Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 by kokkinos 
- Chart updated: 10/17/2021 20:15
- (Created: 08/20/2021 19:52).
- Chart size: 18 albums.
There are 0 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and this chart has not been rated yet. Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
View the complete list of 56,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Charles Mingus. (Remove this filter)
Buy album 
- #Sponsored
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 his top four albums are for me and that each of them could have been given the nod.
[First added to this chart: 10/17/2021]
Year of Release:
1962
Appears in:
Rank Score:
513
Rank in 1962:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
5
Buy album
- #Sponsored
It should have become clear by now that Mingus has a tendency to hit the nail on the head with those titles and this one’s no exception, that’s the perfect title, Oh yeah! The same applies to the album cover as well, he is in a league of his own. Moving on to the real deal, Mingus gives up the bass – Doug Watkins is in charge instead- and takes up piano and vocals – oh yeah, those vocals! Well, they are not exactly that, but how can you describe them – that’s a running theme throughout this album, lots of things are going on that are almost impossible to express through words-, probably an unprecedented hybrid between shouting/squealing/howling/whatever. At some point he was asked how come he decided to add “singing” to his repertoire, he said something along the lines of I always do, it’s just that this time around the mics were left open, lol. Blues - in the rough/gritty way that I usually don’t like, but Mingus has the hands of Midas, everything he touches becomes gold - with a healthy dose of soul/gospel and tons of humour are the three main elements that make this album what it is. The opening track is madness personified, Mingus is in the zone and there’s no way you can stop him. It’s easy to tell artists like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart were taking notes. Wham Bam is a piece that wouldn’t be out of place in Pithecanthropus Erectus, it expands on some ideas that were present there, the only difference being you could say it’s on steroids this time. Eat That Chicken is another refreshingly crazy ride, and again, what can one say about this stuff, words can’t do it justice, or at least I'm not good enough with them to carry off such a task. Passions of a Man makes for another spectacular and groundbreaking show, it is rightfully considered one of the very first moments of psychedelic music put on record. Above all, if there's one thing that makes this album stand out, it’s definitely the mood, everyone‘s having so much fun to the point it is instantly infectious, you ‘ll join the party without a second thought and soon enough you will not remember how or why you got there, but you won’t care that much about it anyway – and to return to the point I made at the start of this comment, you ‘ll be screaming Oh Yeah!.
[First added to this chart: 10/17/2021]
Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| Charles Mingus | 2 | 11% | |
| Roy Orbison | 1 | 6% | |
| Booker Little | 1 | 6% | |
| Bob Dylan | 1 | 6% | |
| Sun Ra | 1 | 6% | |
| Jackie McLean | 1 | 6% | |
| Max Roach | 1 | 6% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 4th to 5th Let Freedom Ring by Jackie McLean |
| Down 1 from 5th to 6th This Is IT by Alan Watts |
| Down 1 from 6th to 7th Domino by Roland Kirk |
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 similarity to your chart(s)
Not a member? Registering is quick, easy and FREE!
Why register?
Join a passionate community of over 50,000 music fans.- Create & share your own charts.
- Have your say in the overall rankings.
- Post comments in the forums and vote on polls.
- Comment on or rate any album, artist, track or chart.
- Discover new music & improve your music collection.
- Customise the overall chart using a variety of different filters & metrics.
- Create a wishlist of albums.
- Help maintain the BEA database.
- Earn member points and gain access to increasing levels of functionality!
- ... And lots more!
Register now - it only takes a moment!
Other year charts by kokkinos
(from the 1960s)| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 32 Music Albums of 1965 | kokkinos | 1965 year chart | 2022 | |
| Top 36 Music Albums of 1964 | kokkinos | 1964 year chart | 2022 | |
| Top 33 Music Albums of 1963 | kokkinos | 1963 year chart | 2022 | |
| Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 | kokkinos | 1962 year chart | 2021 | |
| Top 14 Music Albums of 1961 | kokkinos | 1961 year chart | 2021 | |
| Top 13 Music Albums of 1960 | kokkinos | 1960 year chart | 2022 | |
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 ratings
Not enough data Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 favourites
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a favourite
Top 18 Music Albums of 1962 comments
Be the first to add a comment for this Chart - add your comment!
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment
Your feedback for Top 18 Music Albums of 1962
Let us know what you think of this chart by adding a comment or assigning a rating below!
If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
| Email Address | |
|---|---|
| Forgotten passwords and other site notifications are sent to the email address saved on your profile. If you've changed your email address recently, please remember to update it on your profile page. (If you can't remember your password, and your email address is out of date, please contact us for assistance getting back into your account). |