Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl! Pressed at Pallas in Germany!
Rising to the challenge of the controversial music of Ornette Coleman in the '60s, Charles Mingus formed a quartet with Dannie Richmond, Ted Curson, and Eric Dolphy. "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus" its the quartet's only album and is often considered one of Mingus' best.
Mingus' formal education with H. Rheinshagen (bassist of the New York Philharmonic), and the legendary Lloyd Reese, along with listening to jazz-greats, and even touring in his early adulthood with masters such as Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton, led him to become one of the most important American music icons in the twentieth century.
Charles Mingus' music fascinates with its originality, which is nevertheless rooted in tradition. The freshness of an LP like "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus" has the effect of making much of what is called jazz seem boring. By Mingus' standards, the band is small and includes Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Danny Richmond on drums. This session is one of Dolphy and Curson's last recordings with Charlie Mingus and it seems like they are working hard for him.
In "Folk Forms No. 1", the bass line of the leader forms the foundation, the melody is further executed by Dolphy and then Curson joins in: a simple riff develops into a lively 12-minute funeral march in New Orleans style. "Original Faubus Fables" has a serious statement – a political attack on the segregated Governor Faubus – yet it's hard to listen to Mingus' and Richmond's singing while remaining serious. However, this does not detract from the wonderful music.
Again and again the elasticity of the sound fascinates, sometimes spacious due to the balance between the bass and the drums on the one hand and the brass on the other, sometimes noisy when the winds whine and howl.
The last two pieces "What Love?" and the 'outrageous' titled "All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother" are much more relaxed, bordering on free jazz.
The alum cultivates what the name Mingus stands for: the perfect tension between jazz, played by an ensemble and jazz, played completely freely.

Features:

• 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
• Pressed at Pallas in Germany

Musicians:

• Charles Mingus, bass
• Ted Curson, trumpet
• Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet
• Dannie Richmond, drummer

Selections:

Side A
1. Folk Forms
2. No.1
3. Original Faubus Fables
Side B
1. What Love
2. All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmind Fraud's Wife Was Your Mother