Oscar Pettiford was also fuming over the form, telling Monk he did not have enough bars. Monk voluntarily did something that in the past (a famous incident with Miles Davis on a Milt Jackson session comes to mind) he was forced to do: play nothing behind the soloist.
For accomplished soloists with a sense of rhythm similar to Monk’s this created an interesting tension, but for others it was a tough challenge. If you were a soloist playing with him, he kept throwing those off-beat accents as you solo. Monk was not your typical supportive piano accompanist.
Ernie Henry in particular struggled with the form and Monk’s accompaniment behind his solo made things even worse. No wonder even performers at that level almost gave up. The tune changes tempos and the accents are in places only Monk could think of. Unlike a typical blues made up of three parts, eight bars each, this is a 22-bar blues, grouped into three parts with 8-7-7 bars. One look at the song’s chart explains it. The attempted piece was Brilliant Corners, which became the album’s title. After more than twenty takes of the same song, an unheard-of amount in those days of hasty jazz recordings, they called it a night without a single satisfactory take. The plan was to record three more tracks and have the album wrapped up. Orrin Keepnews usually got all he needed for an album release within two sessions. The second session on October 15th was a different ball game altogether. For curious musicians such as Monk and Max Roach this was irresistible and some of these instruments found their way into the album. You can read more about the studio here: Reeves Sound Studios. The studio had an interesting impact on Monk’s sessions for Brilliant Corners as it hosted a large variety of a classical orchestra instruments. The studio and the engineer on many of the Riverside sessions, Jack Higgins, produced some of the best sounding jazz records of the 50s, but unfortunately remain lesser known then their counterparts at Blue Note and Columbia. The studio did mostly radio and jingles recording work during the day and Keepnews, closely watching the spending of his on-a-budget label, worked out an arrangement with the studio to record at night after the musicians finished their gigs. Keepnews booked several sessions in October 1956 at his favorite Reeves Sound Studios in New York City. Dr Free-Zee is an interesting track on it, for its use of timpani. Roach continued to lead his own bands, and the same month he recorded with Monk he also released the album Max Roach + 4. But in June of 1956 Brown tragically died in a car accident that also killed the band’s pianist Richie Powell. During the previous two years he co-led with Clifford Brown one of the most successful jazz combos of its time, commercially and artistically. By 1956 he was a sought-after session drummer, that year alone playing on records by Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Johnny Griffin, Thad Jones and Al Cohn. Aside from performing as a sideman on numerous recordings around that time with Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson and Phineas Newborn Jr among others, he led his own small big band with whom he released a few albums, including The Pendulum at Falcon’s Lair. Oscar Pettiford was a natural choice for a bass player, having played with Monk on his two previous Riverside recordings. The two albums, like the Prestige albums that preceded them, flopped. Monk recorded two trio albums of well-known jazz tunes, the first with material from the Duke Ellington songbook, the second with show tune standards. Thinking that Monk’s originals are too bizarre for the jazz audience at large, Keepnews pushed Monk to play familiar pieces with the hope that this will increase his record sales. Weinstock had more commercially successful artists to focus on, including Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Quartet, and did not shed a tear when Monk left his label. The genius of modern jazz was an esteemed musician to all who knew him, but his albums did not sell. Weinstock was not upset over losing Monk. He paid Bob Weinstock, president of Prestige records that had a contract with Monk, a mere $108 and got Monk off that contract. When producer Orrin Keepnews signed Thelonious Monk to his newly formed Riverside label in 1955, he had to come up with a plan.