Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
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Bassist-composer Charles Mingus had a reputation for volatile creativity and the ability to press his sidemen to their limits. That said, there's precious little in the Mingus canon that reaches the levels of intensity and unfettered invention of this extraordinary quartet session from November 1960. Mingus and saxophonist Eric Dolphy were clearly at creative peaks. Mingus's open forms facilitate Dolphy's freedom, and Dolphy's virtuosity and vocal expressiveness (laughing, whinnying, crying, shrieking) on alto and bass clarinet lend Mingus the greatest solo voice his music ever enjoyed. They push the principle of musical dialogue to the point where speech seems about to break out on "Folk Forms No. 1" and in the bass-bass clarinet chatter and grieving of "What Love."In a way, speech does break out. "Original Faubus Fables," previously recorded as "Fables of Faubus" on Mingus Ah Um, gets the lyrics earlier denied it by Columbia Records. Mingus and drummer Dannie Richmond damn Arkansas's notoriously racist governor, with the bassist calling out, "Why is he so sick and ridiculous, Dannie?" Richmond and trumpeter Ted Curson are excellent players and the sheer tumult carries them to the performances of their careers. Mingus's writing often uses tension-building repeated figures, and Dolphy and Curson virtually function as reed and brass sections at times. It contributes to the illusion of a much larger group, a cauldron of unspoken pain and fresh energies that seems almost too much for any quartet to deliver.
A fifth performance from the session, an extended-band feature for Dolphy's alto on Fats Waller's "Stormy Weather," has never been included on a CD with the rest of the session. Well worth seeking out, it currently appears on Candid Dolphy. --Stuart Broomer
Tracks
| 1 | Folk Forms, No.1 |
| 2 | Original Faubus Fables |
| 3 | What Love |
| 4 | All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother |
