Jazzmatazz Review - Charles Mingus - Very Best Of Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

The Very Best of Charles Mingus
(Atlantic)

It is a remarkable achievement, in the early portion of a jazz artist’s career, to have crafted a number of singular recordings, each an enduring composition, a gathering of elite performers, and a stellar act of arranging. Such is what Charles Mingus wrought between the years 1956 and 1961.

"Tonight at Noon," "Passions of a Man," the inimitable "Haitian Fight Song"—they are works as singular as any in jazz history. Deftly arranged with Ellingtonian horn sections, they were designed to turn even a quintet into a multi-layered ensemble, with solos that defied categoric limits, staggered time signatures and served up blues-drenched bebop, exotic textures with flamboyant colors, somber moods, prayer-meeting shouts and simply euphonious harmony.

Rahsaan Kirk, Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Booker Ervin, Mal Waldron were all encouraged if not driven by a bassist who turned his instrument from time-keeper to songleader. Mingus's music had some of jazz’s most brilliant counterpoint and call-and-response overlays, most lush horn choiring, most individual, never to be repeated designs, most shocking twists and turns...and a notion of modernity that left most of fifties’ jazz far behind.

How good was Mingus? How compelling can one CD be? Let it simply be answered, as to both questions, that neither can be excelled. There is nothing new here, but the availability of this compilation guarantees one of the most compelling listening experiences a century of jazz could offer.

— Jules Epstein, January 2001

Release Date: 2 January 2001

Very Best Of Charles Mingus :

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last update 18 January 2001