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Although “Bolivar” may not be as radical as the album opener, it still leaves plenty of room for ‘Monkish’ off-kilter solos and slippery interactions. This is followed by the laid back avant-blues of “Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are”. This composition has Monk working with rapidly changing tempos and time signatures, such things may be more common today, but this was fairly new ground in 1957, and “Corners” still sounds very modern and ‘cutting edge’ today. The album opens with the title cut “Brilliant Corners”, and what a tour de force this one is. Clark Terry and Paul Chambers replace Henry and Pettiford for one cut, but they too are up for the great interplay that goes down on this disc.
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Monk does have a particularly strong crew assembled here, with Sonny Rollins and Max Roach on board, plus Ernie Henry and Oscar Pettiford are no slouches either. Don’t expect a lot of fireworks from this one though, instead, most of these blues based tunes are played in laid back medium tempos, or even slower, but do expect maximum creativity and a brilliant ensemble that moves together as one mind. Not only is “Brilliant Corners” one of Thelonious Monk’s best albums, but its also considered one of the better recordings in the history of jazz. This may not be the top record that Monk put out, but it holds up well against many of his best. Side two opens with Monk’s trio playing “Nutty”, a piece that appears on many Monk recordings, and closes with his quintet playing another odd Monk favorite, “Friday the 13th”, on which Rollins shows he can easily handle Monk’s peculiar musical creations. Side one opens with Rollins joyfully flying over two well known upbeat standards, and closes with the Monk trio playing a lesser known Monk original, “Work”, that is quite abstract compared to the two openers. The choice of tunes on here is also good. The Monk trio cuts feature Art Blakey on drums, whose short solos are inventive displays of metric trickery and phrase manipulation that is a perfect compliment to Monk’s approach to music. Rollins is also in fine form, supplying endless melodic variations over Monk’s more blunt and percussive accompaniment. The playing on here is brilliant, Monk’s career was nearing a peak and he sounds relaxed and happy, far different from the inconsistent performances that came much later in his career. The track order on this record mixes these sessions up in a way that makes total sense and adds to the feeling of a congruous record. The last session was in October ‘54 and featured the Rollins’ quartet, of which Monk was the pianist. The second session was in September ‘54 and featured Monk’s trio sans Rollins of course. The first recording session for this record took place in November 1953 and featured the Thelonious Monk Quintet, of which Rollins was a member. The truth is, with about 18 minutes on the first side and 16 on the back, it falls sort of in between, but possibly closer to an LP. Some ‘experts’ call this an EP, while others call it an LP. Such records are often unsatisfactory, but this one is different as it presents a very coherent musical vision. He has undoubtedly left his mark on music as part of the "bebop revolution," and has been a part of history in other ways as well.“Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins” is one of those thrown together affairs pulled from three different sessions, in fact Rollins does not even appear on every track. Monk traveled the world performing and showcasing his unique improvisational style of jazz until he stepped back from the music scene towards the end of his life. Over the course of his life he was signed to multiple record labels, including Prestige and Columbia Records, where he made many albums. His musical work at the nightclub helped form bebop, which is a specific type of jazz. By the time he was in his 20s, he became the house pianist at a Manhattan nightclub, called Minton's Playhouse. He also studied the trumpet for a little while.īy age 17, Thelonious Monk was touring with an evangelist playing the organ. He was a musical prodigy and began learning to play the piano at the age of nine. Monk's father played the harmonica and piano, which seemingly sparked the jazz artist's interest in musicianship.
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At the mere age of four, Monk and his family moved to the "San Juan Hill" neighborhood in New York City. Thelonious Monk was born on Octoin Rocky Mount, NC.