Harlene

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Harlene is a jazz composition by Charles Mingus .

The title

After 1977, Charles Mingus was only able to sing his last compositions and record them on a cassette recorder due to his muscular disease. "Harlene" was the last composition he created this way.

During this time, someone approached Charles Mingus whether he could serve as musical director for a film about the poet Jack Kerouac - Harlene was one of the characters in this film, an affair or a friend of Kerouac.

Charles Mingus voice was already very frail - and Alex Foster sensitively captures his physical condition on the 1991 album of the Mingus Dynasty The Next Generation with his soprano saxophone.

Discographic notice

  • Mingus Dynasty - The Next Generation Performs Charles Mingus Brand New Compositions (Columbia / Sony, 1991)

Literature / sources

  • Nat Hentoff : Liner Notes for Mingus Dynasty - The Next Generation Performs Charles Mingus Brand New Compositions (Columbia / Sony, 1991)