Mingus at Carnegie Hall
| Mingus at Carnegie Hall | ||||
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| Live album by Charles Mingus | ||||
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| Label (s) | Atlantic Records | |||
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LP, CD |
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2 |
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Mingus at Carnegie Hall is a jazz album by Charles Mingus . It was recorded at a concert on January 19, 1974 in New York's Carnegie Hall and was released in the same year as a long-playing record on Atlantic Records , and in 1996 as a compact disc on Rhino Records . It was the bassist and band leader's last live album (who died five years later).
background
On January 19, 1974, Mingus was given the opportunity to give a concert in a large concert hall for the third time since his revival. For this concert in Carnegie Hall, Mingus expanded his quintet of Hamiet Bluiett (who only recently joined the band), George Adams , Don Pullen and Dannie Richmond to include trumpeter Jon Faddis , alto saxophonist Charles McPherson , John Handy (alto and Tenor saxophone) and Rahsaan Roland Kirk , most of whom had played in Mingus' bands before.
The concert was advertised as An Evening with Charles Mingus and Old Friends ; Carnegie Hall sold out for tickets between $ 4.50 and $ 6.50. With Jon Faddis, Roland Kirk and Charles McPherson, the quintet had already performed at the Village Vanguard the week before to get used to it.
At the concert, the regular quintet first played several well-known compositions by the band leader, " Peggy's Blue Skylight " (1961), "Celia" (1957) and " Fables of Faubus " (1959) as well as Don Pullen's piece "Big Alice" from the previous album Mingus Moves ( 1974); however, all of these remained unpublished. Only the jam session with the guests appeared on the Atlantic LP, based on two tracks popular with the Duke Ellington Orchestra , " Perdido " and "C-Jam Blues".
Music of the album
“C-Jam Blues” starts with a riff ; then (0:34) John Handy plays his solo on the tenor saxophone. He is followed by Hamiet Bluiett on the baritone (4:07), then George Adams on the tenor saxophone (6:17), who quickly breaks out into the realms of free jazz , although the other musical framework remains rather conservative. Then follows Roland Kirk (9:36), who initially phrased like George Adams . After the concert, Mingus said to Kirk's game: " He was cuttin 'him at his own shit ". After Kirk's long solo, trumpeter Jon Faddis steps in with Dizzy Gillespie- style phrasing (15:02) before Charles McPherson does the final solo (18:54). The band then plays the end together (19:39); “But then Kirk breaks out and prevents the planned end [20:12]. Dannie Richmond puts the final accent after the final accent in the hope of getting Kirk to quit, which does nothing, on the contrary: George Adams joins them. With his circulation technique, Kirk then makes an endless tone. "
The sequence of solos in “Perdido” begins again with John Handy, this time on the usual alto saxophone, followed by Bluiett on the baritone, Kirk on tenor saxophone and Stritch (a converted Eb alto saxophone), then McPherson, Adams, Faddis and finally Don Pulling on the piano.
Track list
- Charles Mingus: Mingus at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic SD 1667 (US), ATL 50 116, SD 1667 (D))
- C-Jam Blues ( Barney Bigard / Duke Ellington ) - 24:26
- Perdido ( Ervin Drake / HJ Lengsfelder / Juan Tizol ) - 24:52
reception
Stuar Kremsky gave the album in Allmusic 4½ (of five) stars and wrote, although the Atlantic Records "somehow perverse" selected section of the concert leg consider the jam session, but cling both the solid opening by Mingus' then- working band- like and the freely played final. What remained was an entertaining 45 minutes of music, sometimes with a jovial interplay of saxophonists Kirk and Adams.
Ted Gioia wrote of "C-Jam Blues" that Charles Mingus - in contrast to many other artists who perform in Carnegie Hall - organized the "loosest, free-running jam based on the simplest of changes ." Gioia counts the title among them "Most excellent jam sessions in the jazz annals". Opposite John Handy, Hamiet Bluiett, George Adams Rahsaan Roland Kirk stole the show from everyone. Faddis and McPherson would briefly try to bring some blues decor into the piece, but in the end everything breaks apart into loose forms.
For the Mingus biographers Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen, the album is “basically a jam session on the concert stage.” John Handy is not very convincing; he had problems with the setting and tone of the tenor saxophone. He phrased "like on the alto saxophone, with which he would have stayed better". Kirk's solo turned out to be too long "and not constructive because it involves too many repetitions." Charles McPherson's solo, on the other hand, was "relaxed and relaxed, beautiful in tone and phrasing". In “Perdido” the rhythm team Mingus / Richmond is not convincing because the two play more side by side than together.
Even Brian Priestley showed in his Mingus Biography (1985) reservations about the album: "What has been published is fun, but hardly indicative of the qualities of regular quintet, particularly at the moment where Hamiet Bluiett played alongside the man he had indirectly replaced George Adams. ”In this context, Priestley pointed out the great qualities of the Adams / Bluiett frontline, which then came to bear at the concert in honor of Charles Mingus' 52nd birthday in Toronto.
Critics Richard Cook & Brian Morton gave the album 3½ stars (out of four) in The Penguin Guide to Jazz, citing the bassist's insistence that jazz was America's classical music. In Mingus' dedication of the concert (part) to Duke Ellington, he would have recognized its importance for African American music. Although there are better Mingus albums than this one, the authors objected, this appearance was a huge step forward for Mingus. "Sometimes the event is more important than the individual element it contains."
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Gene Santoro Myself When I am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press 2000, p. 325
- ↑ a b Brian Priestley: Mingus. A Critical Biography. Quartet Books, London, Melbourne, New York City ISBN 0704322757
- ^ Gene Santoro Myself When I am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus , p. 326
- ^ Mingus discography (jazzdisco.org)
- ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed February 1, 2014)
- ↑ a b c Horst Weber, Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus. His life, his music, his records. Gauting-Buchendorf: Oreos, undated, ISBN 3-923657-05-6 , p. 167 f.
- ^ Review of Stuart Kremsky's album Mingus at Carnegie Hall on Allmusic . Retrieved January 24, 2015.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 , p. 1034.
