Телоніус Монк «Brilliant Corners»: до питання про авторські композиції в альбомі

The album «Brilliant Corners» by Thelonious Monk is one of the most famous and popular works in the creative career of the jazz pianist and one of the key recordings for Riverside Records, which still holds relevance and attracts attention of musicians from all over the world wishing to learn more about jazz music of the 50–60s and to better understand it. The main objective of the study is to analyze the factors that influenced the creation of the music for the album, the performance of the compositions in the studio, as well as to investigate the relevant relationships through the prism of the life experience of the musicians involved in the recording. The review of the historical background has made it possible to recreate a full picture and to collect all the elements that were reflected in the creation of the album. The album glorified not only Monk the performer, but T. Monk the composer as well. It also became a very important record for Riverside Records. The album was recorded in 1957 and consists of five tracks, four of which were written by T. Monk («Brilliant Corners», «Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are», «Pannonica» and «Bemsha Swing»). Due to their specific arrangement in the album, the author’s compositions enter into a complex interaction with each other. The very principle upon which the structure of the album is built creates a context for understanding and perception of each composition, both by the musicians themselves and by the listeners. Each composition in the album is a story, the program itself suggests what inspired the composer and, of course, reflects the life circumstances of the musician, which the article explores in more details as one of the impact factors. Certainly, Monk’s material was influenced by the performers who worked on recording the album: Ernie Henry, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Clark Terry, Paul Chambers. Each of them is a significant figure in the jazz history. The analysis of the above-mentioned factors makes the success story of the album more transparent and offers an insight into the complex process of the composer’s giving birth to an idea and its further implementation.