Charles Mingus - The Albums Poll!

Nope. You'll have to go back in time and check me bombing with that piece at the Ann Arbor slam in '95.

haha my team had the requisite "name-drop jazz artists" piece, and in it I pantomimed bass. I took my cues from videos of Mingus!

lolololol

SWEEEEET.

haha

I declare today Charles Mingus Day

*Mingus Ah Um* but I could've gone w/Antibes, Black Saint, Let My Children Hear Music, MMMMM, Dynasty.

Oh Yeah was the first Mingus LP I got so that's a sentimental fave.

'

there is an entire concert of the 1964 sextet in Norway up on youtube

o, in case anyone else cares, Revenge! is April 18, 1964; Great Concert is April 19 (my b-day!), 1964

Wish my birthday had something as cool as that.

I have almost all of these, heard them all, and "Blues & Roots has it hands down for me. "Antibes," "Black Saint," and "Mingus Presents Mingus" are all about equal to it.

It's all sooo good!

also I could have sworn Mingus did a version of Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho but I don't know why

-- El Tomboto, Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:06 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

me too, but i thought about it for a while and remembered that when i was little we kept a mingus cd and a mahalia jackson cd in the stereo for the alarm clock... that song is forever in my subconscious. it makes me panicked whenever i hear it.

I feel old when people say they had cds when they were little. We didn't get a cd player until I was 14 I think. Was the 1st one in my year at school to get one I think, as I kept getting asked to tape people cd's I got.

I feel old when I see eBay & Craigslist listings for "LP Vinyl Record Albums"

what?

what age are you hoos?

Damn, I should've includedCornell 1964

MIngus Ah Um. It's the one that made me fall in love with Mingus -- and I think that 1959 trilogy of records (Ah Um, Blues & Roots and Dynasty) is an astounding run. But I don't think I've heard a Mingus record I don't like (I could've voted for Black Saint, Let My Children Hear Music, the Great Concert, Cornell, Tijuana Moods ... the list goes on.) Still haven't heard that UCLA gig, but it's only a matter of time.

I'm going with Oh Yeah, although my Mingus preference changes daily, and sometimes hourly. It could just as easily be Black Saint.

Ah Um, with x5 second.

Mingus preference changes daily

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady usually wins out though for me.

Ah Um is the album that I'd probably pull out if I wanted to convince a skeptical jazz fan of his greatness - it's a polished tour-de-force of composition, arrangement and musicianship, and it has enough of Mingus's quirky ideas that some of his personality comes through - even while it remains firmly within the tradition. You hear lots of Ellington in it, echoes of things Coltrane was doing around that time or would soon be doing, and so forth. However, I guess I just kind of prefer the Mingus albums that leave the rough edges intact, that blur the boundaries of jazz - mixing in blues, gospel, etc. - and where Mingus's edginess comes through.

I'm kinda surprised at the thought of a jazz fan being skeptical about the greatness of Mingus.

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

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Last day of votes, get them in.

6 hours left!

90 mins left for some Mingus voting!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

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.