The tenth album: #10 Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
Fair enough on the jazz, it seems more interesting than the recent big band songs. It's not a genre that I think I appreciate focusing on a full album for - it's better as background music or when listening to the occasional track.
The sound is not quite improvised, it's messy but complex and layered enough that it's more deliberate. It does make for a chaotic sound, where it's not always clear where the music is going - it's mostly just there, and I'm not sure that's in its own best interest.
I think what helps is that the music here feels like it has personalities, it expresses the creator and his tastes, of sorts, rather than last time's jazzy album feeling like it watered that down somewhat.