Brilliant Corners - Thelonious Monk (1957)

ideated from: the weird world of pop music in 1957

Monk had a hard time getting started because his playing was so unconventional. Jazz is famous for improvisation and innovation, but the world of NYC jazz clubs was a highly competitive and insular one that didn’t always reward thinking outside the box.

Monk didn’t care, and eventually it paid off and people recognized his unique talent. His compositions are usually complex and difficult, and his playing is a little dissonant. He loved to get the punchy sound of the physical piano keyboard into his recordings, which is exciting but probably maddening for engineers.

This is a great early record with a lot of his own compositions. Sonny Rollins, whom we’ll also get to on his own, is on sax for most of the tracks, and Max Roach played drums.

Tracks I liked

Brilliant Corners - according to the wiki article, they did 25 takes of this song and still had to edit the finished product together from several of those takes. It’s not hard to see why when you listen to the complex rhythm changes and the changeovers between soloists.

I Surrender, Dear - Solo Monk, not worrying about keeping his drummer on time and just making his own way through the tune.