Customer Reviews

Brilliant Corners

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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From the wonderful documentary "Straight, No Chaser", we know that the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter was born a Rothschild, flew bombers during WWII in de Gaulle's resistance, then came to New York and became one of the foremost patrons of jazz, close friends with Parker, Thelonious, and countless others. Complex lady. Complex tune as well, and one of Monk's most beautiful.
This record was Monk's third for Riverside, but the first to feature his compositions. The title track "Brilliant Corners" is notorious for its strangeness of melody and its doubling of tempo. But the highlight of the record is the ballad "Pannonica", for two reasons... first, Monk doubling on the celeste. I think it must be the only time he ever played another instrument on record, let alone two instruments at once, but he must've been aiming for an ethereal quality for this recording and achieves it in his intro and in his solo, where he alternates between celeste and piano. And second... Sonny Rollins. This was made during Sonny's high point, around the time of "Saxophone Colossus", and I think it is probably his strongest ballad solo, and the strongest saxophone solo anyone has played behind Monk, past Rouse and Johnny Griffin and even Coltrane. As great as Rouse is, whenever he is playing the tune, you can hear him get caught up in the trickiness of the bridge, and he invariably runs back to the theme for safety. Sonny, during his solo, has truly possessed and internalized Monk's composition, and brings all of his astonshing self to the solo. Doesn't falter once. And listen towards the end when he throws in those five consecutive ascending glissandos. Then listen to Monk affectionately duplicate them when he gets into his solo. Then listen to some of the other recordings of "Pannonica" over the next 15 years and you'll hear Monk working this phrase in again. A small, wonderful exchange between two artists. The rest of the tunes on "Brilliant Corners" are great, but "Pannonica" is one of those rare ones that is itself worth the price of admission. One can only wish that Monk and Rollins had played and recorded more together-- then I think there would be no question of Monk's supremacy in modern jazz or of Sonny's supremacy on the tenor saxophone.

This is not the first Monk album I ever heard. When first learning about his work, I explored the Blue Note recordings. They are superb works in their own right; anyone who is serious about jazz must hear them. But I don't think they are representative of the man's brilliance. What Monk did while recording for Riverside was create his own musical universe. If you've never heard this album before you might be blown away by the off-kilter style. It's not bop, it's not cool jazz, it's not even hard bop. You will know after hearing this record if Monk is an artist worth pursuing for your collection, and if you're like me, you'll probably want to get your hands on everything he recorded for Riverside.

Brilliant Corners is remarkable for bringing together musicians who had established themselves as major jazzmen in their own right and yet gave everything on this date to make an album that from the outset would reflect Monk's peculiar musical world. Perhaps it is Monk's most enduring masterpiece.

The title piece is one of the single major works in the jazz canon. It proved so difficult to play that 25 separate cuts had to be spliced together to produce the final piece. Sonny Rollins was the tenor saxophonist on the date and leading guest musician. As a teenager, Rollins had rehearsed alongside Monk. His contribution to "Brilliant Corners" was devastating: he acquired a feel for the unusual structure of the piece -abrupt changes of tempo, bombast followed by bathos, sudden diabolical runs, jumps into double time- and became Monk's voice through a horn, while retaining the unmistakeable Rollins attack. And all this drama was held together by the polyrhythmic adaptability of Max Roach, who had played so magnificently with Rollins a few months earlier on Saxophone Colossus.

The rest of the album contains the eccentric blues "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are" (which appears on numerous early 1960s discs, including Monk's Dream, Columbia, 1962), the first recording of "Pannonica", written for the wealthy jazz-lover Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, in whose New York apartment Charlie Parker had died the year before, "Bemsha Swing", first recorded by Monk in 1952 and on this occasion featuring Duke Ellington's chief trumpeter Clark Terry, and a solo reading of "I Surrender, Dear". This is an essential modern jazz album.

An all-star line-up often rather disappoints than fulfills your expectation. That these recordings will satisfy you flawlessly is simply due to the fact that nobody would or could have expected music like this. After a whole decade of ignorance and discrimination, in the fall of 1956 Monk was finally given the chance to record an album consisting of own compositions with the best musicians available. And the courageous high-priest of modern music knew how to take the occasion. He wrote three completely new compositions, of which the title piece is so ambitious and tricky - yet so swinging - that few people dared to approach it in the future, including Monk whose remake with Oliver Nelson's Big band is a faint shadow of the masterpiece you can hear on this CD.Everything fits,the virtuosos assembled here were stars of their own virtue but they all execute Monk's music in a rewardingly unselfish manner. And rewarded you'll be as a listener, let alone by Sonny Rollins' solo on the opening track.

