Thelonious Monk Brilliant Corners: Small Batch Series

Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners Reissued as Part of the Craft Small Batch Series on Numbered Limited Edition One-Step 180g Mono LP. Limited to 4,000 Copies. All-Analog Mastering by Bernie Grundman from the Original Master Tapes. Pressed on Neotech VR900 Vinyl at RTI.

Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners is the fifth release in Craft Recordings’ acclaimed Small Batch vinyl series. A landmark title in the pianist’s celebrated catalog, the 1957 album not only introduces several Monk originals, but also features an all-star line-up of talent, including Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, and Paul Chambers. This Small Batch pressing is limited to just 4,000 copies worldwide.

As with all albums in the series, Brilliant Corners features lacquers cut from the original tapes (AAA) by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI using Neotech’s VR900 compound. This one-step lacquer process (as opposed to the standard three-step process) allows for the utmost level of musical detail, clarity, and dynamics while reducing the amount of surface noise on the record. The limited nature of these pressings guarantees that each record is a true representation of the original lacquer and is as close as the listener can get to the original recording.

Each copy is individually numbered and encased in a foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase featuring an acrylic inset of the original artwork. The vinyl disc ­– extractable through a unique, frictionless ribbon pull tab – is housed in a reproduction of the album’s original tip-on jacket from Riverside Records and protected by an archival-quality, anti-static, non-scratching inner sleeve. New liner notes from the GRAMMY® Award-winning music historian, journalist, and producer, Ashley Kahn complete the package.

Released in April 1957, Brilliant Corners was transformative for Monk’s career, delivering him a major comeback. The album was met with wide acclaim, including from DownBeat’s Nat Hentoff, who proclaimed it “Riverside’s most important modern jazz LP to date.” In 2003, the album was among the first 50 recordings chosen for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, while over the decades, Brilliant Corners has ranked regularly as an essential jazz title.

Features:

• Numbered, Limited Edition
• Small Batch Series
• Neotech VR900 180g Vinyl LP
• One-Step Lacquer Process
• All-Analog Mastering by Bernie Grundman from the Original Master Tapes
• Mono
• Foil-Stamped, Linen-Wrapped Slipcase
• Reproduction of the Original Tip-On Jacket from Riverside Records
• Archival Quality Inner Sleeve
• Liner Notes by Ashley Kahn

Musicians:
Thelonious Monk - piano, celeste on "Pannonica"
Ernie Henry - alto sax
Sonny Rollins - tenor sax
Oscar Pettiford - bass
Max Roach - drums, tympany on "Bemsha Swing"
Clark Terry - trumpet on "Bemsha Swing"
Paul Chambers - bass on "Bemsha Swing"