Mingus Three
| Mingus Three | ||||
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| Studio album by Charles Mingus | ||||
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Publication |
1957 |
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| Label (s) | Jubilee Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP / CD |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
37:54 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Lee force |
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Studio (s) |
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Mingus Three (also Trio, The Wild Bass or Mingus Moods ) is a jazz album by Charles Mingus , recorded on July 9, 1957 in New York City. The album was released that same year on the Jubilee label and was later also released by Disques Vogue , Roulette Records and Fresh Sound Records .
The album
In his autobiography Raise up off me (1974), Hampton Hawes described how he had been burned down in New York in July 1957 on the corner of 45th and Broadway and met Charles Mingus. When he asked him for money, Mingus offered him to take part in a triosession. " I fixed and made [it] ," wrote Hawes.
The footage of Mingus Three emerged after Mingus' recordings of The Clown in March 1957 for Atlantic Records and nine days before his Tijuana Moods -Studiosessions for RCA . The month before, he had performed with the George Russell Orchestra at the Brandeis Jazz Festival ( Revelations ).
Pianist Hampton Hawes and his regular drummer Dannie Richmond played with bassist Charles Mingus . The trio interpreted mostly popular jazz standards by Vernon Duke ( I Can't Get Started ), George Gershwin ( Summertime ) or Jerome Kern ( Yesterdays ), as well as the improvisation Hamp’s New Blues attributed to Hawes and two compositions by Mingus himself, including Dizzy Moods , which he should then also play in his Tijuana Moods session with an expanded cast. After recordings between 1953 and 1955 with Spaulding Givens , Bud Powell , Billy Taylor , Paul Bley , John Mehegan and John Dennis , these were the last piano trio recordings by Charles Mingus in the 1950s, who only had a session with Duke in 1962 Ellington and Max Roach ( Money Jungle ) contributed and released an album of solo improvisations ( Mingus Plays Piano , 1963).
Yesterdays is a head arrangement that uses a brisk tempo than usual; Hamp's New Blues described Mingus as bebop blues , which, according to Nat Hentoff, illustrates a critic's comment:
- " Hawes continues to extract freshness and beauty from this timeless material "
Dizzy Moods was born out of Mingus 'admiration for the composition Woodyn' You by Dizzy Gillespie , with the title he changed the original chord structure and wrote a new melody for the changed sequence. Mingus expected Hawes to play more simple blues than he usually did, Hentoff wrote. This trio session is different from other trio encounters;
- "... although there is an overall feeling of fusion, of tempered rapport, this is as much a dialogue between Mingus and Hawes with punctuation from Richmond as it is a group expression."
List of titles
- Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (Jubilee JLP 1054)
- Yesterdays ( Otto Harbach , Jerome Kern ) - 4:13
- Back Home Blues - 5:29
- I Can't Get Started ( Vernon Duke , Ira Gershwin ) - 6:28
- Hamp's New Blues (Hampton Hawes) - 3:52
- Summertime ( George Gershwin , Ira Gershwin , DuBose Heyward ) - 4:28
- Dizzy Moods - 6:51
- Laura ( Johnny Mercer , David Raksin ) - 6:33
- All other titles are from Charles Mingus.
Editorial notes
The recordings first appeared on Jubilee Records. The recordings were released under the title The Wild Bass in 1964 as a mono LP on Disques Vogue in France, and in 1974 under Mingus Moods on Trip Jazz in the United States. In 1977 a version with the original title followed on Jubilee (YW-7566-RO) in Japan. After an LP version on Fresh Sound Records in 1987, the first version on compact disc followed in 1989, also on Fresh Sound Records. The album was released in 1997 on Roulette Records in Europe and the USA. This was followed by editions in Europe of the label Doxy (2009), Poll Winner Records (2011) and DOL (2012).
review
The Mingus biographers Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen emphasize the quality of the spontaneous session: "Even after Hampton Hawes' brilliantly phrased solo entry in Yesterdays , it becomes clear that it will be an exciting affair." The other highlights of the album include the authors Back Home Blues , "in which one [has] the impression that Mingus has pulled his bass strings onto a deep black blues guitar", I Can't Get Started in which the bassist "makes use of the narrative character of his instrument", and Summertime , that
- "Sultry atmosphere [...] is created by the buzzing and clattering of the tambourine and other percussion effects. The stereotypical bass figure that accompanies the theme brings even more heat into the piece, until Hawes' blues-related improvisation gives way with a change of tempo. "
Michael G. Nastos states in Allmusic that the meeting of the two co-leaders (Hawes and Mingus) is "a good case study in group dynamics", "when respect between two strong-willed individualists results in a compromise". Drummer Danny Richmond is not so much the peacemaker or even the mediator ; rather, he leads this triad into a sympathetic whole by cooling the embers with his steady and stubborn play. “With the complexity that Mingus' music tends to be, it's nice to hear what he's doing in a simplified environment.” His back home blues are as simple as his bass, while the Mingus composition is Dizzy Moods are deeply rooted in simple swing and allow darker timbres. Richmond uses the tambourine in Dizzy Moods ; Summertime is interpreted here in the style of A Night in Tunisia , while the fast Hamp's New Blues sets bop accents. The highlights include the author Hawes' new arrangement of Yesterdays and the final track Laura , which sounds like it was derived from Tea for Two . This album, according to the author in his summary, is a prelude to Money Jungle (1962).
In All About Jazz , David Rickert is surprised at how conventional Mingus Three turns out (compared to the Mingus albums of that time); Still, Hampton Hawes is a great pianist and this is more his album than any other. The group works through a series of standards, which are never too abstract. There is a wealth of interplay, with Mingus showing himself to be an excellent accompanist.
Miles Jordan wrote in JazzTimes that this rare trio session by Charles Mingus was "both a showcase for Mingus and Hawes". " A fascinating sidelight in both of their careers ".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Information about the album at Discogs
- ↑ a b Review of Mingus Three at JazzTimes (1997)
- ^ A b Charles Mingus discography at jazzdisco.org
- ↑ a b Liner Notes by Nat Hentoff
- ↑ In the original: to make Hamp play even more basic blues than he has been accustomed to
- ↑ Vogue (VJD562) also released the album under The Mingus Connection . See Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography , Volume 15. Lord Music Reference, 1996 and Brian Priestley , Mingus, London: Quartet Books, 192, p. 283
- ↑ Quotation Weber / Filtgen, Charles Mingus , Oreos, p. 100 f.
- ↑ Review of the album Mingus Three by Michael G. Nastos at Allmusic (English)
- ^ Review of Mingus Three at All About Jazz