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Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus - Money Jungle Audio CD

A fair review of the Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus "Money Jungle" 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 Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus reviews here, or go back to the Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus tabs.

Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus Band: Duke Ellington with Max Roach and Charles Mingus
Title: Money Jungle
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Very Special [#] 2: Little Max [#] 3: Little Max [Alternate Take] 4: Fleurette Africaine 5: Rem Blues [#] 6: Wig Wise 7: Switch Blade [#] 8: Caravan 9: Money Jungle 10: Solitude [Alternate Take] 11: Solitude 12: Warm Valley 13: Backward Country Boy Blues [#]

Interesting, but unpolished
Ellington's compositions are brilliant as always, and his playing is deliciously tasteful while managing at the same time to be intriguingly left of center. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this album. Max Roach's drumming is powerful and funky, proving once again that nobody swings harder.
The one that really disappointed me was Mingus, which is tragic because he is among my absolute favorite musicians. His tone is harsh and trebly, which isn't helped by the odd riffs and fills he plays that sound more like rasping sound effects than a harmonic foundation.
The whole recording just sounds slightly off. The rhythms never lock up. The improvisations go to interesting places, but they do so without the professionalism that should be expected of such top-notch performers.


Ellington at his finest!
I have loads of respect for the man, but I am not enthusiastic about big band jazz. Let me start by saying I am not a big fan of Duke Ellington. I find a lot of his performances, big band and otherwise, to be very dry and uninspired. From the moment I put this record on it was obvious that this was something different. Like most projects involving Mingus, the bass is extremely dominant on this recording. The rhythms on this album are very unique, not only for Duke Ellington, but for the era.

This album is slightly deceiving in a way. It often has light, airy melodies, but are countered by heavy, intricate bass lines or spurts of heavy chords on the piano. Each track contains several different moods and ideas. The compositions are very complex and yet do not, on the surface, appear to be. Duke Ellington is a phenomenal player, and his ability really comes through on this recording. Combined with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, the trio is infallible. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that this is my favorite recording Ellington has ever done.


GREAT RECORD--BUT GET REMASTERED VERSION!!
I originally had it on vinyl, and the record has an unbelievable sense of drama and pace as it goes from song to song. I won't go into depth on this amazing record--'cuz I ain't that deep! An amazing album, the one that really got me into jazz. This older, original CD release always annoyed me because the tracks are in the order they were recorded at the sessions, in order to preserve the "historical value". Well, that is really dumb. That is like putting out a version of a movie in the order they shot it day by day, rather than the final assembled version that hits the screen. On Money Jungle version 1, each song is great, but the old CD lost the power of the sequencing. I used to reprogram the order on my CD player to get it right--but what a pain! They should have released it in the proper, final sequence, then told you what order to program it in if (for some bizarre reason) you wanted to hear it in the "historical" sequencing. Isn't it just as "historical" to release it in the order that Messrs. Ellington et. al. thought it should go in? I've just never seen a packaging move that was so stupid--especially coming from a label like Blue Note, one of the great prestige labels. Fortunately, I just noticed there is a newer REMASTERED version that is in the proper order and with some xtra cuts. So it is off to one-click that baby and trade the old one in! Seriously folks, a truly amazing, far-out, gorgeous album by three serious cats. Get it, daddy-o!.


ALL STARS WHO AREN'T PLAYING TOGETHER
Mingus is overplaying while
Max is stuck playing broken time. If people with ears took a blindfold test,would they give this 5 stars not knowing the players.
Miles also thought this record at the time was a joke.


The Power of Three
Not the case here by a long shot!

Jazz fans do not need any introduction to the staggering acheivements of these three titans of Piano, Composition, Bass and Drums. So many times in the history of music, there have been summits where musical heavyweights are brought together on a promising project that ends up falling short of it's promise. All three bring their full talents to this project. Mingus and Roach do not merely support Ellington, they push him and battle him. Ellington responds in kind with playing with fire on the uptempo numbers (one can see where Monk was influenced by the Duke) and with beautiful subtleness on the ballads. The three play off each other as if the had been a combo for years.

All in all, this would have to be one of my 10 favorite jazz disks, and one that I will recommend without hesitation.


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