Anyone unfamiliar with Monk must think the same because on first listen he sounds like someone who's just not very good at playing piano. Or perhaps someone trying to play piano whilst wearing boxing gloves. The album opens with title track Brilliant Corners and from the opening piano intro it's hard not to think of Les Dawson. So in an effort to overcome my suffocating sense of slothfulness & to avoid having to continue writing this from the after-life I hereby decree that I shall be listening to 7 albums in 7 days. As I'll be 75 by then there's a strong possibility that I'll be a little bit senile, a little bit deaf and/or a little bit dead - all conditions which may well improve my writing, though it might just be simpler to try & speed things up a bit. Album DescriptionI just worked out that at my current rate of progress I shall be finishing this blog on 2 August 2040 (it'll be a Thursday in case you were planning anything). See More Your browser does not support the audio element. No serious jazz collection should be without it.
Brilliant Corners may well be considered the alpha and omega of post-World War II American jazz. Perhaps more pointed, however, is the impassioned "I Surrender, Dear" - the only solo performance on the album. What cannot be dismissed is Monk's ability to translate emotions into the language of music, as in the freedom and abandon he allows through Sonny Rollins' and Max Roach's mesmerizing solos in "Brilliant Corners." The childlike innocence evoked by Monk's incorporation of the celeste during the achingly beautiful ode "Pannonica" raises the emotional bar several degrees. It's easy to write Monk's ferocity and Forrest Gump-esque ingenuity off as gimmick or quirkiness. Likewise, Roach's timpani interjections supply an off-balanced sonic surrealism while progressing the rhythm in and out of the holes provided by Monk's jackrabbit leads. Although a compromise, the selection of Miles Davis' bassist, Paul Chambers, and Clark Terry (trumpet) on "Bemsha Swing" reveals what might be considered an accident of ecstasy, as they provide a timeless balance between support and being able to further the cause musically.
The assembled quartet for the lion's share of the sessions included Max Roach (percussion), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Oscar Pettiford (bass), and Ernie Henry (alto sax). The passage of time makes it all the more difficult to imagine any other musicians bearing the capacity to support Monk with such ironic precision. There is an inescapable freshness and vitality saturated into every measure of every song. Enthusiasts who become jaded to the idiosyncratic nature of Monk's playing or his practically arithmetical chord progressions should occasionally revisit Brilliant Corners. Buy the album Starting at $12.99Īlthough Brilliant Corners is Thelonious Monk's third disc for Riverside, it's the first on the label to weigh in with such heavy original material.
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