Let My Children Hear Music

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Let My Children Hear Music
Studio album by Charles Mingus

Publication
(s)

1972

Label (s) Columbia

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

6/7

running time

59:33 (CD)

occupation

production

Teo Macero

Studio (s)

New York City

chronology
Charles Mingus with Orchestra
(1971)
Let My Children Hear Music Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert
(1972)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

Let My Children Hear Music is a jazz album by Charles Mingus . It was recorded with a large-format cast on September 23rd and 30th and October 1st and 18th, 1971 in New York City and was released in 1972 on Columbia Records .

The album

In the liner notes of the original LP, Mingus thanked producer Teo Macero for "his tireless efforts in producing the best album I have ever recorded." Teo Macero had previously been able to convince the Columbia management team to follow suit with the bassist and bandleader his five-year retreat from the scene to re-sign a record deal; Mingus had already recorded several albums for the label in 1959, including the legendary Mingus Ah Um . Macero commissioned the composer and band leader in 1971 to record an album for Columbia. Mingus originally planned to record Let My Children Hear Music in a small cast and only use a larger orchestra for the composition "The Chill of Death". However, it seemed uneconomical to those in charge at Columbia headquarters to hire all these musicians for just one title; they found it more sensible to conceive the whole record as a big band album. Mingus initially wanted Thad Jones as arranger and artistic director, but this could not be realized. In search of a replacement for Thad Jones, Mingus came across Sy Johnson ; In preparation for the project, he only gave him a few tapes, a few recordings and sketches of ideas, such as "The I of Hurricane Sue" and a live album from 1965, from which two of the pieces recorded on Let My Children Hear Music come.

Mingus recorded "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers" for his live album Music Written for Monterey 1965, Not Heard ... Played in Its Entirety at UCLA ; the original title was "Once Upon a Time There Was a Holding Corporation Called Old America". In 1965 Mingus recorded the composition in octets; Since no sheet music was available, Sy Johnson had to listen to the music from the 1965 album, transcribe it and orchestrate it for a large cast. This also applied to the composition "Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too", which was also played for the first time in 1965 at the UCLA concert. In addition to the ensemble, Sy Johnson used three pieces ("The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife ...", "Adagio Ma Non Troppo" and "The Chill of Death") with ten woodwinds (from piccolo flutes to bass clarinets ), brass , French horns , tuba , its section made up of six bassists and a cello . "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife ..." has been expanded and the pace increased; The main soloists here were alto saxophonist Charles McPherson , trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer and tenor saxophonist Bobby Jones .

Charles Mingus (born 1976 in New York)

Originally a composition for solo piano was “Adagio Ma Non Troppo”; Mingus recorded it in July 1963 for his album Mingus Plays Piano under the title "Myself When I am Real" . The transcription was then sent to Mingus by a fan; Alan Ralph orchestrated the piece using the six bassists; the bowed cello solo is played by Charles McCracken .

With the composition "Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too", the pace was increased compared to the original from 1965. Part of the composition comes from an even earlier work by Mingus, namely " The Clown "; the circus noise was later inserted by Mingus and Macero. The following opening solo is played by trumpeter Snooky Young . At the request of Mingus it was designed exactly as it had previously been played by the trumpeter Hobart Dotson ; Mingus understood this passage as a tribute to the deceased musician. In the middle of the piece Mingus has a bass solo - rare on this record -; the other main soloists are again McPherson, Hillyer and Bobby Jones.

The short "Taurus in the Arena of Life" was recorded by the smaller ensemble for the album, but was not released on the LP at the time, as it did not appear as the definitive version to those involved; it was only released with the 1992 CD edition. Sy Johnson later noted that with the gap of "20 years inserted into the album, it sounded more complete, and it also contained some beautiful passages". The piece begins with a short cadenza by Johann Sebastian Bach played by Roland Hanna ; Hanna tried them out during the session. The rest of the piece is rhythmically reminiscent of the “Spanish” pieces on his Tijuana Moods album from 1957.

Mingus originally wrote the ten-minute “Hobo Ho” for the recently received Guggenheim grant; it is opened by himself on bass; then saxophonist James Moody joins in and improvises on the topic. It is inspired by "Flying Home", one of the most famous tracks by Illinois Jacquet , which Mingus counts as one of his most important early influences in the liner notes alongside Coleman Hawkins ; He had Jacquet's original solo transcribed for the saxophone part. Illinois Jacquet was originally supposed to play the part himself, but this failed due to deadlines.

