Charles Mingus Albums (49)
'Stuttgart Meditations'
Release Date 7/16/2007
Tracks 8
Label Get Back
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The back story behind this concert CD is that, in September 1965, Charles Mingus performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He had done so triumphantly well the year before, however, Mingus' 1965 set was inexplicably cut short at a half-hour (Mingus himself claims 20 minutes) and so the material he had planned for the event, much of it newly composed, was instead unreeled at UCLA a week later. Mingus later pressed a couple hundred copies of the performance into a self-released two-LP set, but the master tape was hence destroyed and the album basically forgotten until its release on CD by Mingus' widow Sue in 2006. Fans of the musically peripatetic Mingus will marvel when they partake of this intimate "lost" music; despite its often unfinished, raw quality, it's powerful stuff -- at least when it's not falling apart for all to hear. On this rare document -- a complete Mingus concert, including dialogue, rough spots, harangues, flubs and all -- Mingus leads an octet, six of whom (Hobart Dotson, Lonnie Hillyer, Jimmy Owens, Charles McPherson, Julius Watkins, and the mighty tuba man Howard Johnson) are horn players; Mingus, of course, alternates between piano and bass, and the scorching Dannie Richmond is on drums. At its best, when all eight cylinders are fired up (most of those moments occur on disc two, particularly on "The Arts of Tatum and Freddy Webster" and "Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid Too"), this is prime Mingus. But it's no wonder that Mingus called some of his less formal gigs, such as this one, workshops, because much of the music captured here is of a work-in-progress nature. The band plays it loose -- sometimes too loose for its leader's taste -- resulting, at one point during the first disc, after a couple of misfires at the start of "Once Upon a Time, There Was a Holding Corporation Called Old America" -- in Mingus actually sending some of the musicians temporarily packing while he and the remaining crew continue as a quartet. When that foursome finds its groove on "Ode to Bird and Dizzy," for example, the jams are so inventive and steaming as to make one wonder why Mingus didn't just tell the others to take the rest of the day off and stick with the small band. But when they all reconvene for the third try of the previously aborted "Once Upon..." it's as if nothing had gone wrong -- the band is in sync and working extra hard to pull off the complex piece. There are some humorous moments here ("Muskrat Ramble"), and some serious ones too: the spoken word intro to the album-closing "Don't Let It Happen Here" is a familiar discourse on the effects of apathy. At UCLA 1965 (its official title is actually "Music Written for Monterey, 1965 Not Heard...Played Live in Its Entirety at UCLA") won't go down on the must-have Mingus list, but as an adjunct to Mingus' lengthy discography, it's a fascinating and sometimes brilliant entry. ~ Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Essentially, this is the complete set of Mingus Revisited and Mercury's Pre-Bird, recorded on May 24 and 25 in 1960. There are five tracks with a tentet that includes Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson, Yusef Lateef, Dannie Richmond, Roland Hanna, Joe Farrell, and Jimmy Knepper, Booker Ervin, and Lorraine Cussen on vocals on "Weird Nightmare" and "Eclipse." There is a big band who recorded on the second day and includes all of the above except for Ervin and Cussen, but adds players like Paul Bley on piano, Bill Barron on saxophone, a full-on trumpet section that features not only Curson but also Marcus Belgrave, Clark Terry, Hobart Dotson, and Richard Williams, and a trombone section with Slide Hampton, Eddie Bert, and Charles "Majid" Greenlee. Other players include flutist Robert Didomenica, alto saxman John LaPorta, Charles McCracken on cello, and a trio of percussionists that features Max Roach on "Half-Mast Inhibition." These strange but wonderful tracks include a beautiful "Take the 'A' Train," that comes right out of "Exactly Like You," and the beautiful "Bemoanable Lady," and the speculative "Prayer for Passive Resistance." This Portuguese issue also features -- confusingly -- a 17-minute version of "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress Then Silk Blue" from 1970 (taken from the album Charles Mingus in Paris) with a band that included Charles McPherson, Jaki Byard, Eddie Preston, Richmond, and Bobby Lee Jones. This is packaged in a slipcase and designed to look something like a Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder disc. It has the look and feel of a pirate, but who knows? ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Mingus Quintet Meets Cat Anderson'
Release Date 3/21/2006
Tracks 2
Label Fruit Tree
