{"id":547,"date":"2011-08-17T16:24:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T16:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/?p=547"},"modified":"2011-08-17T16:24:13","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T16:24:13","slug":"jazz-bassist-charles-mingus-goes-from-massey-hall-to-pithecanthropus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/2011\/08\/17\/jazz-bassist-charles-mingus-goes-from-massey-hall-to-pithecanthropus\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz bassist Charles Mingus goes from Massey Hall to Pithecanthropus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership development<\/h2>\n
\n

The three albums discussed in this article \trepresent bassist Charles \tMingus<\/a> growing in stature as bass player, composer and band \tleader. On the first album he becomes leader almost by default as \tthe two who were meant to lead the outfit which has come to be known \tas “The Quintet”, Charlie \tParker<\/a> and Bud \tPowell<\/a>, were not able to function properly as leaders due to \tvarious personal issues. Mingus took over the role and did his best \tto protect the interests of all the musicians involved.<\/p>\n

The next two albums show Mingus taking over \tleadership and really getting, so to say, into the swing of it. The \tBohemia<\/em> albums are live dates originally released, as was \tJazz at Massey Hall<\/em> , on the label that Mingus and Max \tRoach<\/a> formed, called Debut.<\/p>\n

Pithecanthropus<\/em> was an Atlantic album \tand was the start of Mingus’s productive relationship with producer \tNesuhi \tErtegun<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Cover<\/span><\/a>

Cover of the original 10 inch LP<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Cover<\/span><\/a>

Cover of the 12 inch LP also used on later CD releases<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Cover<\/span><\/a>

Cover of the double CD re-release by French label Carrere - this is the version I now have<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jazz at Massey Hall<\/h2>\n
\n

This great album was one of my earliest \t\texposures to this wonderful music usually called jazz. My brother Chris brought home from university \t\ta copy of a 10-inch LP of the concert (I imagine it was the \t\toriginal Debut release) which had been put on by the Toronto, \t\tCanada, New Jazz Society on 15 May 1953. Being about 12 at the time \t\twhat got me fired up at the time was Max Roach’s amazing solo in \t\tthe Dizzy \t\tGillespie<\/a> number “Salt Peanuts.” It was just a blast \t\tfor me and I couldn’t get enough of it.<\/p>\n

Besides Roach and Gillespie the other musicians are, of course, Mingus, who completes the \t\trock-solid rhythm section with Bud Powell on piano and the \t\tincomparable Charlie Parker (who, for contractual reasons, was \t\tcredited on the album as “Charlie Chan”) on alto. A veritable feast of bop \t\tsuper-stars!<\/p>\n

By this time, as C. Michael Bailey has written \t\ton the internet jazz magazine AllAboutJazz, bop “had fully \t\tmatured and was settling in as the established mainstream rather \t\tthan the cutting edge movement it had been in the early 1940s.” \t\tBut on this night of jazz, bop, “in all of its brilliant \t\tinvention was alive, well, and in charge.”<\/p>\n

Over the years my appreciation for this album \t\thas grown, and I think around in particular two of the pieces on it \t\t(not that the others aren’t great – just these are my particular \t\tfavourites), namely Ellington’s “Perdido” and Jerome \t\tKern’s wonderful 1939 song “All the Things You Are.”<\/p>\n

“Perdido” gets off to flying start \t\twhich doesn’t let up, the only slight tentativeness is at the \t\tbeginning of Parker’s solo which is not surprising seeing he was \t\tplaying an unfamiliar borrowed instrument, \t\tand a plastic one at that! Gillespie’s solo is just stratospheric, \t\tboth in register and virtuosity.<\/p>\n

“All the Things You Are” is a lovely \t\ttune to start with and these musicians give it a wonderful feel, as \t\tis to be expected. What appeals to me the most is what Powell does \t\tbehind the other musicians – just gorgeous comping with the \t\toccasional melodic comment on what a soloist is doing. Mingus is \t\talso so solid there. Altogether entrancing music from a group of \t\tmasters – almost eight minutes of pure heaven!<\/p>\n

