Cumbia & Jazz Fusion

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Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
Studio album by Charles Mingus

Publication
(s)

1978

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

2

running time

50:16

occupation
  • Bassoon : Gene Scholtes (1), Pasquale Sabatelli (2)

production

Ilhan Mimaroglu (1) and Daniele Senatore (2)

Studio (s)

Sound WorkShop New York City (1), Dirmaphon Studio, Rome (2)

chronology
Three or Four Shades of Blues (1977) Cumbia & Jazz Fusion -

Cumbia & Jazz Fusion is a jazz album by Charles Mingus , which was recorded in three sessions in Rome on March 31 and April 1, 1976 and in New York City on March 10, 1977, and was released in 1978 by Atlantic Records .

The album

The album contains two compositions commissioned by the film producer Daniele Senatore, who was friends with Mingus and who produced films such as the political thriller Investigations against a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). In 1976 he wanted Mingus to provide the music for two films, the Italian film Todo modo (1976) and another film that dealt with the drug culture in Colombia and its counterpart in New York.

The 28-minute work Cumbia & Jazz Fusion , recorded on March 10, 1977 , which fills the A-side of the album, was for the drug film. "Cumbia" stands for Colombia and "Fusion" for the combination of jazz and folk music of the Indians of Colombia. Mingus started out rhythmically from Afro-Colombian cumbia music, which at that time was not yet popular outside of Colombia. He had precise ideas about the line-up and therefore courted Jimmy Knepper , who had not played with him since 1962 with one exception, the album Let My Children Hear Music , that he was his trombonist. To the piece that emphasized different claves , he added six experienced percussionists. The title begins with the twittering of birds, in a folk style with Indian rhythms. This is followed by a series of short Latin American folk themes on the oboe (from the second underlaid by modal bass figures, the first of which is played for six and the second for thirteen minutes), all of which are taken up by the wind players in the call and response . In the middle, the "roaring blues" by Ricky Ford and an arpeggio solo by Neloms result in a plunger- muted mood to which Jack Walrath and Jimmy Knepper contribute; result after 19 minutes from a longer percussion point satirical Rap parts of Mingus (assisted by Richmond), the melodic on the pseudo-folk song Mama's Li'l Baby Likes shortin 'Bread of James Whitcomb Riley were based and this parody lyrics. Mingus said in a guttural voice that mom's little baby doesn't want cookies at all , but rather things like truffles , caviar, education, African gold mines, but also all the other “finer things of life.” This culminates in the demand: “Freedom now. “Then the ensemble play continues; Trombone, piano and bass solos follow. "In the overall compositional concept," according to Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen, "is the best Mingus who put together different moods here."

Mingus commented on the piece:

“In the mountains of Colombia, the Indians are very poor, sometimes they come down to the cities and sing songs about the difference between owning nothing or owning everything. I have to think of the black ghettos in America who have no money either. They want to sing about the beautiful things in life, just like me. "

The Music for "Todo Modo" also included on the album was recorded in Rome the year before, a commissioned production for Elio Petri's crime film Todo modo (1976). In 1976 the pianist Danny Mixon , saxophonist George Adams , trumpeter Jack Walrath and drummer Dannie Richmond played regularly in Mingus' band ; Mingus added five Italian musicians to his ensemble for the recordings.

In contrast to the “consistently positive” composition Cumbia & Jazz Fusion , Music for “Todo Modo” seems to consist of “a series of individual events”. This film music can even be interpreted as a kind of program music , as it partly illustrates the film very directly. “The orchestration of the introduction has an occidental character: cautious, well-arranged; this is followed by an expressive solo by George Adams in contrast. then the band comes with a few sentences that are modeled on our church music , that is the funeral scene [...], then the musicians swing in a jazz-like beat of four. [...] The contrasting moods in “Todo Modo” change a few times, the chorale-like passages also return, as an allusion to the Christian Democratic Party associated with the state church in Italy . ”The composition contains a variant of Peggy's Blue Skylight included. However, due to timing problems, the music was not used for the European version of the film, instead that of Ennio Morricone .

Mingus wanted to re-cut the Music for “Todo Modo” for the Atlantic album; but when those responsible raised the problem of the length of the two pieces and suggested concentrating on short pieces suitable for radio formats, he no longer interfered with the original editing, especially since he had made commercial concessions to the taste of the times for Three or Four Shades of Blues .

