Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus tabs Charles Mingus discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Charles Mingus guitar tabs

CD reviews

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Audio CD

A fair review of the Charles Mingus "Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Charles Mingus reviews here, or go back to the Charles Mingus tabs.

Band: Charles Mingus
Title: Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-08-15
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: II B.S. 2: I X Love 3: Celia 4: Mood Indigo 5: Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul 6: Theme for Lester Young (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat) 7: Hora Decubitus 8: Freedom [*]

Classic
Take The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady. Many albums by this master have an overriding concept. This album, recorded in 1963 as was Black Saint does not.

Which does not reduce it one bit. This may "just" a group of songs, but with Mingus, that is ample to chew. This features blues and Ellington covers. Mingus also rerecorded "Better Get It In Yer Soul," a blues he had first cut for Atlantic in the 1950s with a small group.

Like Ray Chalres and John Coltrane, Mingus must have realized ABC--who then owned Impulse!--had more money to spread than Atlantic, a New York indie labal in 1963. This is a big band album. The writting is great, but it is the lush orchestrations that warm Mingus' pieces.

This is one of the best and most cozy big band sessions I have ever heard. Remember that most music buffs-apt to buy this-were using tube amps in their homes in the early 60s, and this is tailored as such. If you are fortunate enough to still use tubes--now a niche for audiophiles--you should get this for sound reasons alone.

But if you have a Micky Mouse record player, you still want this to be spinning on it.

Great great great great great
Mingus was one of the few back then bold enough not to be dictated by conventional structures but instead become liberated from them, even when reinterpreting past works. Rarely was anyone, especially back in 1963, able to take big band and swing elements like these and whip up such compelling compositions.

Leftovers, but hardly scraps.
Joining the great bassist and composer are several jazz luminaries like Eric Dolphy and Charlie Mariano on alto saxophone, Jaki Byard on piano, Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, and Dannie Richmond on drums. Coming hard on the heels of the album that many feel is Mingus's masterpiece, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, this album takes a ten piece little big band and reprises several of Mingus' most well known compositions and was recorded in January and September of 1963. "Better Get Hit In Yo' Soul" is one of the most rollicking themes in the Mingus canon and it gets a rousing treatment here with propulsive saxophone riffing and Mingus urging the musicians to go higher, faster and stronger. Written to honor the great saxophonist, "Theme for Lester Young" is a remake of Mingus' famous Pres tribute "Goodbye Porkpie Hat. " It's a mournful and touching performance that hints at Young's famous style of laid back swing. Mingus' idol was always Duke Ellington and and the group makes fine tribute to him with a beautiful performance of one of Ellington's most famous songs, "Mood Indigo. " Most fascinating is the previously unreleased "Freedom" which has a chain gang rhythm while Mingus recites a spoken word passage about the search for freedom in America and the Civil Rights movement. It is one of the most powerful of the great man's spoken pieces, ranking with "Fables of Faubus" for emotional resonance. This is a truly fine Mingus album, one of the last ones before he would spend a period in the wilderness due to lack of a record contract and personal problems. Mingus leads a great band though excellent music, and this should on no account be missed.

Swings With Fury!!!
Collectors of Mingus material will no doubt recognize some of the tracks here. Produced by Bob Thiele on Impulse! Records, 1963's 'Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus' is an interesting little record of some of Mingus's previously recorded tracks combined with a 10 piece band, as well as some new material. For instance, "Theme for Lester Young" is also "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on 'Mingus Ah Um', "II B. S. " is also "Haitian Fight Song" from 'The Clown', and "Hora Decubitus" is also "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too" from 'Blues & Roots'. This does not take away from the sheer brilliance of the recording, though, as Mingus adds a certain amount of soul and feeling to these tracks which I believe has been lacking in the past. The best example here is "Hora Decubitus" which swings much harder than its predecessor.

The band on this record is made up largely of session musicians as well as some Mingus regulars such as Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Dannie Richmond (drums), and Jaki Byard (piano). The legendary Eric Dolphy also makes contributions on flute and alto sax. On MingusX5, Mingus shows the listener his impressive ability to compose pieces with specific musicians in mind and can turn no-name session guys into legends, albeit just for sixty minutes. Because of such a large ensemble, Mingus adds texture to the music by creating layers of music. There is so much going on, musically speaking on this record, and these are the elements that really set Mingus apart from other jazz greats of the 20th century.

In addition to some of the older material mentioned above, there is also a brilliant cover of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" as well as a bonus track, "Freedom" which also appears on the 'Epitaph' record. This is one of those interesting anti-racism Mingus pieces with a vocal track from Charlie himself. "Freedom" swings so hard, you will unwittingly jump up and dance to the point of embarrassing yourself in front of all your friends! Trumpeters Eddie Preston and Richard Williams are on fire, and just for this piece alone I would recommend this LP to any casual Mingus fan. It is also a great place to start for someone who is not familiar with any of Mingus's work.

(3.5 stars) Mingus remixes? Basically. But good ones
S. This is the predecessor to the remix album, as most of the songs are little more than old classics given a makeover: "Theme for Lester Young" is pretty close to "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"; "Better Get Hit In Yo' Soul" is "Better Git It In Your Soul" with sans the grunts and with a revised coda; "II B. " is a shortened "Haitian Fight Song"; "Mood Indigo" was previously released on Mingus Dynasty. It's hard to recommend this album as highly as I do some of the surrounding works, since no matter how good these remakes are, they're still just remakes - I'd much rather hear an album full of mostly new songs from Mingus than hear him resting on his laurels, so to speak. And other than "Mood Indigo", Mingus' previous recordings of these songs are much better. On top of that, "I X Love" is tough to recommend. There's no way this can stand in the same room as indispensable '60s albums like Oh Yeah or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, but it'll do. .

You can see a complete list of all Charles Mingus discography, or go back to the Charles Mingus tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.