mingus
i didn't get to see charles mingus until very late in his life -- 1976, i do believe, at the state university of new york at stony brook's union ballroom (sam rivers' trio opened). by that time, saxman george adams and pianist don pullen (the best combo platter of tradition and modernism to grace the mingus band since jaki byard, i.m.o.) had departed, replaced by ricky ford and jimmy rowles, respectively, but trumpeter jack walrath was still on board from the great lineup that cut changes one and two, and mingus' "25-year friend" dannie richmond was still on drums, of course. mingus was already sick by then, and he looked _tired_. the only piece i really remember vividly was the closing "for harry carney," but that's more my fault than anyone else's -- my feedback-scorched ears were still too unsophisticated to truly hear mingus music.
my first investigations of mingus were inspahrd by frank zappa, who namechecked the titanic bassist-composer in the lengthy list of influences in the liner notes to freak out!, and a review of a couple of eric dolphy releases in creem that pointed the way back to charles mingus presents charles mingus from 1960 (which bore the original "fables of faubus," complete with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the arkansas governor who tried to bar the integration of little rock schools back in '54) and the 1964 town hall concert, which featured the first released recording of "meditiations." both of those pieces also appeared in extended versions on the great concert of charles mingus, a triple lp that became a fave listen of mine and motivated me to obsessively seek out any 'n' all recordings i could find of the band mingus took to europe in april '64 (after which dolphy stayed on in europe, only to pass away from diabetic complications a coupla months later). 'twas a happy day at my house when verve reished the great concert on cd a coupla yrs back, with some previously-unheard jaki byard solo wonderment and a complete (and correctly-titled) "so long eric," which was mysteriously labeled "goodbye pork pie hat" on earlier issues. next month, blue note is releasing another double cd of the '64 band, recorded at cornell university in upstate new york before they embarked on the eurotour. hooray!
other fave mingus sides: tijuana moods, the ellingtonian chronicle of a wild-ass post-divorce trip mingus took south of the border with dannie in tow, recorded in '57 but not released until '62; the classic '59 recordings mingus ah hum (on columbia, bearing great tunes in short bite-sized nuggets that make it a good introduction for the uninitiated) and blues and roots (on atlantic, featuring the same band but rawer and able to extemporize at greater length, including a superior version of "my jelly roll soul" from ah hum); pre-bird (from 1960, consisting, as the title implies, of pieces composed before mingus encountered charlie parker, played by a large ensemble); at antibes (the 1960 band with dolphy, ted curson, and booker ervin, playing at a french jazz festival, not as epochal as the great concert but good nonetheless); and the black saint and the sinner lady, maybe mingus' greatest work released during his lifetime, a sprawling epic "ballet" that was a fave of st. lester bangs'. when i was dating my sweetie and first played this for her, she remarked on the way the constantly-shifting textures and moods reminded her of a busy street in a city.
like zappa, mingus was a _composer_ first, although the public knew him best as an instrumentalist-bandleader. back in the day, i saw more zappa shows than any other performer's, but in later years, the recordings of his i return to the most often are the orchestral the yellow shark (the realization of a lifetime dream of frank's: to hear _well-executed_ orchestral renditions of his works) and the synclavier-generated civilization phaze III (an encyclopedic magnum opus that he tinkered with for years before making it his main focus after his last touring band disintegrated in welters of interpersonal musician-shit) -- maybe because they allow the listener to hear the music without the stupid jokes (and it's so good you don't even miss the gtr solos). in a similar vein, we've been listening a lot lately to epitaph, the recorded artifact of the 1989 premiere of mingus' masterpiece, a 130-minute "symphony" realized by conductor gunther schuller and a 30-piece orchestra from a 500-page score discovered a decade after the composer's death. it's a grandiose feast that makes the black saint and the sinner lady seem like just a snack. if that album's a city street, then epitaph's a whole city, or maybe a whole planet (or universe). in its 19 sections, it contains every kind of music mingus played in life (large debt to ellington, of course), including some familiar pieces ("better get it in your soul," "peggy's blue skylight"), an awesome achievement. while this will take a few more weeks to fully absorb, it makes me wish we'd been able to catch one of the four performances schuller took on the road earlier this year.
my first investigations of mingus were inspahrd by frank zappa, who namechecked the titanic bassist-composer in the lengthy list of influences in the liner notes to freak out!, and a review of a couple of eric dolphy releases in creem that pointed the way back to charles mingus presents charles mingus from 1960 (which bore the original "fables of faubus," complete with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the arkansas governor who tried to bar the integration of little rock schools back in '54) and the 1964 town hall concert, which featured the first released recording of "meditiations." both of those pieces also appeared in extended versions on the great concert of charles mingus, a triple lp that became a fave listen of mine and motivated me to obsessively seek out any 'n' all recordings i could find of the band mingus took to europe in april '64 (after which dolphy stayed on in europe, only to pass away from diabetic complications a coupla months later). 'twas a happy day at my house when verve reished the great concert on cd a coupla yrs back, with some previously-unheard jaki byard solo wonderment and a complete (and correctly-titled) "so long eric," which was mysteriously labeled "goodbye pork pie hat" on earlier issues. next month, blue note is releasing another double cd of the '64 band, recorded at cornell university in upstate new york before they embarked on the eurotour. hooray!
other fave mingus sides: tijuana moods, the ellingtonian chronicle of a wild-ass post-divorce trip mingus took south of the border with dannie in tow, recorded in '57 but not released until '62; the classic '59 recordings mingus ah hum (on columbia, bearing great tunes in short bite-sized nuggets that make it a good introduction for the uninitiated) and blues and roots (on atlantic, featuring the same band but rawer and able to extemporize at greater length, including a superior version of "my jelly roll soul" from ah hum); pre-bird (from 1960, consisting, as the title implies, of pieces composed before mingus encountered charlie parker, played by a large ensemble); at antibes (the 1960 band with dolphy, ted curson, and booker ervin, playing at a french jazz festival, not as epochal as the great concert but good nonetheless); and the black saint and the sinner lady, maybe mingus' greatest work released during his lifetime, a sprawling epic "ballet" that was a fave of st. lester bangs'. when i was dating my sweetie and first played this for her, she remarked on the way the constantly-shifting textures and moods reminded her of a busy street in a city.
like zappa, mingus was a _composer_ first, although the public knew him best as an instrumentalist-bandleader. back in the day, i saw more zappa shows than any other performer's, but in later years, the recordings of his i return to the most often are the orchestral the yellow shark (the realization of a lifetime dream of frank's: to hear _well-executed_ orchestral renditions of his works) and the synclavier-generated civilization phaze III (an encyclopedic magnum opus that he tinkered with for years before making it his main focus after his last touring band disintegrated in welters of interpersonal musician-shit) -- maybe because they allow the listener to hear the music without the stupid jokes (and it's so good you don't even miss the gtr solos). in a similar vein, we've been listening a lot lately to epitaph, the recorded artifact of the 1989 premiere of mingus' masterpiece, a 130-minute "symphony" realized by conductor gunther schuller and a 30-piece orchestra from a 500-page score discovered a decade after the composer's death. it's a grandiose feast that makes the black saint and the sinner lady seem like just a snack. if that album's a city street, then epitaph's a whole city, or maybe a whole planet (or universe). in its 19 sections, it contains every kind of music mingus played in life (large debt to ellington, of course), including some familiar pieces ("better get it in your soul," "peggy's blue skylight"), an awesome achievement. while this will take a few more weeks to fully absorb, it makes me wish we'd been able to catch one of the four performances schuller took on the road earlier this year.
posted by stashdauber at 5:30 AM
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