I'm going back to the start

[kokkinos]

Charles Mingus: The Countdown
#3

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Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus

1956, Atlantic

Track Listing
1. Pithecanthropus Erectus
2. A Foggy Day
3. Profile Of Jackie
4. Love Chant

Credits
Charles Mingus - Bass
Willie Jones - Drums
Mal Waldron - Piano
Jackie McLean - Saxophone (alto)
J.R. Monterose - Saxophone (tenor)
Nesuhi Ertegun - Producer

We had caught some glimpses of his grand artistic vision in his earlier attempts, but this is where greatness really begins. His first truly remarkable record – which happens to be his first with Atlantic-, a complete, uncompromising and groundbreaking artistic statement, we witness his agony to break the conventional chains and make his own path without forgetting tradition, he‘s been respectfully carrying his roots with him throughout his entire journey. This album changed the course of his own career, jazz music and arguably music in general – it explores uncharted territory and is one of the main factors that opened the floodgates to what became known as free jazz. When I checked the credits and found out that the band consists of a mere five members, I found it surprising to say the least, this sounds like a full-blown orchestra. The self-titled track is clearly the central piece of the album, it colourfully depicts the rise and fall of humanity, its main theme will get stuck in your head forever and keep popping up at random times – at least that’s what happened with me- not to mention that the tantalising play between climax and anticlimax is a wonder to behold. Telling a story through music was quite an innovative concept back then – I mean, it still is- and this is executed flawlessly. The narrative via music is a central theme in Foggy Day as well, which is another excellent track, a portrait of modern city’s madness– where modern keep in mind we are talking about 1956, that’s almost 65 years ago, it’s so powerful it’s still relevant, but spend a moment to imagine how it would have sounded if he were to record something similar nowadays. Some people consider it the weak link, especially the parts where the musical instruments emulate the sounds of car horns, sirens etc. To be honest, his jolly attitude has always been one of my favourite things about Mingus, so it’s only natural I love this part. Once upon a time this track almost got me into trouble, because I was listening to it and there was an alarm screaming right next to me and I thought it was part of the album, whatever, lol. All good in the end. Then comes Profile of Jackie, it seems the calm can come after the storm as well and what an absolute beauty it can be, especially if one takes into account the stark contrast it forms with what came before. Even though this is intended as a tribute to Jackie McLean, it’s probably the only track of the record where it’s the piano that stands out instead of the sax. The closing track, Love Chant, is the only one that doesn’t reach the same heights for me – and when it’s a track with a running time of almost 15 minutes, that’s an issue you can’t ignore. It’s a shame really, if this wasn’t included in the album, there’s no doubt in my mind that we would be looking at the number 1 of the list, I have to admit I feel slightly guilty for ranking it so low.

Score: 8.6/10

[kokkinos]

Charles Mingus: The Countdown
#2

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Charles Mingus - The Clown

1957, Atlantic

Track Listing
1. Haitian Fight Song
2. Blue Cee
3. Reincarnation Of A Lovebird
4. The Clown

Credits
Charles Mingus - Bass
Dannie Richmond - Drums
Wade Legge - Piano
Shafi Hadi - Saxophone (alto, tenor)
Jimmy Knepper - Trombone
Jean Shepherd - Narration

This is an album that can be divided in two parts. The first one – comprised of tracks 1,2 and 3 - includes some undeniably classic Mingus pieces. Haitian Fight Song is deservedly considered one of his finest moments, he decides it’s time for some serious flexing, that big fat bass swings relentlessly, it’s as if its life depended on it, super catchy stuff. It’s not all about entertainment though, it never is so simple with Mingus, all this energy is used as means to express his sociopolitical worries, as one could easily imagine based on its title. Blue Cee may give the impression that he takes his foot off the gas, but that’s by no means a bad thing, we need some time to catch our breath after the wild ride that the opening track provided us. Reincarnation of a Lovebird is one more tribute to Charlie Parker, who – everybody knows it by now- has been a central figure for Mingus. So, even though all of the above is good/great/call it how you want, this album is unquestionably defined by its second part, namely the closing self-titled track, everything here revolves around it, the album would be meaningless without it, anything that came before pales in comparison, it simply paved the way for it. And it is marvellous indeed, by far the one that has moved me the most by him. Actually, there are few pieces that have moved me like that by any artist, right now I can only think of one more. Overall, the vast majority of music I end up liking and connecting with lies on the sad end of the spectrum rather than the feel-good/cheerful - as the cliché goes, if you are looking for the poet, all you have to do is identify the most sorrowful person in the room - and this one could very well be the saddest of them all. Its premiss is simple: A tragicomic, allegorical story of a clown. A lot has already been said and even more could be added about the various ways it can be interpreted, but I’d rather leave it to the listener. all of them strike a chord anyway. Mingus wanted it to be like that, ambiguous I mean, judging by the ending he chose. And this album cover is so painful, it gets me every time. It’s not the first album that will be brought up when the “essential” Mingus albums are being discussed, but I think it is as vital as any of them, it reveals a part of his artistic personality that doesn’t appear in such a crystal clear manner in the rest of his discography. I’d go as far as to say this is one of those albums I would recommend giving it at least one try even if I knew you are not a fan of the man-which is hard to imagine, but anyway.

