“Brilliant Corners” by Thelonious Monk - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1957 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1950s ● 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Off-kilter prog-jazz from the revered pianist which does nothing for me. According to Down Beat magazine, Brilliant Corners was the most critically acclaimed album of 1957. Nat Hentoff, the magazine's editor, gave it five stars in a contemporary review and called it “Riverside's most important modern jazz LP to date.” Jazz writer David H. Rosenthal later called it a “classic” hard bop session. Music critic Robert Christgau said that, along with his 1959 live album “Misterioso”, “Brilliant Corners” represents Monk's artistic peak. In his five-star review of the album, Allmusic's Lindsay Planer wrote that it “may well be considered the alpha and omega of post-World War II American jazz. No serious jazz collection should be without it.”

The Jukebox Rebel
12–Oct–2015

A1	[07:45] Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners (Thelonious Monk) Jazz
A2	[13:07] Thelonius Monk - Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are (Thelonious Monk) Jazz
B1	[08:50] Thelonius Monk - Pannonica (Thelonious Monk) Jazz
B2	[05:27] Thelonius Monk - I Surrender, Dear (Harry Barris) Jazz
B3	[07:40] Thelonius Monk - Bemsha Swing (Thelonious Monk, Denzil Best) Jazz