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Three or Four Shades of Blues'
Release Date 1/1/2005
Tracks 5
Label Rhino Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
In spite of the electric guitars, which don't really fit that well, the title track is one of the more successful Charles Mingus efforts at extended composition. The list of section titles for the work is a valuable document in itself; it includes the "Super Bebop Blues (Check Bird Out)" with George Coleman and the dudes who are advancing group improvisation, while USA press ignores them. And still does. Not his best work, but not without merit. ~ Stuart Kremsky, All Music Guide
'The Great Concert of Charles Mingus'
Release Date 7/20/2004
Tracks 7
Label Verve
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
This three-LP set is the finest recording by one of Charles Mingus' greatest bands, his sextet with Eric Dolphy (on alto, bass clarinet, and flute), tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, trumpeter Johnny Coles, pianist Jaki Byard, and drummer Dannie Richmond. Taken from their somewhat tumultuous but very musical tour of Europe, most of these rather lengthy workouts actually just feature a quintet because Coles took sick (he is only heard on "So Long Eric," which here is mistitled "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"), but the playing is at such a high level that the trumpeter is not really missed. "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress" is given definitive treatment, and the nearly 29-minute "Fables of Faubus" and Mingus' relatively brief feature on "Sophisticated Lady" are impressive, but it is the passionate "Meditations on Integration" (an utterly fascinating performance) and "Parkeriana" (a tribute to Charlie Parker that features some stride piano from Byard and what may very well have been Dolphy's greatest alto solo) that make this gem truly essential in all jazz collections. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Issued on the import Acrobat label, The Unique Charles Mingus was originally released in at least two earlier incarnations, first as an LP entitled Lionel Hapmton Presents Charles Mingus on Hampton's Giants of Jazz label, and in 2002 as Lionel's Sessions on the Universe imprint. Many of these tracks were released on subsequent post mortem recordings on Atlantic. These session were recorded in 1977, with Mingus at the beginning of a serious decline in health that would result in his death in 1979.. Hampton assembled a band that included not only himself, but Ricky Ford, Gerry Mulligan, Dannie Richmond, Jack Walrath,, Woody Shaw and Paul Jeffrey with Mingus holding down the bass chair. Here are new versions of "Fables Of Faubus," "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love," and "So Long Eric." In addition, "Farewell, Farewell," and Peggy's Blue Skylight," along with the two part "Just For Laughs," is included giving this a wonderful big band feel. The problem is, that Hampton is so prevalent on these sessions in both his instrument and personality they feel they are re4cordings from his prime in the 40s and 50s rather than as current works and re-workings of Mingus classics. The playing is expert, but dry and the charts are certainly brilliant, but they feel watered down, more accessible, less challenging, they lack the spark that is Mingus's alone. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Live in Stuttgart 1964'
Release Date 8/22/2000
Tracks 4
Label Unique Jazz
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Charles Mingus was recorded many times during his spring tour of Europe in 1964, though almost all of the resulting LPs and CDs are bootlegs. Live in Stuttgart 1964 represents only a portion of the full concert, starting with Jaki Byard's eclectic "ATFWUSA" (sometimes introduced as "ATFWYOU" during the tour), a piano solo tribute to Art Tatum, Fats Waller, and other unnamed early piano greats. "Sophisticated Lady" is a subdued duet by Mingus and Byard. The full quintet is only present for the bassist's raucous, mocking "Fables of Faubus," a slap at racist Arkansas Governor Orvil Faubus, which runs over 41 minutes, though this version is obviously dubbed from an earlier LP source, as it has been edited together. Eric Dolphy's bass clarinet and Clifford Jordan's tenor sax are particularly effective in this extended work, which surprisingly never runs out of steam in spite of its length. The sound is decent mono, though it is unclear if its from a broadcast or illicit soundboard recording. It is a shame that the full concert hasn't been made available in a two-CD set since tapes of it have been widely circulated among collectors, as the performances stand up to other Mingus concerts with this lineup, which was taped after trumpeter Johnny Coles' unfortunate health emergency that caused him to be hospitalized. ~ Ken Dryden, All Music Guide
