Jazz Composers Workshop

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The Jazz Composers Workshop was an American jazz formation in the area of ​​the Third Stream , founded by Charles Mingus , Teo Macero and John LaPorta .

The workshop

Influenced by Lennie Tristano's musical ideas , the Jazz Composers Workshop was created in 1953 by the bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus , the clarinetist and alto saxophonist John LaPorta and the tenor and baritone saxophonist Teo Macero . Even before that, there had been concerts under the name Jazz Workshop in the Putnam Center in Brooklyn in 1953 , organized by Mingus. The concept of this band was to approach the European classical music traditions of collective jazz improvisation with precisely defined limits: one instrument should be the leading one and the others should accompany or comment on it. Melodic themes and moods should be created rather than chord sequences. At the same time, Mingus' contributions to the workshop's records are directly related to his later work: the piece Thrice Upon A Time leads directly to Jump Monk (1955), Minor Intrusions to Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956). In his later jazz workshop projects, however, Mingus broke away from given compositional frameworks.

John Lewis, photograph by William P. Gottlieb, ca.1947

The music of the trumpeter and Count Basie arranger Thad Jones and Bennie Green had a strong influence on the group : Charles Mingus had signed the trombonist on his debut label and played in his Four Trombones project, the one from jazz -Workshop concerts in 1953 with Kai Winding , JJ Johnson and Willie Dennis and Green. Other musicians involved in the workshop were the saxophonist George Barrow (ts, bs), the pianists Mal Waldron , John Lewis , Wally Cirillo , the vibraphonist Teddy Charles , the cellist Jackson Wiley and the drummers Rudy Nichols , Art Taylor and Clem DeRosa .

During this time, Charles Mingus' music appeared less experimental, but more “academic” and closer to cool jazz and contemporary concert music than to bebop . Overall, the recordings have a rather melancholy, subdued tone (which also earned them the mockery of Miles Davis , to whom the pieces sometimes seemed like "tired paintings", sometimes "depressed") in contrast to the later jazz workshop.

Charles Mingus should continue to use the term Jazz Workshop for his band projects and records; The album Pithecanthropus Erectus comes from the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop and Mingus even named the music label Jazz Workshop or its publishing house, which is still in existence today, after the Debut Records Jazz Workshop , which was operated jointly with Roach, and registered this name as a trademark . His groups, for example in the early and mid-1960s with Eric Dolphy , operated under this name.

The records of the Jazz Composers Workshop

  • Charles Mingus: Jazz Composers Workshop (Savoy SV 0171, 1954–1955)

The record contains two sessions of the workshop with different line-ups. The first recording session, October 31, 1954, contains four compositions by Mingus, Purple Heart , Gregarian Chant , Getting Together and Eulogy For Rudy Williams, as well as the Standard Tea for Two . Besides Mingus: Teo Macero (ts, bs), John La Porta (cl, as), Mal Waldron (p) and Rudy Nichols (dr).

Charles Mingus wrote in the Liner Notes: “ Gregarian Chant and Getting Together are new inventions of an old idea. I played this type of head arrangement at the Down Beat Club in Los Angeles in 1946 in a band called Stars Of Swing with musicians like Buddy Collette , Britt Woodman and Lucky Thompson . I mean, playing in this style is the safest way of musical expression [...] ”Regarding“ Purple Heart ”Mingus notes:“ I wrote it as simply as possible for Miles Davis, just to record it with baritone saxophone, bass and drums. ” Eulogy For Rudy Williams was written in tribute to the late tenor saxophonist, member of the Savoy Sultans . To Tea For Two notes Mingus: "I used this one title, but you can just as Body and Soul , Perdido or even Prisoner of Love hear."

The second session on January 30, 1955, in which Mingus was also involved, was led by the pianist Wally Cirillo , who also contributed all the pieces and arrangements ( Smog LA, Level Seven, Transeason, Rose Geranium ). George Barrow , Kenny Clarke and Teo Macero also played .

This December 1954 record was also released under the title Intrusions (Ember CJS 832). It was also released on CD under the title The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus ( Bethlehem ) and Abstractions (Affinity AFF 750). It contains other music from the context of the Jazz Workshop , such as the Cole Porter standard What Is This Thing Called Love? , Stormy Weather by Harold Arlen , the Mingus compositions Minor Intrusion , Four Hands , The Spur of the Moment (based on George Gershwins ’S Wonderful ) and Thrice Upon A Time . The piece Abstractions is by Teo Macero. In addition to Charles Mingus (b) and Teo Macero (ts, bs), John LaPorta (as, cl), Jackson Wiley (cello) and Clem de Rosa (dr) also play.

The CD Abstractions also contains the instrumental pieces from the later album A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry from 1957, namely Nouroog , Duke's Choice and Slippers with Bill Hardman (tp), Jimmy Knepper (tb), Shafi Hadi (ts), Bob Hammer respectively . Horace Parlan (p) and Dannie Richmond (dr).

literature

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  1. ↑ Mingus recalls in the liner notes for Pithecanthropus Erectus that the reaction at the time to bars that were not written out was accusations of laziness.
  2. ↑ Mingus praises Thad Jones in 1954 as the greatest trumpeter I have heard in my whole life , Carr, Fairweather, Priestley: Rough Guide Jazz 1999, p. 343 and Mingus' debut label also released the first recordings of Thad Jones under his own in 1954 Name The Fabulous Thad Jones .
  3. ↑ quoted from: Filtgen Weber: Charles Mingus , 1984