Day 0913 - Like Water For Chocolate

Common “Like Water for Chocolate” (2000)

I seem to remember Common becoming kind of a big deal in the 00s, so I was quite surprised now to find out that this was his fourth album and that he’d actually been active since the late 80s and recording throughout the 90s (with the first two albums released under the name Common Sense).

“Like Water for Chocolate” was Common’s first major label release and his first with production team the Soulquarians, a loose collective of musical collaborators including Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Mos Def and members of the Roots.

As might be expected from that combination of musicians, the music is inflected with soul, funk and jazz with a through-line to 70s funk over which Common lays his rhymes.   He shows a healthy humility too in collaborating with various other MCs and vocalists throughout instead of trying to make it all about himself.

I did enjoy some of the grooves here, but not always being the biggest lyric person, and with a runtime of nearly 80 minutes, my attention was seriously starting to lag by the end of it all.

Day 0010 - Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk "Brilliant Corners" (1957) got it

Monk is an important jazz artist for me personally, because the first jazz album I ever owned was a compilation of his work ("This is Jazz: Thelonious Monk").  After hearing Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers rave about how great Monk was, I went and listened... and had to agree.

The Ken Burns Jazz documentary series outlined what a maverick and weirdo Monk was: getting up and dancing to his own band in the middle of sets, intentionally throwing in crazy discordant notes that sounded like mistakes here and there, and coming in with some odd little wardrobe choices.

Monk helped develop the bebop sound alongside greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, but after getting done on a bogus drugs bust and having his cabaret card revoked, he wasn't able to do much professionally in the music world, until he got in signed by Orin Keepnews.  Keepnews released a couple of his albums (covers of Ellington compositions and then an album of standards) before letting Monk pursue his own compositional id.

One thing that I always love about so many of the jazz records from this era is how many great players are all over each others' records, John Coltrane playing on Miles Davis albums early in his career, Davis himself getting his start with Bird and Diz etc.  Similarly on brilliant corners you get Sonny Rollins (the 'saxophone colossus' himself), Max Roach on drums, and Oscar Pettiford on bass.

There's a nice mix of sounds on this album, with the long and laidback "Ba-lue bolivar ba-lues-are" ,the skittish, quirky "Bemsha Swing" (one of my favourites) and the gargantuan title track that gives everyone a chance to shine.  Roach's drum solo is understated but brilliant.