Charles Mingus
Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop
★★★★
Mingus! Live during what many people consider his prime in music making. Not only through his output of albums but also in live performance and composition writing. Recorded in 1964 and released in 1966, by this time Mingus had finished some of his most intense and exciting music, including The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady as well as Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. For this session however, Mingus has switched out the usual suspects of his band including Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy. I read somewhere that Dolphy was, on the very same day of this session, recording the last performance of his life which would be released as Last Date. It is unfortunate that we don't get to see his usual band play these twenty three minute long steamers, but there's something exciting and new here. Mingus is the elder statesman, holding about a decade more of experience over everyone's head. The band is dangerous and dramatic, and I'm sure Mingus pushed them to their absolute limits on this performance. Clifford Jordan on tenor, Jane Getz on piano, Danny Richmond on drums, and John Handy on alto. I've had limited experience with these musicians, except Danny Richmond who is an experienced drummer and a regular in the world of Mingus.
The first piece of music is the extended and frenetic "New Fables" which is based off the famous and powerful Mingus composition, "Fables of Faubus". The original is in a lyrical call-and-response format that helps emphasize the political message of the song. The dimwitted ignorance that exists through the institution of racism, an especially hot topic during the song's formation as it was the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, is essentially being gawked at. And while the criticism of such White supremacists such as Orval Faubus is not something new in jazz, Mingus executes the music in a very caustic way. Unlike Coltrane's mournful ballad "Alabama", that was a tribute to the four African American girls brutally murdered by the KKK, Mingus's version of denunciation is through an intelligent satire. Like a Zappa of jazz, just listening to the almost circus-like playing and mocking of Faubus can make anyone feel good about the statement Mingus is putting out. And that translated into this live playing is quite amazing, with the first three minutes sailing smoothly. Until a piano bang and rapid bass stuttering leads into a spiral of Jordan's tenor and Richmond's drums. It's a breathtaking transformation that locks you in the for the rest of the journey. And in usual Mingus fashion, you hear the Blues and Latin-inspired jazz.
The next sequence is "Meditation (For a Pair of Wire Cutters)", a spin on his composition "Meditation on Integration". This excursion has a different composure and aura to it, one that is especially solidified thanks to Mingus's bowed bass playing. It's really beautiful and more ballad based than anything else on this album. The saxophone playing is stunning and suits the expressive, but subdued piano played by Getz. Richmond and Mingus try to lower the heat on the stove, and they are somewhat able to do this. Still, there's a sense of anxiety and tension that persists throughout the track. By the time Getz starts her piano playing with Mingus and Richmond on the rhythm section, you feel like you've entered a hidden cavern that holds immense beauty. But a beauty that does not last long and is replaced with a seductive devilish playing by John Handy. The eeriness grows in the dark until finally released from sixteen minutes onward. It's a unique experience to hear Mingus in such a vulnerable corner with his unorthodox bowed playing as Getz draws him out in a sorrowful duet that is extremely memorable.
Another great example of the flexibility and dynamic ability that Mingus is capable of channeling through himself as well as others. He can mutate his established songs into an experience that is much greater than the original composition. Not only expanding on the ideas present but breathing new life into them that not many other composers or bandleaders are able to do. He has a fiery playing style that is only boosted due to Richmond's own temper and that helps generate a rhythm section that is a red-hot Molotov cocktail ready to blow off your hand. Mingus does tone it down during the second piece and shows his softer side, but it's a bit off and apprehensive. Interesting to see that restraint is available for him to use in a different manner. The rest of the players that are new to the Mingus game are almost playing catch-up or are being pushed to their breaking points. And Mingus does that on purpose, like a boot camp sergeant pushing his troops until they are supreme machines. But in Mingus's case, it's until they are unstoppable soulful giants.
Favorite Song: Meditation (For a Pair of Wire Cutters)
The first piece of music is the extended and frenetic "New Fables" which is based off the famous and powerful Mingus composition, "Fables of Faubus". The original is in a lyrical call-and-response format that helps emphasize the political message of the song. The dimwitted ignorance that exists through the institution of racism, an especially hot topic during the song's formation as it was the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, is essentially being gawked at. And while the criticism of such White supremacists such as Orval Faubus is not something new in jazz, Mingus executes the music in a very caustic way. Unlike Coltrane's mournful ballad "Alabama", that was a tribute to the four African American girls brutally murdered by the KKK, Mingus's version of denunciation is through an intelligent satire. Like a Zappa of jazz, just listening to the almost circus-like playing and mocking of Faubus can make anyone feel good about the statement Mingus is putting out. And that translated into this live playing is quite amazing, with the first three minutes sailing smoothly. Until a piano bang and rapid bass stuttering leads into a spiral of Jordan's tenor and Richmond's drums. It's a breathtaking transformation that locks you in the for the rest of the journey. And in usual Mingus fashion, you hear the Blues and Latin-inspired jazz.
The next sequence is "Meditation (For a Pair of Wire Cutters)", a spin on his composition "Meditation on Integration". This excursion has a different composure and aura to it, one that is especially solidified thanks to Mingus's bowed bass playing. It's really beautiful and more ballad based than anything else on this album. The saxophone playing is stunning and suits the expressive, but subdued piano played by Getz. Richmond and Mingus try to lower the heat on the stove, and they are somewhat able to do this. Still, there's a sense of anxiety and tension that persists throughout the track. By the time Getz starts her piano playing with Mingus and Richmond on the rhythm section, you feel like you've entered a hidden cavern that holds immense beauty. But a beauty that does not last long and is replaced with a seductive devilish playing by John Handy. The eeriness grows in the dark until finally released from sixteen minutes onward. It's a unique experience to hear Mingus in such a vulnerable corner with his unorthodox bowed playing as Getz draws him out in a sorrowful duet that is extremely memorable.
Another great example of the flexibility and dynamic ability that Mingus is capable of channeling through himself as well as others. He can mutate his established songs into an experience that is much greater than the original composition. Not only expanding on the ideas present but breathing new life into them that not many other composers or bandleaders are able to do. He has a fiery playing style that is only boosted due to Richmond's own temper and that helps generate a rhythm section that is a red-hot Molotov cocktail ready to blow off your hand. Mingus does tone it down during the second piece and shows his softer side, but it's a bit off and apprehensive. Interesting to see that restraint is available for him to use in a different manner. The rest of the players that are new to the Mingus game are almost playing catch-up or are being pushed to their breaking points. And Mingus does that on purpose, like a boot camp sergeant pushing his troops until they are supreme machines. But in Mingus's case, it's until they are unstoppable soulful giants.
Favorite Song: Meditation (For a Pair of Wire Cutters)
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