1. Brilliant Corners*
2. Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-Are
3. Pannonica*
4. I Surrender, Dear*
5. Bemsha Swing
A+
One of my favourite quotes by Thelonious Monk was heard by way of Tom Waits, who in an interview about his favourite music said (roughly) "'There are no wrong notes, only how you resolve them'. Sure sounds like a kid learning to play piano, doesn't it?"
The title track bears this out brilliant. Strange, staggering and atonal, it consists of repeated deconstructions of a lopsided and incredibly intricate theme. While Monk plays sharp piano chords that rest on the outside of making any harmonic sense, the saxophones twist and turn through their variations, dissolving into atonal noodling only to suddenly resolve back into the theme. It's exactly the sort of strange music that detractors of jazz imagine when they think of the genre, and yet it's also surprisingly pretty and (from a modern viewpoint) listenable. It's an astonishing track. Apparently it took over twenty-five takes across three sessions to record, resulting in the alto sax player having a minor breakdown. In the end it had to be stitched together out of the various recordings, which only adds to its scatter-brained and lopsided feel.
The rest of the album is more conventional bop, although it still pushes the boundaries of conventional harmony. "Pannonica" is a swooning ode to Monk's patroness that features celeste playing. "Bemsha Swing" is probably the most "normal" song. "I Surrender, Dear", however, is a gorgeous showcase for Monk's piano playing. Despite his influence these days, many people derided Monk at the time as being unable to play the piano. And it's true that he had an idiosyncratic style. On "I Surrender, Dear" the Tom Waits quote mentioned above really comes into play. He meanders through the whole track, taking strange turns and constantly frustrating the listener's expectations of how the melody will resolve itself. The result is a strange little journey where you have no idea where you'll end up.
And I think that actually describes this album as a whole. By modern standards it might seem pretty tame, but it's still vital, challenging music that manages to be extraordinarily pretty and resonant at the same time. And really, for me at least, that's what the best music is about.
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