Brilliant Corners - Thelonious Monk

Track list:

1. Brilliant Corners
2. Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are
3. Pannonica
4. I Surrender, Dear
5. Bemsha Swing

Running time: 42 minutes
Released: 1957

Recorded in 1956, which was the date I had against this, it apparently released in 1957. I don't know when it was that I latched on to Monk as my jazz pianist of choice but I did, and I recall it being a very conscious decision. I had a very limited selection for a long time (one best-of equivalent, I think) but must have finally got around to picking up more at some point because now I have a few ignored records, of which this is the first. What will putting some time aside reveal?

Studied but discordant opening, keys disconnected from the first horns we hear? Yeah, Monk. Good Friday night stuff, it being Easter and all. Grateful for the 4 day weekend, I am, and after spending too much of today in online frustration generator World of Tanks with a good friend I am running away into this listen as the evening passes me by. The first and title track comes together a bit more from the disjointed opening but I find myself surprised that it seems to have a significant section that is horn-led. The piano is quiet here, recorded lower or played softer than what is around it. This lends a strange distance to the music, as the melody is hidden behind layers of supporting structure, except when it is taken up by the brass. There is a harsh tone on the horns, a buzzing, blaring sound that I feel ill at ease with. I think it results from a spikier rhythm (tempo is up and down a lot in this piece) and the way we bounce from lead to lead. I find long tracts of the piece dull - the drum solo for instance - but other movements, where the players come together more are far more enjoyable. Overall I find it more miss than hit.

The first few bars of the follow up are more promising, a nicely harmonised brass section carrying a more accessible tune start us on a 13 minute journey. The piano comes in and is used as a form of punctuation; Monk seems to be in another world from his backing, which - per the cover - includes the last jazzman I listened to on these pages, Sonny Rollins. The spiky staccato style of Monk's playing, his personal idiosyncrasies, are what endeared him to me when I was younger - the use of the piano as a way to stand out, doing his own thing. Slowly but surely the piano comes to the fore - it happened some time back but I have only just twigged. With that carrying of the piece came a more coherent playing, more melodic and soft. This smoothness remains as and when the keys cede the centreground to the horns again. For my money this is a much more enjoyable tune than the title track, the softer edges a comfort to sink into. The bass solo rather snaps me out of that - not because it ditches the mood, but because the bass is so quiet in relation to the rest of what went before that it sounds like a fade out on the track at first. It also lasts a little too long, then appears to dump straight into the drummer's spotlight, which does neither any favour. All of this happens towards the end of the piece; we just about get enough time for the main theme to be rekindled before it closes out.

There is a playschool like tone - xylophones/glockenspiels? - to the beginning of Pannonica. The theme seems to carry over from the prior tune but this has a super-laid back feel to it, as well as a childishness from the instrumentation. Yet the theme itself feels adult, schmooze, late night club. There's something about the main melody that has me imagining lovers making eyes at each other, deciding to leave together. This feels less quintessentially Monk somehow, though his style is in evidence in the keyboard part, the consistency and theme hark to a more traditional composition. Of course, much of this disconnect is probably due to an overly romanticised portrait of the man as his own dude, formed by early exposure that nonetheless came well after his career was done, so could cherry pick. It is amazing our ability to typecast and stereotype though, truly. By the time we conclude the 8 minute odyssey, the central theme is tired and played out. This sounds intentional, and if it was then it is masterfully done.

I Surrender, Dear sees Monk's piano alone and I think I prefer it for this. I get, here, to hear the part I most care about in any piano-driven music. I get, too, to appreciate the broken play of his hands on those keys, the irregularities and shortened notes interspersed with notes held longer. It sounds, at times, like Morse code made into music - but maybe that's just me. We end with Bemsha Swing, which has a central theme that I recognise a bit more, but which is not a track I would have been able to identify by name. I find it a little unfortunate that the album was named after the opening track, as it is the weakest of the five from where I sit - so much so that I think I might be cutting it. This closer is more melodic than what has come before, with a smoother style and an arrangement that syncs up the various players better. Monk still finds room to express his staccato self. Overall this might be my favourite of the tunes... possibly because I have warmed up to jazz after 35 minutes of it rather than coming in cold from something else, but I'd like to think it has more to do with the general rounded sound and combinations on display. I feel too sleepy to offer much more comment than that though, and as the record closes I feel like closing my eyes. It's too early for bed though, alas.