Thelonious Monk appears on Studio 58 for a segment of the 1957 TV show The Seven Lively Arts, to perform "Blue Monk" accompanied by bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummer Osie Johnson, for an audience that includes Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and one of Monk's early champions and employers, Coleman Hawkins.
BetaGems are culled from an archive of over 1000 beta video tapes recorded from the early 1980s into the 1990s. Most feature live music performances broadcast on television in San Diego CA, though there are also rarely seen commercials, comedy clips, and other material that doesn't seem to be anywhere else on Youtube or online.
Most of the tapes were recorded on a Sony SL-HFT7 Super Beta Theater Hi-Fi Stereo - the same model was refurbished and is being used for these digital transfers and uploads. In rare occasions where a BetaGems clip does appear elsewhere, we're only uploading if our own beta master is better quality or contains material not seen previously. Much footage comes from public television and public access broadcasts that the taper, who worked for a local cable TV production company in the 1980s, monitored nightly for several years.
