20 nov 2008

(13)

Thelonious Monk. Brilliant Corners. (1957)

This has a great lineup of songs: Brilliant Corners, Ba-Lue-Bolívar Ba-lues, Pannonica, I Surrender Dear, and Bemsha Swing. All but "I Surrender" are original Monk compositions. It features Sonny Rollins and Max Roach. Monk plays some strange instrument on Pannonica, a celeste or something like that.

This is one of the greatest Monk albums, recorded for Orrin Keepnews's Riverside records.

5 comentarios:

Andrew Shields dijo...

Yes, definitely one of his best!

John dijo...

Favorite Monk albums:
The Blue Note box.
The Prestige box.
Thelonious Himself.
At Town Hall (with big band).
The recently released live album with Coltrane.

Brilliant Corners has great compositions, but as an album, I'd rather listen to a bunch of others besides the ones I just listed. No accounting for, etc.

Jonathan dijo...

I do like those others you mention too. One of the greatest means one of my top 5. I'll be getting to the recent live album with Coltrane soon. I don't care a much for some of the Columbia material.

John dijo...

Hey -- I listed my top 5! Not sure that Brilliant Corners would make my top 10, and that's fine.

I haven't heard all of the Columbias, but I usually like them too. Two or three might make my top 10 before Brilliant Corners -- Solo Monk, Underground, and the one called simply Monk. Couldn't argue that any of those is "historically more important" than Brilliant Corners, if that matters.

Matthew Thorburn dijo...

I'm just catching up with your jazz albums posts. Very cool. Brilliant Corners is one of my favorite Monk albums as well.