Involved musicians like Jack Walrath were unhappy with the way the title track was recorded by Atlantic Records. Jimmy Knepper later commented critically on orchestration:

“I don't want to make the guy bad, but I never had the feeling that he was the great orchestrator that some people think he was, for example in Cumbia he wanted to use the trombone with bassoon and bass clarinet. If you take them together, it gives a sound like mud or porridge. "

Mingus, who had previously worked through the desired sound images very carefully with Paul Jeffrey, was not satisfied with the bassoonist Gene Scholtes, who, in his opinion, played "croaking"; Nevertheless, he found the approach taken by Jeffrey, who is responsible for the mix, to simply suppress the voice in the mix wrong.

Jack Walrath

The titles

  • Charles Mingus: Cumbia & Jazz Fusion (Atlantic SD 8801 or AMCY 1039, Rhino R2 71785)
  1. Cumbia & Jazz Fusion 28:05
  2. Music for "Todo Modo" 22:21
  3. Wedding March / Slow Waltz 2:04 (bonus track)
  4. Wedding March / Slow Waltz [alternate take] 2:21 (bonus track)

All compositions are by Charles Mingus.

Reception of the album

The album won the 1979 Down Beat Critics Poll in the category "Jazz Album of the Year". In 1993, the music magazine Spin declared : a huge, earth-shaking bash .

Richard Cook and Brian Morton , in their review of the album, which they awarded the second highest rating, emphasize that Cumbia & Jazz Fusion is one of the best of Charles Mingus' late compositions, although there are doubts about his skills as an arranger and orchestrator . The regularity of the metric shape and the simplicity of the concept are also disappointing . Music for “Todo Modo” , however, contains some nice blues passages.

The Allmusic rated the album four stars; it is “ better than most of what followed. The music is episodic, but apart from the film it generally has its value. ".

For biographer Gene Santoro, the composition Cumbia & Jazz Fusion was one of the strongest pieces that Mingus had written in a long time; with recourse to the then little-known cumbia rhythms, he even proposed "a new synthesis in Latin jazz " after Santoro . Even Brian Priestley called Cumbia & Jazz Fusion " a superior achievement " and considers it equivalent to Tijuana table dance from Mingus album Tijuana Moods (1957). Dannie Richmond released a new recording of the title Cumbia & Jazz Fusion in 1981 on his album Dannie Richmond Quintet (Gatemouth), on which Jack Walrath and Ricky Ford participated.

literature

  • Brian Priestley: Mingus. A Critical Biography . Mingus. A Critical Biography. Paladin Books, London 1985 and Quartet Books: London, Melbourne, New York City 1982; ISBN 0704322757
  • Gene Santoro Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus Oxford University Press: New York City; ISBN 978-0195147117
  • Horst Weber, Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus. His life, his music, his records. Gauting-Buchendorf: Oreos, undated; ISBN 3-923657-05-6

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Sue Graham Mingus , Tonight at Noon. A love story Edition Nautilus: Hamburg 2003, p. 139
  2. ↑ G. Santoro Myself When I Am Real , p. 355
  3. ↑ a b c d Brian Priestley Mingus , p. 217 (London 1985 edition)
  4. ↑ a b c G. Santoro Myself When I Am Real , p. 356
  5. ↑ Quoted from Gene Santoro Myself When I Am Real , p. 357; see. also Lewis Ricardo Gordon: Her Majesty's Other Children: Sketches of Racism from a Neocolonial Age , p. 8
  6. ↑ a b Weber, Filtgen: Mingus, p. 174 f.
  7. ↑ cit. n. Weber, Filtgen: Charles Mingus. P. 174
  8. ^ A b G. Santoro Myself When I Am Real , p. 357
  9. ↑ See Todd S. Jenkins: I know what I know: the music of Charles Mingus . 2006
  10. ↑ cit. n. Weber, Filtgen: Charles Mingus. P. 175; instead of “bassoon” the book incorrectly says “basoon”.
  11. ↑ The two bonus tracks appeared on several CD editions and included piano solos by Charles Mingus, he on March 1, 1977, nine days before the actual merger Cumbia & Jazz grossed -Session and the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy going out. See Charles Mingus discography
  12. ↑ Down-Beat-Poll-Winner in DownBeat Magazine (English)
  13. ↑ SPIN - November 1993, p. 22.
  14. ↑ Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD Penguin: London 2003, (6th edition); ISBN 0-14-051521-6 , p. 1034
  15. ^ Review of Richard S. Ginell's album Cumbia & Jazz Fusion at Allmusic . Retrieved September 21, 2012.
  16. ↑ Review of the album Dannie Richmond Quintet by Michael G. Nastos on Allmusic (English). Retrieved September 21, 2012.