Wow, a character from Harry Potter composed and recorded a critically acclaimed jazz album, who knew?Anyone who read my rather damning review of The Atomic Mr. Basie yesterday will have probably pre-empted what I am about to say about Thelonious Monk’s seminal jazz album Brilliant Corners. Well, oh ye of little faith, you would be wrong. I actually liked this album.
What makes it different from the previous jazz albums for me is that I didn’t actually find this dull. Even though on a 45 minute album there are only 5 monster-length tracks, one reaching 13 minutes (this will ultimately feel like a standard pop song once I tackle Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield where both tracks on the album exceed 23 minutes!).
Another thing that sets this apart is that the album just immediately grabbed me on the word go with the titular track Brilliant Corners I mean ok the slightly off-key piano playing was a tad disconcerting but I guess it’s just a ploy for attention that further draws you in. This is then followed up by the aforementioned monster Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are which although u can tell it is a long bastard of a track it doesn’t matter as you can just go with it.
So yea, for a jazz album I found this immediately enjoyable. I mean okay, it’s probably not something I’ll chose to download onto my iPod but it’s definitely something that if someone wanted to give a go I would encourage them. Mainly because… it’s unusual for me to like an instrumental jazz album.
6.0/10
Fab Tracks (As four would be the majority of the album):
Brilliant Corners
Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are
Pannonica
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