Charles Mingus Centennial Japanese Reissues

[Late]

8 Ultra-High Quality Compact Discs.

It would have been nice to see the complete 1955 Cafe Bohemia recordings issued. But, if you can only pick eight ...

[Chuck Nessa]

So there are 100 year old Japanese Mingus reissues?

[Late]

Sigh.

[JSngry]

See?

[felser]

8 hours ago, Late said:

8 Ultra-High Quality Compact Discs.

It would have been nice to see the complete 1955 Cafe Bohemia recordings issued. But, if you can only pick eight ...

Well, the Town Hall debacle would not be one.  Nor, for me, would Pre-Bird.  But it looks like those "selections" are what they had rights to.  No Atlantic, no Columbia, no Debut.

[jazzbo]

A domestic Mingus centennial release, coming April 23 (will be Mingus' 100th, and my Dad's 90th) for RSD.

[jk666]

RESONANCE RECORDS WILL PROUDLY RELEASE CHARLES MINGUS’
THE LOST ALBUM FROM RONNIE SCOTT’S AS A THREE-LP
RECORD STORE DAY EXCLUSIVE ON APRIL 23^rd
IN CELEBRATION OF MINGUS’ CENTENNIAL

Blistering Live London Date by the Bassist-Composer’s 1972 Sextet, Originally Intended to be an Official Album Release, Will Be Issued as a Three-CD Set and Digitally on April 30^th

Deluxe Booklet Will Feature Interviews with Mingus, Alto Saxophonist Charles McPherson, and
Writer Fran Lebowitz, An Overview by Jazz Historian Brian Priestley, Appreciations by
Bassists Christian McBride, Eddie Gomez, and More!

Los Angeles — Resonance Records, the top U.S. independent label for previously unreleased jazz treasures, will issue The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s, a volcanic, never-before-heard 1972 club performance by bassist-composer Charles Mingus’ powerful sextet, as a three-LP Record Store Day offering on April 23 (one day after what would have been Mingus’ 100^th birthday). The album will be issued as a three-CD set and digital download on April 30.

The live set, comprising nearly two-and-a-half hours of music, was professionally recorded on eight-track tapes via a mobile recording truck on Aug. 14-15, 1972. However, the performance went unreleased, for Mingus – along with every other top jazz musician on the Columbia roster except for Miles Davis – was dropped by the label in the spring of 1973. The present release is completely authorized by Jazz Workshop, Inc., which controls Mingus’ music.

Resonance co-president Zev Feldman, who co-produced the Scott’s material for release with David Weiss, says, “This is a lost chapter in Mingus’s history, originally intended to be an official album release by Mingus that never materialized. Now, we’re thrilled to be able to bring this recording to light for the whole world to hear in all its musical and sonic glory. It’s especially exciting to be celebrating Mingus with this release in his centennial year.”

A statement in the Resonance collection from Jazz Workshop, Inc. says, “In Sue Mingus’s memoir, Tonight at Noon, she recalls receiving the extraordinary tapes [the band] had recorded; the reels remained in the Mingus vault, untouched until now. It is our honor, forty-nine years later, to present, with Resonance Records, this historic performance.”

In his knowledgeable overview of Mingus’s activities of the early ‘70s and his stand at Scott’s club, British jazz critic and historian Brian Priestley, who penned an authoritative 1983 biography of the musician, writes, “The magnificent music contained herein comes from a special period in the life of Charles Mingus, one in which he re-emerged from the depths of depression and inactivity, to be ultimately greeted with far wider acclaim than he had ever previously experienced.”

By the time Mingus’ band took the stage at saxophonist Scott’s celebrated London club, the great jazz man was experiencing a career renaissance: he had received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and seen his music adapted for choreographer Alvin Ailey’s The Mingus Dances in 1971, while 1972 saw the release of his potent autobiography Beneath the Underdog and his widely acclaimed big band album Let My Children Hear Music.

