Colorado’s celebrated trumpeter Ron Miles, whom Royston deems his greatest influence, and with whom Rudy has played since 1991. He has taught, recorded and performed all styles of music from Jazz to marching percussion. Since moving to Piscataway, New Jersey in 2006, Royston has completed a Masters in Music degree from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and performed with many of today’s finest Jazz musicians. Javon Jackson, Bill Frisell, Les McCann, David Gilmore, Ben Allison, Jason Moran, JD Allen, Sean Jones, Jeremy Pelt, Greg Osby, Jennifer Holiday, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Bowen, Bruce Barth, George Colligan, Don Byron, Stanley Cowell, Tom Harrell, John Ellis, Jenny Scheinmenn and The Mingus Big Band, to name a few. A lover of all genres of music, Rudy continues to pursue music and expand his music horizons.
Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:15 PM, Show at 7:30 PM.
Mon, Sep 21
Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for 10 Years of Monks | Nicholas Payton w the Monks Jazz Orchestra! We’re celebrating a decade of Monks all week long this September with friends, family, artists, and everyone who has helped make this place what it is. Come raise a glass, hear some great music, and celebrate 10 years of Monks with us.
Nicholas Payton - guest artist
Michael Sailors - music director
Saxophones, Clarinets, Piccolo, Flute
Seth Carper
Matt Chavez
Joel Frahm
Ripley Swingle
Eric Hargett
Trombones, Tuba
Andre Hayward
Jacob Martinez
Judah Guerra
Demetrius Thornton
Trumpets, Flugelhorns
Matt Collins
Tito Carillo
Isaac Pittinger
Rachel Spencer
James Suter - bass
Ross Margitza - rhodes, piano
Daniel Dufour - drums
Nicholas Payton is a trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and cultural theorist from New Orleans, Louisiana. One of the most significant musical voices of his generation, Payton has released more than twenty albums as a leader and has performed and recorded with an extraordinary range of artists across genres and traditions. He is a Grammy Award winner and the originator of the #BAM (Black American Music) philosophy, through which he has spent over a decade challenging the mislabeling and misrepresentation of Black creative music. His work moves across swing, funk, blues, R&B, and electronic music with the conviction that these are all expressions of a single, continuous cultural language. Payton is a lifelong New Orleanian whose practice is inseparable from the city's musical inheritance and its ongoing role as the source of American sound.
Presented by The Jazz Purveyor, with support from The Live Music Society 501(c)3 and Haas Toyota.
Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area.
First Show: Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm.
Second Show: Doors at 9:00pm, Show at 9:30pm.
Tue, Sep 22
Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for 10 Years of Monks | HAAM Day w Jon Deas!
Donating 25% of Total Revenue Tuesday Night to HAAM, we’re celebrating a decade of Monks all week long this September with friends, family, artists, and everyone who has helped make this place what it is. Come raise a glass, hear some great music, and celebrate 10 years of Monks with us.
Jon Deas – Piano
Joe Williams – Trumpet
Matt Muehling – Guitar
Taishawn Tyler – Bass
Daniel Watson – Drums
A native of Buffalo, New York, Jonathan E. Deas began his musical career as the drummer in his father’s traveling gospel group, but after attending the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, he discovered his love for the piano. Quickly becoming an in-demand player on the Austin music scene upon his arrival in 2005, Deas has performed with legendary artists George Clinton, Jon B, and Michelle Williams, and also founded a record label, KeyzStreet, producing music for Jackie Venson, Alesia Lana, Jake Lloyd, and others. Since 2018, Deas has been touring with Grammy Award-winning artist Gary Clark Jr.
Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 7:30 PM.
Wed, Sep 23
Join us for a listening-room concert for 10 Years of Monks | Benny Green!
Benny Green – Piano
Benny Green was born in New York City in 1963 and grew up in Berkeley, California. His father, who played the tenor saxophone, introduced him to Jazz at an early age through his record collection that included Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and many founding voices of the music. He began piano lessons at the age of 7, and his first paid performance was at the age of 12. His major concert stage debut was in 1978, when he was 15, at the Monterey Jazz Festival as a member of the MJF High School All-Stars (now known as the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra).
Benny began performing on a regular basis with the vocalist Faye Carol at the age of 16, and began gigging frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area with NEA Jazz Master trumpeter Dr. Eddie Henderson at 17. Benny returned to NYC in 1982 when he was 19, was mentored during his first year in town by Walter Bishop Jr. and Walter Davis Jr. and played his first gigs in the city with Barry Altschul, Bobby Watson and Jo Jones Jr.
Betty Carter hired Benny in 1983, and he toured internationally with her for four years, and played on her Grammy Award winning Verve album “Look What I Got” before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers for 2 1/2 years from 1987-’89, recording a few albums under Art Blakey’s leadership. He joined the Freddie Hubbard Quintet in 1989 and recorded the album “Live At Fat Tuesday’s” with Mr. Hubbard in 1992. That same year, Benny joined the Ray Brown Trio, which became his longest tenure as a sideman, remaining with Mr. Brown for 4 1/2 years.
As a leader, Benny recorded two albums for the Dutch Criss Cross label in the late 1980s before being signed to Blue Note Records in 1990 and remained with the label for 10 years, receding seven albums as a leader for the label, as well as two albums for its Japanese subsidiary, Toshiba-EMI. Oscar Peterson named Benny as his protégé in 1992, and chose Benny as the recipient of the Glenn Gould Award for excellence in Music and Communication. He recorded many albums as a sideman throughout the 1980s and ’90s, including a duet with Diana Krall on her Grammy Award winning album, “All For You.” He recorded two albums as a leader for the Telarc label in the early 1990s, as well as two duo albums for the label with Russell Malone. In 1998 Oscar Peterson invited Benny to record a two-piano album with him, entitled “Oscar and Benny.”
Benny continued leading his trio and began recording for the Sunnyside label in 2014, and has released five albums for the label to date, with plans to release his sixth later this year.
Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area.
First Show: Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm.
Second Show: Doors at 9:00pm, Show at 9:30pm.