Score: 8.7/10

[kokkinos]

Charles Mingus: The Countdown
#1

Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods

1962, RCA

Track Listing
1. Dizzy Moods
2. Ysabel's Table Dance
3. Tijuana Gift Shop
4. Los Mariachis
5. Flamingo

Credits
Charles Mingus - Bass
Shafi Hadi - Saxophone (tenor, alto)
Gene Shaw - Trumpet
Jimmy Knepper - Trombone
Bill Triglia - Piano
Dannie RIchmond - Drums
Frankie Dunlop - Percussion
Ysabel Morel - Castanets, Vocals
Lonnie Elder - Vocals
Bob Rolontz - Producer

Let’s begin by declaring that this is the first record of his that I ever bought, I had already listened to Black Saint And The Sinner Lady and a couple of other Mingus albums and then I discovered this series, I wanna say it was called Masters Of Jazz, but I looked it up and nothing shows up, so it must have been a different title, when I get to my family home -unlikely to happen anytime soon - , I’ll try to dig it up and tell you the exact name. Anyway, it consisted of 22 parts, each one dedicated to a different jazz musician and it included his biography plus 1 album. Well, my initial reaction was to be disappointed it had this instead of Black Saint ..., how wrong was I. Based on Sketches Of Spain being my favourite by Miles Davis, I guess this can’t be that much of a surprise. If I had to compare them, this is a more honest take on the Latin spirit/culture. It fully immerses itself In it, it isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty, while the other one is looking from some distance, more academic if you will. So, what does the album cover tell us? “The album Charlie Mingus feels is his best work” yeah, sure, too bad he’s told something similar for pretty much every single album he ever recorded. The second part of the sentence is definitely more interesting “he and his men re-create an exciting stay in Mexico’s wild and controversial border town”. Now we ‘re talking, this serves as an accurate description of what you are about to hear. It was recorded in 1957, yet released in 1962 - it has been said that RCA was busy promoting a certain Elvis Presley and didn’t have the time to bother with any other artist. So, he visited Tijuana alongside drummer Dannie Richmond while being in a rather negative state of mind – his relationship with his wife Celia was in ruins – so he wanted to escape his problems by exposing himself to various dubious situations – you know what I mean. At the same time, he didn’t forget his craft and managed to create a piece of art that would embody his experiences. Dizzy Moods is the opening track, it's based on a Dizzy Gillespie composition “Woody ‘n You”, where trumpet player Gene Shaw steals the show. Ysabel's Table Dance is by far the most memorable thing here, I’ d say it’s a top 3 Mingus track. Its inspiration is obvious, a night club and some exceptionally skilled at a particular form of dancing that requires taking your clothes off girls. I guess Ysabel must have been a damn fine woman. It starts as a dizzying flamenco that raises dramatic intensity, followed by a piano interlude and then Hadi’s sax works its magic, not to mention some trademark uncontrolled shouting. Tijuana Gift Shop is based on a Mexican melody mixed with some traditional bop themes, a combination that works much better than one might expect. Los Mariachis is another totally unpredictable piece with endless twists and turns that you couldn’t have seen coming – it’s also the bluesiest track of the album. The closing track, Flamingo, finally brings the listener to peace offering a dreamy goodbye. Many artists have based their entire careers on transforming their personal struggles into a creative outburst and the way Mingus does it here surpasses most -if not all- of them. We can relate with some albums, because they remind us of the life we live and then there are albums that we relate, because they offer us a glimpse of a different life, that we may or may not have wanted to have lived instead. This is probably the best example of the second category. To sum it up, there’s one word that perfectly describes this album: hedonistic- I wanna say I came up with it myself, but the truth is there’s a very good chance I “borrowed” it from someone else, I really can’t recall, whatever. Ideally, I would like to close this comment with the pompous statement that this is my favourite jazz album of all time, but this would be somewhat misleading, if not outright pretentious, I feel the urgency to stress once more how painfully close the top four were and each of them could have been given the nod.

