Charles Mingus - The Albums Poll!

It's a purely theoretical example, I'll grant you.

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Unless it's an ilx jazz fan being contrary of course.

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90 mins left for some Mingus voting!

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Ohhh that was close

I thought Pithecanthropus Erectus would've done better actually.

I had hoped someone else liked Tijuana. Ah well.

I thought Pithecanthropus Erectus would've done better actually.

-- Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 20 December 2007 01:10 (28 minutes ago) Link

the title track is incredible and i remember it having another song i love but as an album some of the performances are somewhat perfunctory i think.

also how was the album TONIGHT AT NOON excluded??

Because whoever did the wikipedia entry missed loads out

Disagree about Pith E. The title track is indeed astonishing (especially for 1956!) but the rest of the album is fine too; "A Foggy Day" with its street noises and sound effects, "Portrait Of Jackie" a brief but lovely ballad feature, "Love Chant" is In A Silent Way a dozen years ahead of schedule.

Great album.

I need to give Let My Children Hear Music another spin.

It's a wonderful record. The Sy Oliver arrangements make it more polished sounding than a lot of Mingus -- doesn't have that wildness -- so it doesn't appeal to people for whom wildness is Mingus's major draw.

"Hobo Ho" is pretty wild, even if Teo Macero had to splice multiple takes together because the band couldn't get through the piece in one go.

There was a segment on Cab Calloway this morning on NPR and it made me think that maybe Mingus's hollering and more raucous sounding tunes owed something to Calloway's over-the-top big-band style.

He wasn't the only singer like that was he?

Probably not - the idea just occurred to me as I was listening to some of the Calloway clips. It's not just a band-leader shouting and singing over the band like that, or the energetic, scat-like exclamations and unhinged sense of humor - it's also that the "more is more" arrangements of Calloway's band put me in mind of the exuberant ensemble playing on certain Mingus tracks.

You might be right of course, I just hadn't thought about that. Is there a good Mingus biography available?

I guess not.

There is Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus.

But I haven't read it, that question made me remember I got it at the library sale a few year ago. I have pulled it out to read soon.

Actually, Gene Santoro's Myself When I Am Real is great. (Though it slanders Elvis Costello at one point.) Sue Graham Mingus' Tonight at Noon is a good personal account. And you must read Beneath the Underdog if you haven't.

I kept the Santoro book by my bedside for a long time.

Jazz usually can't sustain my interest fro a whole album, but I make an exception for Blues and Roots. I may have to check out poll winners here.

I couldn't finish Beneath the Underdog

A lot of the classic Mingus albums seem more planned out as albums and better produced than typical jazz sessions.

I shall look out for that book then, thanks.

ahh this poll did better

I had a bunch of Mingus on my jazz poll.

That sounds like a double entendre.

it would if julian clary or kenneth williams said it

im sure at some pt we've talked about how 'black saint and the sinner lady,' while great, doesn't really capture what makes mingus awesome, right?

xp hahahaha

im sure at some pt we've talked about how 'black saint and the sinner lady,' while great, doesn't really capture what makes mingus awesome, right?
agree with this. awesome album, but not the most mingus-y of all his records. prefer the late 50s stuff, i think.
also worth your time is the young rebel set, which collects a ton of necessary early stuff.

I dunno, if someone asked me to put on a record that best represents Mingus, I'd pick Black Saint, Ah Um, and one of his 1964 dates (probably Paris), but not necessarily in that order.

black saint is epic symphonic madness which i guess is a mingus-y thing but only in the big picture sense ... it really doesnt sound anything like his other records

i think "ah um" is a great introduction bcuz it covers all the mingus song types p much, even if its not the best performances of each (although sometimes it is, cf goodbye porkpie hat) it really gives you an idea of the scope of his songwriting

no one particular alb gets all of cm's awesomeness, BSATSL gets some of it, The Clown gets other parts, and so on

yeah that is probably true.

otm

i've been on a mingus kick lately, it happens every couple of months. I always listen to Ah Um, Dynasty, and the 1964 live dates, but this time my favorite has been the 1970 "American" sessions recorded in Paris. It has an especially amazing version of Pithecanthropus Erectus with Jaki Byard absoulely killing it.

Mingus Dynasty was a bit robbed here, no?

"Far Wells Mill Valley" might be my fav Mingus air

this is a good thread, i thought it was impossible to exceed Mingus*5 but apparently two albums do so. must listen further

I don't want to be at work right now. I just want to go home and listen to Mingus all day.

Rather than start a new thread, I'm interested in knowing what Ilxor's very favourite Mingus numbers are. Seems even his weaker records contain at least one or two gems. If you were to contribute a track or two to a best-of, what would they be?

Like bendy, I would definitely say "Far Wells Mill Valley". Love this one, but I originally knew it as a sample in a dEUS song called 'Theme from Turnpike'.

Pretty much every moment off Mingus Ah Um and Black Saint is classic, but I especially like 'Fables of Faubus'.

I'm currently obsessed with 'Freedom' from Mingus x5 after a quote by Thom Yorke in the Radiohead poll about how he based Pyramid Song on it (although We Suck Young Blood is a more obvious tribute).

'Moanin' is one of his most catchy tunes - was this sampled for a TV ad? Why is that sax line so familiar?

Hard question! Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is the man's own best-of, really, slick re-recordings of his own favorite tunes and recorded during what seems to me to be his strongest artistic period, coming right after Black Saint if I remember right.

Guess I don't have an answer to that, sorry! There are so many albums and the ten or so I have are all pretty solid and full of gems, like you seem to know already. Even the later ones like Let My Children Hear Music are thoroughly and inimitably stamped with Mingus' personality. I don't even really know any names of the songs. I don't rate Ah Um particularly highly compared to some others, FWIW.

I think, however, it is worth saying that the Jazz Icons DVD with the small group live sets featuring Eric Dolphy is absolutely essential.

Better Git It in Your Soul, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, and Fables of Faubus (all from Ah Um) are locks imo.
My favorite piece might be Meditations On Integration or Meditations For A Pair Of Wire-Cutters. after Dolphy's death he called it Praying With Eric.

Folk Forms No. 1, the live version at Antibes. Kinda surprised given how often Mingus' compositions have been recorded the past 25 years that, as far as I know, nobody has put out a cover version yet. I wonder if Sue Mingus has something against that tune & "What Love."

Guess it is not really a best-of kind of entry at half an hour long, but Cumbia & Jazz Fusion is probably my favorite work of his from the '70s--swampy sections, drum duels, pretentious/beautiful piano, bird sounds, "diamonds in the nose" & modal groove.