Though his group still featured the formidable saxophonists Bobby Jones (tenor) and Charles McPherson (alto), the sextet was in a state of flux, but the new members delivered on stage. Pianist Jaki Byard was succeeded by the relatively unknown John Foster, who showed off both his keyboard and vocal chops at Scott’s. Longtime drummer Danny Richmond, who had joined the pop band Mark-Almond, was replaced by the ingenious, powerful Detroit musician Roy Brooks, who demonstrated his invention the “breath-a-tone,” which allowed him to control the pitch of his kit while playing, and, on a couple of numbers, his abilities on the musical saw. The trumpet chair was filled by the phenomenal 19-year old Jon Faddis, a protégé and acolyte of Dizzy Gillespie.

The Lost Album features nine performances captured during the two-night engagement; some of them – the then-new compositions “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues” and “Mind-readers’ Convention in Milano” and the war horse “Fables of Faubus” – are epics that stretch close to or past the half-hour mark. In its entirety, the set bears comparison to Mingus’ storied concerts at Monterey, Carnegie Hall, and Antibes.

During the English engagement, which came at the end of a European tour, Priestley conducted a joint interview with Mingus and McPherson at the club. He found the bassist in a philosophical mood: “Life has many changes. Tomorrow it may rain. And it’s supposed to be sunshine because it’s summertime, but God’s got a funny soul. He plays like Charlie Parker. He may run some thunder on you. He may take the sun up and put it in the nighttime, the way it looks to me.”

In a new interview with Feldman, McPherson deftly characterizes his longtime employer’s musical approach: “[Mingus] liked for his music to be clean enough for it to be obvious that this is worked out and thought out, but not so pristine that it sounded robotic or unanimated or not human — too processed. I think ‘organized chaos’ is an apt term because that’s the way Mingus’s music really did sound; it did have almost this free-wheeling kind of a vibe and yet, you can tell it’s written out, it’s thought about, and it has all the elements of organization, but still, it has the elements of spontaneity.”

A pair of jazz’s most celebrated bassists offer their appreciation for Mingus in interviews conducted by Feldman. Christian McBride says, “Mingus just has such an individual sound, such a presence. He had some real estate that no one else had. I love how Mingus’s music is this very blurry balance of blues, swing and the avant-garde….He did it in a way that no one else did.” Eddie Gomez notes, “He was this big influence in a big forest, so I assumed that he got a lot of recognition. Maybe he should have gotten more. He’s still one of the great influences in jazz music.”

The full measure of the jazz artist’s larger-than-life personality is captured in reminiscences by Sue Graham Mingus (in an excerpt from her 2002 book Tonight at Noon: A Love Story) and Mary Scott (in a new interview with Feldman) of the bandleader and the club owner who were their respective spouses.

A rich and very funny recollection of the mercurial titan is offered in Feldman’s interview with New York writer, raconteur, and woman-about-town Fran Lebowitz, who knew both the Minguses well. She recalls one encounter in which an angry Mingus chased her out of the Village Vanguard and through Lower Manhattan.

She says, “We went down Seventh Avenue really far; my recollection is to Canal Street. We ran to Canal Street and I couldn’t run anymore. I was like 21 years old. I don’t know how old Charles was. He was probably in his late forties at least and he was not exactly in Olympic condition. Neither was I, but compared to Charles I was. I just fell on the ground. I couldn’t run anymore. And then when he reached me, he fell on the ground and he’s panting. And then he just looked at me and said, ‘You want to go eat?’ because I guess he realized we were near Chinatown where he was the star eater of all time.”

[bertrand]

Lost and unreleased are not the same thing. Were the tapes missing? It sounds like they were in a Vault the whole time.

Edited February 16, 2022 by bertrand

[mjazzg]

Does it really matter? In the end it's new Mingus music that hasn't seen the light of day before. How they choose to promote seems pretty secondary to me. Just semantics.

I'm excited by the prospect of being able to hear this.

[Rooster_Ties]

Think of “lost” as a metaphor.  The world “lost” the opportunity to hear this planned live album when Columbia cut Mingus (and everyone not named Miles).

Were the tapes actually lost? Well, maybe fewer and fewer people knew of their whereabouts (or even their existence) —over time. That’s a kind of “loss”.

