Brilliant Corners.

Thelonious Monk & Charlie Parker. New York 1952. The person at the table smoking a cigarette looks like Jack Kerouac.

It is Sunday afternoon. I had to go out this morning because I had run out of provisions. I got a great big bag of groceries in Morrison’s and scurried home. It is noticeably colder today. I fed my birds and my fish and got in the warmth of the kitchen. I will not need to go out again for a while if the weather is bad. Whilst pottering about and doing about four days’ worth of washing up I have been listening to Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk which arrived yesterday. I played it for the first-time last night. I had been meaning to get a Monk album for a while to add to my small but growing collection of jazz albums. An old friend of mine is a big fan of Monk, so I wanted to hear him. Also, I like the name and his personality intrigued me. I read that he was a friend of Allen Ginsberg and I like anything Beat. When I saw a photo of Monk performing with Charlie Parker and saw a figure in the audience who looks like Jack Kerouac, that did it for me. I ordered Brilliant Corners because I read that Brilliant Corners and Misterioso were the pinnacle of his artistic achievement.

The album was released in 1957 on the Riverside label. It features Monk on piano, Ernie Henry & Sonny Rollins on saxophones, Oscar Pettiford on bass and Max Roach on drums. The opening title track is an extraordinarily complex affair which took 25 takes to record and even then the producer had to splice the finished recording together from various takes. I am not a great fan of drum solos and that sort of thing, but on this album I love the tasteful drumming of Max Roach. I think I heard Ginger Baker say that he was one of his favourite drummers. The second track is called Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues -Are which takes its name from Monk’s exaggerated pronunciation of Blue Bolivar Blues. Monk’s friend Pannonica De Konigswater lived at the Bolivar Hotel where she gave Monk somewhere to live. Despite her exotic name she was actually a British aristocratic jazz fan, a member of the Rothschild family. I think I can detect a slight influence of Monk on the playing of Georgie Fame on this track. 

Pannonica.

The third track Pannonica is one of Monk’s most popular tunes and I think it is my favourite from this album as well. He plays a type of piano called a celeste on this track. I surrender Dear is not an original composition. It was written by Harry Barris and was originally a song which Bing Crosby recorded in 1931.It is a solo performance of just Monk and his piano. Bemsha Swing is the final track and written in collaboration with Denzil Best. Paul Chambers plays bass and Clark Terry features on trumpet. For me the highlight of this track is the drumming of Max Roach. I read that it was listening to this track that persuaded Monk’s son Toots Monk to become a jazz drummer.

I must say I have enjoyed listening to this great album on a cold November Sunday afternoon and I will definitely be getting some more jazz music soon. Maybe Charles Mingus next time. There is a documentary about Ronnie Scott’s club on the telly tonight which I am also looking forward to seeing. See you later.