[SACD-R][OF] Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners - 1956/2004 (Jazz)

Monk’s 3rd Riverside album — the 1st to include horns & emphasize his original compositions — is recognized as the 1st major step in his rise from being considered a mere eccentric to rightful acceptance as a true jazz giant. Brilliant Corners has an all-star cast — featuring Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, & Clark Terry — it took real stars to master some of Thelonious’ most difficult and brilliant music.

This was pianist Thelonious Monk’s breakthrough album after a decade as a recording artist, & it proved as challenging to both listeners & the all-stars who participated as anything in the pianist’s discography. The convoluted title track & Monk’s angular ballad ”Pannonica” were particularly difficult to nail down & required multiple takes; yet the ultimate results were spectacular, & produced an immortal album that marked the beginning of Monk’s dominance of the jazz scene. The stellar program makes space for the sounds of Monk on celeste & Max Roach on timpani, an astringent Monk solo on a Depression-era ballad, & some of the greatest Sonny Rollins tenor sax on record Clark Terry, Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers & Ernie Henry also shine.

Recorded at Reeves Sound Studios, New York in December 1956. Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews. Digitally remastered by Kirk Felton (1987, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California). Digitally remastered using 20-bit K2 Super Coding System technology. This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular & Super Audio CD players. By the fall of 1956, Riverside was finally primed to unleash Thelonious Monk upon the jazz world–straight, no chaser. Two superb piano trio albums of covers had set the stage for Monk the composer to re-emerge with horns, & the pianist responded with BRILLIANT CORNERS, one of his greatest recordings, featuring 3 classic new tunes & 2 formidable studio bands.The Sonny Rollins featured on BRILLIANT CORNERS is a far more imposing presence than the young acolyte of previous Monk sessions–just witness the title tune. With its multiple themes, quirky intervallic leaps, idiomatic rhythmic changes & tricky transitions in tempo, it is one of Monk’s masterpieces–a miniature symphony. So daunting were its technical challenges, that the final ending was edited on from another take. Rollins begins his solo with swaggering composure, boldly paraphrasing Monk’s vinegary intervals & trademark trills, before navigating the swift rapids of the double-time chorus with deft syncopations. Monk plies dissonance upon dissonance in his 1st chorus, playing rhythmic tag with Max Roach on the out chorus. Ernie Henry’s slip-sliding bluesiness is followed by a brilliant rhythmic edifice from Roach, who maintains melodic coherence at a drowsy tempo, then explodes into the final chorus. Elsewhere, “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are” is a soulful, easygoing blues, Monk’s solo is a compendium of pithy rhythmic devices, bent notes & calculated melodic abstractions, played with enormous relaxation & swing. He concludes with heckling big-band figures that form the basis for Rollins’ expressive rhythmic testimonies. Monk employs the bell-like timbre of a celeste to stunning effect on “Pannonica,” one of his loveliest melodies & improvisations. In closing, “Bemsha Swing” is a hard-swinging, conversational performance, with fine contributions from trumpeter Clark Terry, bassist Paul Chambers & Roach on drums & timpani.