Score: 8.8/10

[Hayden]

Just dropping by t say I read the Mingus notes. It's a very interesting order, and I have nothing against it. Does make me want to go on a slight binge though.

(I think The Clown is also slightly underappreciated. Think people avoid it because of the cover or something).

[kokkinos]

[kokkinos]

So, to wrap the whole Mingus business up, why not create a chart.
Nothing new, the order and comments are copy paste from this diary, just did it to keep everything neat and tidy.
Charles Mingus

[kokkinos]

Ok, that was so much fun, but now it's time to use my TARDIS and return to year 1961.
Let’s try to make the transition as smooth as possible, I don’t think there were better albums to serve this purpose.


Mal Waldron - The Quest
Mal Waldron is not the most attention seeking piano player, he is a classy yet lyrical performer. This results in the most common criticism against this album, namely that Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin are the stars of the show instead of Mal Waldron. I don’t see why that’s a bad thing, it happens all the time, there is a myriad of great jazz albums that could be brought up, the band leader doesn’t have to be in the spotlight, he has to be a team player and allow every member of the band to shine depending on what the composition asks for. Being me, I can’t help but notice that Mingus is a great example of that. Speaking of Mingus, any of his fans should feel at home here, there’s a certain vibe reminiscent of his early work, if I had to name only one album, I’d probably go with Pithecanthropus Erectus, but you could pick any record of that era. Its diversity is another strong point, it can get sentimental or adventurous and it excels at both styles. 7.5/10


Eric Dolphy - Out There
If the above was slightly reminiscent of Mingus, this one is even more obvious. My first instinct would be to compare it with Blues and Roots, very accessible, super entertaining without compromising or being too straightforward. Then again, that may not be entirely accurate, as the classical music influences that are showcased here could point towards a different direction – I think the best example would be The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady, as Mingus Ah Um and Let My Children Hear Music do share the same background, but are vastly different in terms of attitude. Dolphy is just killing it – his loss was such a tragedy. And when his flute gets going, that’s a joy to behold. Another thing I really like is how the album evolves in the most unpredictable way. If it were a book/film, It’s as if the narrative starts in medias res, we jump right into action and then we take a step back in time and witness the calm before the storm – and knowing how powerful the storm was, we get to appreciate this oasis of serenity even more. Another take on it could be that there’s actually a linear structure, it’s just that when the party is over and our hero is left alone with his thoughts, instead of ending up on a dark and suffocating dead end, he sees the light, the beauty of life. Whatever, I probably took it too far, but that’s the power of music, especially when it’s executed in such admirable fashion. It’s too early – unless I miscounted that’s only the 16th 1961 album to be included in this diary and 1960 made it to 100– but I can already tell we have a front-runner for the album of the year title. 8/10
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Bob Dylan
Charles Mingus

[LedZep]

Slightly late on the Mingus reviews train, but it's quite a list. Just like Hayden, my order would be completely different (and subject to change) but not anything close to this. Although I agree that Tijuana Moods is one of his best easily, so many bangers including one of my all time tracks Ysabel's Table Dance. I'd agree that it's easily one of the most memorable melodies he's ever written, but the catch is that even after a long time of loving it it's still just as great as on the first listen.
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Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[Hayden]

[Komorebi-D]

When you first described your Mingus countdown to me, I had no idea that it’d look like that. I love that you stuck so true to yourself, put The Clown so high and delivered such great observations. Looking forward to reading all of this, it’s brilliant stuff! And really makes me think what a Mingus list of my own would look like... I’d probably put BS&TSL at #1 knowing me haha.
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Some RYM paraphernalia:

2019: The 25 [RYM]
2020: The 25 [RYM]