The other tracks on the album are Gillespie’s “A \t\tNight in Tunisia” and “Salt Peanuts”; and Tadd \t\tDameron’s “Wee” and “Hot House”.<\/p>\n

To quote Bailey again, this album is a \t\t“testament”, “The elder statesmen of Be Bop stood on \t\tthe bandstand and gave the next generation of jazz musicians a \t\tlesson in performing Modern \t\tJazz and from that performance came everything else we hear \t\ttoday.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/span><\/a>The Charles Mingus Quintet Plus Max Roach<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This 1955 album has Mingus in the leader’s role \t\tand how firmly he does it! Other musicians on this live date at New \t\tYork City’s Caf\u00e9 Bohemia are Eddie Bert on trombone, George Barrow \t\ton tenor, Mal Waldron on piano and Willie Jones on drums ( Max \t\tRoach joins the group only on the tracks “Drums”, a \t\tMingus composition, and “I’ll Remember April”).<\/p>\n

Of the six tracks on this album I will write \t\tabout only three here.<\/p>\n

The first is Mingus’s “Haitian Fight Song” \t\twhich he opens with an eight-bar bass solo which sets the swinging \t\tmood of the whole number, before George Barrow’s tenor comes in. \t\tHe takes a couple of choruses and then lets Mal Waldron on piano \t\ttake over with the horns giving support in the background over \t\tMingus’s driving, walking bass line. Then its the turn of Eddie \t\tBert on trombone before Mingus comes back with a solo mostly in the \t\tlower register of his instrument with a few flights up to the \t\thigher end, then the ensemble led by Barrow takes it out.<\/p>\n

The next track is that lovely ballad by Gene De \t\tPaul, Pat Johnston and Don Raye, “I’ll Remember April” \t\twhich Mingus introduces with some interesting bass sounds before \t\tBarrow takes over. The ensemble plays it somewhat up-tempo and very \t\tswinging. The bridge has some intriguing contrapuntal exchanges \t\tbetween Barrow and Bert. Halfway through the track there is some \t\tinteresting trading of fours between Roach, Barrow and Bert before \t\tRoach gets his turn to solo, and its a very eloquent solo too, very \t\ttypical of the man’s style!<\/p>\n

Waldron sets up Mingus’s “Love Chant” \t\twith some rolling chords which he keeps going as Bert takes over \t\twith Barrow coming in to join the three in some intricate \t\tinterplay. Again the contrapuntal figures from Barrow and Bert set \t\tup some dissonant chords before they set off again playing catch up \t\twith each other. Thereafter Barrow gets down to some serious \t\tswinging soloing with bass and drums giving strong support. Bert \t\tgets another chance before the whole swinging affair comes to a \t\tglorious end. Willie Jones’s contributions are particularly \t\tinteresting as the song ends.<\/p>\n

The other tracks on the album are Gershwin’s “A \t\tFoggy Day” and Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Pithecanthropus Erectus<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>This four-track album was recorded in 1956 at the Atlantic Studios in New York City and produced by Nesuhi Ertegun. The band supporting Mingus consisted of Jackie McLean on alto, J.R. Monterose on tenor, Mal Waldron on piano and Willie Jones on drums.<\/p>\n

The tracks on the album were three Mingus numbers and Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day”. The Mingus compositions were “Pithecanthropus Erectus”, “Profile of Jackie” and “Love Chant”.<\/p>\n

Mingus described the title track as a “tone poem” about the rise of humanity, from the earliest hominids until the eventual demise of humankind. The name of the track can be seen as a play on Mingus’s instrument, the upright bass, as the Latin means “Upright Ape-man”.<\/p>\n

Most critics rate Pithecanthropus Erectus as one of Mingus’s greatest albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership development The three albums discussed in this article represent bassist Charles Mingus growing in stature as bass player, composer and band leader. On the first album he becomes leader almost by default as the two who were meant to lead the outfit which has come to be known as “The Quintet”, Charlie Parker and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"1","amazon-product-single-asin":"B000002I7U","amazon-product-content-location":"3","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"3","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"3","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[137,28],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz","tag-charles-mingus","tag-jazz-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}