Brilliant Corners cover

Brilliant Corners

Released

The title track on this 1957 album by Thelonious Monk is one of the best demonstrations of his unique and highly idiosyncratic genius as a composer: the melody is crooked and wayward, but weirdly lyrical at the same time; the head is organized oddly, shifting back and forth between a rather ponderous exposition of the theme and a joyfully swinging double-time rendition of it. It was so difficult for his sidemen that the final recording was eventually created by splicing together parts of multiple takes. And that’s just the opening track. The rest of the album is just as difficult, brilliant, and fun.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Past Present cover

Past Present

John Scofield
Rebirth cover

Rebirth

Billy Childs
Amazing cover

Amazing

Steve Swallow, We3, We 3, Liebman, Adam Nussbaum
Fire Music cover

Fire Music

Archie Shepp
Serpent cover

Serpent

Alex Garnett
In Full View cover

In Full View

Julia Hülsmann Quartet
East Meets West cover

East Meets West

Ahmed Abdul-Malik
Historicity cover

Historicity

Vijay Iyer Trio
Joy in Spite of Everything cover

Joy in Spite of Everything

Bill Frisell, Morten Lund, Mark Turner, Stefano Bollani, Jesper Bodilsen
First Meeting: Live in London, Vol. 1 cover

First Meeting: Live in London, Vol. 1

Michael Janisch, Dan Tepfer, Lee Konitz, Jeff Williams