Charles Mingus

That run from 1956 up to Eric Dolphy's death in 1964 is just a ton of good records. Blues and Roots and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady are probably my favorites, but all of them are good.

My dad saw Mingus two nights running at the Five Spot in late 1963
it is crazy -- i've talked to someone who saw a bunch of NYC jazz in the late 50s/early 60s and it's like these titans of 20th century american music playing tiny clubs. and he says the clubs were rarely very crowded! just mind boggling.

i mean, the same is true today.

I'm actually feeling really optimistic lately, because I'm going to (and hearing reports of) jazz shows that are packed - I went to the Village Vanguard the other week to see drummer Rudy Royston's sextet and almost didn't get in! And I heard that Darius Jones did a show at the Jazz Gallery last week that was basically sold out, too. And I'm expecting a full house when I go see Kamasi Washington tonight. I've been to enough jazz shows with maybe two dozen people in the audience - including shows by artists that get tons of press, like Rob Mazurek - that this feels like a genuine shift. We'll see how long it lasts.

Until summer vacation is over for the foreign tourists?

Is it possibly a post-Whiplash thing?

Well, last night it was definitely the result of Washington's album getting reviewed in places like Pitchfork and Spin and Rolling Stone that normally don't give a wet fart about jazz. The crowd was very young. The three strangers seated at my table were two tech bros, one of whom was ridiculing the other for having missed the most recent Purity Ring show, and a girl who worked in marketing or something - she kept talking about how some other girl was shit talking her to her team. All three agreed that this show would have been better at Le Poisson Rouge.

Anyway, the show itself was great. Thundercat guested on bass, and they also brought up an alto saxophonist and a trumpeter on different songs (the core band was Washington, a trombonist, a female vocalist, a pianist, an upright bassist, and two drummers). I bought a T-shirt.

Oddly I woke up with "Weird Nightmare" in my head this morning

I love those old jazz anecdotes! Like the Pepper Adams/Mingus one: Adams shows up at Mingus' apartment for a rehearsal, and Mingus is on the phone with someone at the Musicians Union, yelling and cursing "You white motherfucker! Someday I'm gonna get a machine gun and kill all you white motherfuckers!" Then he interrupts himself, turns to Adams and says "Cold beer in the fridge, Pepper" as courteous as can be, before continuing his tirade.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:14 (8 years ago) Bookmark

The BBC prom for Charles Mingus is really good damn fun, with some fine playing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b092nc5j

it is still not available, but I'll deffo check that out later or tomorrow.

Slightly offtopic, but I was listening to a 10 year old Coltrane death anniversary broadcast from the R3 archives earlier. The Liebman/Lovano one that has recently been released. That one is really good as well.

There is a Mingus solo piano album that exists that is very nice

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingus_Plays_Piano

This BBC Proms Mingus thing on telly is amazing rn

https://www.forcedexposure.com/App_Themes/Default/Images/product_images/product_page/F/FOX036LP_PROD.jpg

In November 1958, John Cassavetes premiered
his revolutionary independent film Shadows in a
series of midnight screenings at the Paris Theater
in New York City. Village Voice critic Jonas Mekas
immediately proclaimed it a work of genius, calling
it “the most frontier-breaking American feature in at
least a decade.” Most audience members, including
Cassavetes, hated it.Cassavetes reassembled his cast
and crew and shot extensive new footage, modifying
old scenes and adding new ones. The final version
premiered at Amos Vogel’s legendary Cinema 16 on
November 11, 1959, and was an overnight critical
sensation.One of the myths that propelled Shadows to
instant notoriety was its improvisational origins.
It’s considered by many to be the first “true”
cinematic jazz narrative, both for its racially
charged subject and its unconventional, unscripted
making in the streets of Manhattan.4 It’s been
further celebrated for an original score by one
of the all-time jazz greats, Charles Mingus.
However much of the legend is deceptive. Little of
Mingus’s music appears in the final film.

https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/JFM/article/view/8158

For the first time on vinyl, Charles Mingus's great score for the legendary 1959 directorial debut of John Cassavetes, Shadows. Much has been said about the controversial relationship between these two masters. "The score encapsulates Cassavetes's and Mingus's unique approaches to both improvisation and composition in their respective media, illuminating the oppositional nature of jazz to mainstream cultural production and the underbelly of race relations in 1950's America" --Ross Lipman

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/mingus-charles-john-cassavetes-shadows-lp/FOX.036LP.html

^ has anybody heard this ?

is it different than this:

https://www.discogs.com/Charles-Mingus-Shadows/master/1116572

?

the new Deluxe Edition of Mingus at Carnegie Hall adds a fantastic 72-minute first set ... better get it in your soul

Ts: get it vs get hit

The original single LP version of Mingus At Carnegie Hall was always one of my least favorite Mingus records, just two side-long saxophone contests (versions of the Ellington tunes "Perdido" and "C Jam Blues" with John Handy, George Lewis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Hamiet Bluiett, and Charles McPherson taking turns trying to out-blow each other). But the rest of the concert is killer, the core band — Lewis, Bluiett, Jon Faddis on trumpet, Don Pullen on piano, and Dannie Richmond on drums — playing Mingus's own music (plus Pullen's "Big Alice"). Now it's a must-hear album, IMO.

The hype sticker on the CD is hilarious:

WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THE TRUE POWER OF JAZZ’S IMPROVISATIONAL ABILITIES WITH THIS MIND-BENDING PERFORMANCE

Lol

Happy Mingus Centennial!
https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/charles-mingus-centennial-broadcast
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/arts/music/charles-mingus-centennial.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch71BX1PskQ

marcello c shared this '64 rehearsal vid earlier, the footage is in such good nick it looked like it could have been filmed yesterday. And quite sadly Dolphy looks in such good health, it's hard to believe he's nearly gone:(

Jaki Byard was another sad futile death, albeit much later as well, shot dead in his apartment. Great pianist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2KDM6TA6ow

I've been on a big Mingus listening spree the last couple of weeks. It got me thinking about what happened with him and Jimmy Knepper and I was curious about the circumstances of Knepper working with Mingus some late in life.

I did not quite find an exact answer, but I did find this interesting article I thought was a good and worthwhile read.

http://americanaejournal.hu/vol10jazz/gabbard

I had forgotten how Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert contains a LOT of Bill Cosby interludes. Or maybe it sunk more in the background back then. Still, "Ecclusiastics"