Monk is at the top of his game in this fantastic recording. Beginners to the world of Monk should be able to get into this album after a few listens.

What a great album. Orrin Keepnews, who produced the album in 1956 for Riverside, says that this is the album which really put Thelonius on the map for most jazz fans (outside of the folks who were already in the know). This is certainly a great place to begin your Thelonius collection before moving on to Monk's Dream or other great albums. Plus, one should never miss the chance to hear Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Pettiford, or Paul Chambers. A must own album.

Right at this moment I have a nasty touch of the flu. Listening to high priest Monk and co. (great work by the estimable Sonny Rollins) helps me through a sleepless night. I can't think of a single western composer who makes the absurd sound more right. That and beautiful musicianship make this recording a classic. Thelonious Monk had a rare and beautiful gift. One could do worse than this recording to begin discovering it. Also highly recommended; Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane: Live at the Five Spot. Peace.

I've been buying Monk CD's for a year now, and have half-a-dozen. Of the 100 or more reviews of Monk music I've read here, the majority say "There is no bad Monk album." So far, I have to agree. "Brilliant" is a 1956 effort with Sonny Rollins on sax and some other fine contributors. In 43 minutes, Thelonious challenges us, pleasures us, intrigues us. The moods and tempos vary among and within the five selections, four of them Monk compositions. In addition to Sonny's tenor sax, there is Ernie Henry on alto and Oscar Pettiford on bass, Max Roach on drums. On one number, Clark Terry's trumpet and the bass work of Paul Chambers are featured. But the star of this release is the pianist himself. One of Monk's endearing habits was his recycling of original tunes from year to year and label to label and ensemble to ensemble. Don't ever worry that the track listing on one Monk CD has some songs in common with another disc...no two versions will ever sound quite the same. On this disc, for instance, "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are" lasts more than 13 minutes. Named for a Manhattan hotel, the song shows up again in late 1962 on the equally famous "Monk's Dream" album for Columbia, but at half the length and with only one saxophone. A similar fate occurs with "Bemsha Swing" which is nearly eight minutes on "Brilliant Corners" for Riverside, but eight years later was re-recorded for Columbia at half that length and with quite a different feel and sound (it is included on the "Monk's Greatest Hits" CD.) While he seldom recorded the song "Brilliant Corners" after this album, due to its complexity and perhaps its perfection in this incarnation, the tune "Pannonica" also was redone in later years. Of the six Monk CD's I have, I can't tell you which is "best". I haven't lived with them long enough and heard each of them enough times. I like them all. Oddly, probably the least interesting is "Best of Thelonious" on Blue Note. Those performances are from 1947-51 and feature the initial recordings of 16 of his originals in brief 78-RPM singles versions. Of the other CD's, "Monk's Dream" and "Brilliant Corners" are essentials, and "Monk/Rollins" and "Monk/Coltrane" are delights.

I have to admit, I thought at first that Thelonious Monk sucked. I used to make fun of him when I used to play the piano, telling my friends,"I'm Thelonious!" and I would start banging on the keys. One of my friends, who is kind of a mentor to me because he was the one that got me into jazz and the one that I look to for questions about other artists, was raving about Thelonious and I told him I didn't really care for him all that much. He was shocked and told me that Thelonious was one of the most brilliant pianists he ever heard. I asked him if there were any must-haves from Monk and he replied,"Brilliant Corners." Then I went to Tower with him and picked this album up. I kind of regret making fun of him after hearing this album because this is definitely one of the most hard core swingin' albums I have ever heard. The line up is featuring some of the most well established and talented musicians of the time, Thelonious Monk (piano, celeste); Ernie Henry (alto saxophone); Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Clark Terry (trumpet); Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers (bass); Max Roach (drums, tympani). If you were like me disliking Monk, this album will definitely change your mind. This is a true masterpiece

That is one of life's more difficult questions because the more you listen to Monk the more you hear. Certainly that is true on this Cd. It ranks as one of my favorites because the music is so unpredictable and the musicians that are on this particular Monk recording do an amazing job interpreting Monk's compositions. Every cut is different and each has something that just blows me away every time I hear it. Pannonica , the 3rd track is one of Monk's more understated and underrated tunes. His piano playing on that number can only be descibed as sweet. The Blues turnarounds on Bal-Lue Bolivar with Monk and Sonny Rollins are knock-outs and Monk's version of I Surrender Dear is especially unique.
I would be remiss not to mention Max Roach's drumming on this entire cd is fantastic but he particularly shines on Bemsha Swing. Then the icing on the cake is a beautiful trumpet solo on that cut by Clark Terry.
This is certainly one of Monk's finest recordings and on certain nights it is my all-time favorite. Don't miss it.