Mingus at Monterey

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Mingus at Monterey
Live album by Charles Mingus

Publication
(s)

1966

Label (s) Jazz Workshop , Fantasy , Prestige , OJC

Format (s)

2-LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

occupation

Studio (s)

Monterey

chronology
Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop
(1964) 		Mingus at Monterey My Favorite Quintet
(1966)

Mingus at Monterey is a jazz album by Charles Mingus that was recorded on September 20, 1964 at the Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, California . It was released in 1966 on Mingus' own label, Jazz Workshop . The album was first released as a compact disc in 1986 in Japan on Fantasy Records .

background

After his successful European tour in the summer of 1964 (documented on the album The Great Concert, Paris 1964 ) and an engagement at the jazz club The Jazz Showcase in San Francisco ( Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop ), Mingus performed at the Monterey Jazz in September 1964 Festival on. First he played with his regular band, which at the time consisted of Lonnie Hillyer , Booker Ervin , Jaki Byard and Dannie Richmond . For the sick booker Ervin, John Handy partly took over the tenor saxophone. First, the Mingus band played an extensive Duke Ellington medley , followed by the Mingus composition " Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk ". Mingus had come to Monterey with a new unison frontline arrangement of his track "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress," which Gil Evans used in 1978 for his recording of the track with George Adams . The Mingus band received a standing ovation from the audience; The high point for both the jazz press and the regional newspapers was the big band performance of “ Meditations on Integration ”, played by a twelve-person formation that Buddy Collette had put together and which, in addition to the regular Mingus musicians, also included trumpeter Bobby Bryant and Melvin Moore , tuba player Red Callender , trombonist Lou Blackburn, and Charles McPherson (alto), John Handy (tenor) and Jack Nimitz (baritone saxophone).

Buddy Collette had rehearsed with the musicians two days earlier; the orchestration of the written out passages came from Jaki Byard. Mingus wrote:

“[First] they play the composed part. Then comes the improvisation part, the composed part and again the improvisation part. In this case, improvisation does not indicate what you are playing, but to what extent you are playing. One plays a composed part while another improvises on it. It's chaos , but organized chaos. "

Mingus had applied this principle of the controlled avant-garde a few days earlier in a concert series entitled October Revolution in Jazz with his compositions "Far Well's" and "Mill Valley".

Mingus mailed the recordings on his own label as a double album for $ 10 in the 1960s, before being released by other labels in Europe and Japan.

Track list

  • Charles Mingus: Mingus at Monterey (Jazz Workshop JWS 001 / JWS 002, Jazz Workshop 710-1572, Fantasy - VDJ-1572)
  • Ellington Medley - midnight
  1. I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good ( Ben Webster , Ellington)
  2. In a Sentimental Mood (Ellington)
  3. All Too Soon ( Carl Sigman , Ellington)
  4. Mood Indigo ( Barney Bigard , Ellington, Mills)
  5. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington, Mills, Mitchell Parish )
  6. Take the "A" Train ( Billy Strayhorn , Ellington)
  7. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk (Mingus) - 16:25
  8. Meditations on Integration (Mingus) - 26:20
  • Note: The track list follows the edition of Mingus at Monterey as compact disc (Jazz Workshop 710-1572, Fantasy - VDJ-1572).

reception

The magazine Hi Fi / stereo Review wrote in 1965 after the album was released under the heading "A Festival Triumph": "The double album is characterized by emotional depth and daring imagination, which is probably the most remarkable triumph in festival history."

Scott Yanow gave the album a 4½ (out of five) star rating in Allmusic

"One of the highlights of Charles Mingus' career was his appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964. [...] This music [...] shows the bassist / composer / band leader at the peak of his powers."

For the Mingus biographers Horst Weber and Gerd Filtgen, the Ellington medley begins “melodically and cautiously [...], and then turns up mightily in“ Take the "A" Train ”. Jaki Byard plays in impressive form. "

See also

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Published on the album Gil Evans Live at the Royal Festival Hall London 1978 ( RCA Victor PL 25209).
  2. ↑ a b Review of Scott Yanow's Mingus at Monterey album at Allmusic . Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c Brian Priestley : Mingus. A Critical Biography. Quartet Books, London, Melbourne, New York City, ISBN 0704322757 , pp. 163 f.
  4. ↑ Hi Fi / stereo Review - Volume 14 - page 74 1965
  5. ^ Horst Weber, Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus. His life, his music, his records. Gauting-Buchendorf: Oreos, undated, ISBN 3-923657-05-6 , p. 151 ff.