Search - Charles Mingus :: Mingus in Europe

Classic Mingus

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 04/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Two albums from this concert from Wuppertal, Germany, have been released; this is vol. 2, though it doesn't actually say that on the cover. Johnny Coles is absent due to illness, but the core band sounds just fine--Eric Dolphy on alto and bass clarinet, Clifford Jordan on tenor, Jaki Byard on piano, & Mingus & Dannie Richmond motoring things along as usual. The basic material is all in the avant-blues mode that Mingus made his own, by turns lyrical and sardonic--"Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk", "Peggy's Blue Sky Light", "So Long Eric", all pieces subject to Mingus's inimitable methods of variation, creating lengthy, complex structures on the stand. (It's worth comparing this procedure to Anthony Braxton's classic quartet discs of the 1980s--the idea's quite similar, though Braxton uses far more notated material of course.) In the middle of the album come two brief interludes--Byard's stride-piano feature & Mingus's rendition of "Sophisticated Lady"--which are both very good, but the meat of the album is in those three long tracks. Sound is very good on the first four tracks of the album; "So Long Eric" was originally excluded from the disc, probably because of some sonic problems (a lot of chatter caught by the mike, & a few other oddities, like the faint whistling during the statement of the head) but these are minor flaws--it's well worth hearing. These are some of Dolphy's last recorded statements with Mingus, & some of his best."