#15: I recognized it was me a few bars in. I didn't ID it because I was curious to see guesses and comments.
It's Cherokee all the way. I just happened to quote Laura on the bridge of the first chorus.
The date was November 19, 1989 at Baird Auditorium in Washington, DC.
A little background:
I was hired to transcribe and provide the Monk Competition with lead sheets of Monk tunes, so I wasn't considering competing. At the time of the competition I was working a three week engagement with the Art Farmer/Clifford Jordan Quintet at Sweet Basil. But Barry Harris, who was one of the judges (the others being Ahmad Jamal, Horace Silver, Walter Bishop, Jr., and Hal Galper) talked me into it. I had to take two nights off from the Art Farmer gig. Admittedly I was a little cocky and didn't prepare as seriously as I should have. I didn't know what I was really in for until I was sitting at the piano with a couple of TV cameras breathing down my neck. In the end I placed second behind Bill Cunliffe, who performed, of all things, a very polished S'Wonderful. What any of this had to do with Thelonious Monk I'll never know. Far more rewarding though was winning the Monk Composition Competition in 2000 which Wayne Shorter presented me with. That was sweet.