Charles Mingus
A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry [Reissue]
NEW LAND
Anyone who’s read the stream of consciousness–cleaving Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus knows that one of jazz’s most influential and inspiring composer-bassists, Charles Mingus, was capable of scribing the same sort of genius, stormy-weather, character-driven texts that his music verifies and validates. Also, if anyone knows well the ins and outs of that autobiography, they know how wildly fictitious and grandiose an embellishing storyteller Mingus was (was he really a pimp as he portends?).
To that end, there may not be a whole lot of hardcore poetry, nor even much of a staid symposium, to Mingus’ 1957 master jazz class, A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry. There is, however, a wild education to behold, for what it does contain is something akin to the most bracing musical narration (think Ken Nordine’s word jazz) from actor Mel Stewart on the sprawling 12-minute “Scenes in the City.” Rarely has a track contained the steel-to-soot vibe of a bustling metropolis as has Mingus’ jiving epic. Save for the next track on this same album: the elegant post-bop of “New York Sketchbook” and its testy, flashing taste of the dissonance that would follow with the likes of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler.
From there the rarity of Mingus compositions for sextet (featuring his stalwart drummer Dannie Richmond and trumpeter Clarence Shaw, along with trombonist Jimmy Knepper, pianist Horace Parlan, and Shafi Hadi on tenor and alto sax) fly to the fore in vividly colorful (and aptly tuned) dedication to friends and fellow masters Dizzy Gillespie (the previously unreleased “Wouldn’t You” from the trumpet great), Mr. Ellington (“Duke’s Choice”), Mr. Shaw (“Woody ’n’ You”), and Ms. Holliday (“Billie’s Bounce”). Also included in the vinyl reissue of the lost 1957 classic is two versions of the spry and even silly “Slippers.”
So come for the poetry, listen for the stately soliloquy of “Scenes of the City,” and ruminate on some of the best off-kilter-yet-accessible missing jazz classics of their time across two shining new LPs. And as with Beneath the Underdog, expect the unexpected.