The composer wrote in the original liner notes of his youth composition “The Chill of Death”: “Here is a piece that I wrote in 1939; and I wrote it because in 1939 I thought I might record it someday. But I had to wait 30 years to play this piece (…) If I had been born in another country or a white man, I am sure I could have expressed my ideas much earlier ”. At the beginning of the piece, Mingus himself recites in his mumbling voice the corresponding poem he wrote, which is influenced by Poe . The arrangement by Mingus uses the bass section to create a dramatic atmosphere, stylistically based on film scores for horror films. The alto saxophone solo by Charles McPherson, heavily inspired by Charlie Parker , then overlies this orchestration .

Mingus dedicated the composition "The I of Hurricane Sue", the last track on the album, to his wife Sue ; he wrote that it was "nothing about her, just a tribute from me to her, that's all". Hurricane was the nickname Sue got from her brothers when she was a child. Mingus wrote it for the smaller ensemble; it opens with sounds reminiscent of storm and ocean surf atmospheres; Johnson's arrangement of the wind section follows this turbulent mood before McPherson, Jones and horn player Julius Watkins can unfold as soloists.

Rating of the album

Charles McPherson, one of the soloists on the album (2006)

The Mingus biographers Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen particularly emphasize the performance of the arranger Sy Johnson; Of its orchestration "one can only speak with respect, because despite the large cast the arrangements never seem cumbersome." The critic George Kanzler calls the album Mingus' most ambitious project in his attempt to create new "high buildings" in jazz by using larger ensembles and to create extensive compositional structures. Chancellor also mentions that Let My Children Hear Music was Mingus' favorite among his publications and evidences this with a letter from Mingus to Sy Johnson, which he sent from Mexico shortly before his death in 1979.

For Tim Ryan the album is one of the best of Mingus and on par with Mingus Ah Um and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Brian Olewnick, who awarded the album with the highest rating at Allmusic , highlights the importance that the album had for Mingus himself . “Although it is mostly his recordings with smaller ensembles that are often mentioned, Let My Children Hear Music is at the forefront of his oeuvre and is on a par with the greatest recordings for larger ensembles, and even with those of Duke Ellington . The pieces have matured over the years; one even dates from 1939. From the opening “The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers” to the lively “The I of Hurricane Sue”, some of the most expressive and lively songs ever recorded are among these tracks are. Each piece has its own strengths; But particular attention is paid to two titles in particular: “Adagio Ma Non Troppo” with its crystalline moments of beauty is an astonishing composition; “Hobo Ho” is a test of strength for James Moody's passionate tenor saxophone playing, which reaches incredible pitches; the wind players who supported him drove him and the other soloists riff on riff until the original composition slipped to the brink of total chaos. Let My Children Hear Music is a top performance and a must for every serious collector. ”Olewnick only comments critically that the new liner notes on the CD only reproduce fragments of the Mingus essay.

Writer Tim Ryan wrote, "Mingus had obviously found what he had lost, and the result was some of the most powerful, moving and ultimately entertaining music of his great career."

Aftermath of the album

With the title Let My Children Hear Music, Mingus programmatically addressed the Afro-American population as well as its fans; Mingus wrote in the liner notes : For too long all they have heard is noise . Mingus, Sy Johnson and Teo Macero took over large parts of the compositions and arrangements for the follow-up project, the live concert Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert 1972.

After completing the album, he worked with Gunther Schuller and continued to write orchestral compositions for up to 32 musicians; when he was no longer able to play due to illness, he sang or hummed his new compositions. After Mingus' death in 1979, Let My Children Hear Music was performed as a ballet by Alvin Ailey. Posthumously, on June 3, 1989, the version of “ Epitaph ” reconstructed by Gunther Schuller was performed, in which Mingus' composition “The Chill of Death” was also inserted. A final tribute to Mingus' work was the delivery of the manuscripts, recordings and photos to the Library of Congress by his widow Sue Mingus . Previously, the New York City Libraries had renamed their Mingus archive to "Let My Children Hear Music".

The French conceptual artist Jean-Jacques Birgé performed the work with Bernard Vitet in 1992 as part of the joint project Drame Musical Instanané (DMI).

Rolling Stone magazine voted the album at number 67 in its 2013 list of The 100 Best Jazz Albums .

Trivia

At the end of the production there was a dispute between Sy Johnson and Mingus because the latter wanted to have Orchestration by Charles Mingus on the record sleeve without mentioning Johnson's part in the arrangements.

There was also trouble because not all of the musicians involved were named when the record was released. The responsible Columbia employee was therefore transferred. Mingus' liner notes were nominated for a Grammy - the only Grammy nomination he received during his lifetime, "and it wasn't for his music."

Let My Children Hear Music is also the name of a New York non-profit organization founded in 1986 to nurture the compositional legacy of Charles Mingus through publishing, teaching, archiving and performing. The organization sponsored Gunther Schuller's 1989 performance of Epitaph at Lincoln Center.

The titles

  • Charles Mingus: Let My Children Hear Music (Columbia KC 31039 (LP) / Columbia 471247-2 (CD))
  1. The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slipper - 9:34 - Transcription, arrangement and orchestration by Sy Johnson
  2. Adagio ma Non Troppo - 8:22 - transcription by Hub Miller; Arrangement and orchestration by Alan Raph
  3. Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid Too - 9:26 - transcription, arrangement and orchestration by Sy Johnson; Directed by Teo Macero
  4. Taurus in the Arena of Life - 4:17 - transcription, arrangement and orchestration by Sy Johnson (not included on the LP)
  5. Hobo Ho - 10:07 - arrangement by Charles Mingus; Directed by Sy Johnson
  6. The Chill of Death - 7:38 arrangement / orchestration by Charles Mingus; Directed by Alan Raph; Recitation by Charles Mingus
  7. The I of Hurricane Sue - 10:09 - arrangement by Sy Johnson; Orchestrated by Charles Mingus

All compositions are by Charles Mingus.

literature

  • Horst Weber , Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus. His life, his music, his records. Gauting-Buchendorf: Oreos, undated, ISBN 3-923657-05-6
  • George Kanzler: Liner Notes Let My Children Hear Music (Columbia 471247-2)
  • Charles Mingus: What Is a Jazz Composer : In: Charles Mingus: More than a Fake Book . New York 1991: Jazz Workshop / Hal Leonard Publishing, pp. 155–158 (reprint of the original liner notes on the record)
  • Brian Priestley : Mingus: A Critical Biography London: Paladin 1985, ISBN 0-586-08478-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Quoted from Olewnick, AllMusic.
  2. Quoted from Weber / Filtgen, p. 162. You mention that the artistic director of the session, Alan Raph, had hired trombonist Jimmy Knepper ; Mingus and Knepper hadn't worked together since their argument nine years earlier and they didn't speak to each other during the session either.
  3. The album was released by Mingu's own record company, Jazz Workshop ; see. Weber / Filtgen, p. 162.
  4. Cy Johnson stated in a Down Beat interview in 1978 to have asked the composer for help with the transcription of this piece; who, however, said that he could no longer remember exactly. See Brian Priestley, p. 193; Weber / Filtgen, p. 162.
  5. See Chancellor, p. 6.
  6. See Weber/Filtgen, p. 162.
  7. Johnson, cit. according to Chancellor, p. 6.
  8. See Chancellor, p. 8; Filtgen / Weber p. 1962/193.
  9. Cf. Chancellor, p. 7. He also reports that Charlie Parker sent this solo to Mingus by telephone; it was inspired by Igor Stravinsky's Firebird , whom Parker admired very much.
  10. Quoted from Chancellor, p. 7.
  11. Quoted from Weber / Filtgen, p. 162.
  12. Quotation Weber / Filtgen, p. 162.
  13. Quoted from Chancellor, liner notes, p. 3.
  14. ^ The Taurus in Winter: Mingus in the 1970's
  15. Quoted from Olewnick, All Music Guide.
  16. Tim Ryan: The Taurus in Winter: Mingus in the 1970's in furious.com
  17. See Daniel Turner.
  18. Rolling Stone: The 100 Best Jazz Albums . Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  19. See Filtgen / Weber, p. 162. The two came to an agreement after looking up the differences between instrumentation and arrangement in a lexicon. See Priestley, p. 194
  20. Sue Graham Mingus Toonight at Noon. A Lovestory. Nautilus: Hamburg 2003, p. 126