At least the material is seeing the light of day (is there a ‘sonic’ equivalent of how to say that??). I won’t begrudge them some ‘salesmanship’ and promotional ebullience.

[paulfromcamden]

No not exactly lost - and as as pointed out in a previous thread, already available as a bootleg.

Great that it's getting a proper release though, presumably in higher fidelity.

[JSngry]

31 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I won’t begrudge them some ‘salesmanship’ and promotional ebullience.

Slippery slope...

[felser]

If they get around to a CD release eventually, I'm in.  And when will we start having "CD Store Day" exclusive releases?    Still hoping for that Nathan Davis ORTF set to make it to CD.

[Dub Modal]

I'm on board for it. Will be interested to hear of any differences between it and the bootleg floating around. I think it was Resonance's Rollins in Holland that had some edits, making the boot still attractive despite the official release. 

[HutchFan]

25 minutes ago, felser said:

If they get around to a CD release eventually, I'm in.  And when will we start having "CD Store Day" exclusive releases?    Still hoping for that Nathan Davis ORTF set to make it to CD.

CDs come out a week after the LPs. 

No RSD exclusivity there, tho'!   

 

I'm in on this.  Never heard the boot, so it'll all be new to me. 

By the way, the "lost" bit in title doesn't bother me.  It's figurative language.  Miles Davis' "Lost Quintet" wasn't literally lost.  They just weren't available on record (for a time) -- just like this Mingus release.  

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by HutchFan

[clifford_thornton]

CD is fine with me on this. 

[Gheorghe]

Mingus´ 100th Birthday would also be a good occasion to finally issue some of the concerts he did with his working group from 76-77 with Walrath, Rickie Ford, Bob Neloms. This was a roaring group and they got to heights of inspirations and emotion and the live versions of his later extended compositions like "Three or Four Shades of Blues"  and "Cumbia" are much more interesting than the overproduced studio versions. And what they did on the simple tune "For Harry Carney" with them ferocious duets with Richmond, that tension between calm and power..... I´ll never forget that as long as I live. 

This was the Mingus who we were blessed to see live. And it would be worth some CD´s (Two bootleg LP´s did exist for short time then in the late 70´s (Mingus in Buenos Aires, and Mingus in Europe on an obscure label "Burning Desire".....

[bertrand]

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

Slippery slope...

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

Slippery 

 

Calling something lost when its location has been known all along smacks of Hucksterism to me. At least they didn't try that with Just Coolin'.

[cliffpeterson]

I remember in some early post on FB, either Feldman spoke of or a third party describing Feldman's efforts described  his finding or discovering Just Coolin as if the music had been lost.  It was pointed on in a reply that the music was clearly known because it was listed in Blue Note discographies.

[mhatta]

As I said previously somewhere in this forum, Mingus' Ronnie Scott's gig in 1972 is generally good.  Maybe a bit verbose...some tunes are over 30min and it was originally planned to release from Sue Mingus' Revenge Records as 3 CDs.  I hope they could fix some audio dropouts the bootleg releases (and maybe the original tapes) suffer from.  I am glad that finally Mingus' interesting tune "Mind-readers’ Convention in Milano" will be released officially (and hope they could explain what's the heck it means -- also alternate title "My Music Emission").

Also, I think Zev Feldman made a correct decision to ask Fran Lebowitz about Mingus.  Her story about being chased by Mingus was hilarious in her Netflix documentary.

 

[JSngry]

6 hours ago, bertrand said:

 

Calling something lost when its location has been known all along smacks of Hucksterism to me. At least they didn't try that with Just Coolin'.

I can get perfectly stoked by "First Official Release" of "Previously Unissued" or something like that. That's accurate language, and is indeed a reason to be excited.

"Lost" or "Never Before Available" and shit like that, no, that's usually not true, not in the least. The recent Hasaan things, yes. This Mingus and other such stuff, no.

The inability to hype without being able to resort to what is, objectively, an untruth demonstrates a core lack of imagination that is only a few steps (or less) from an actual grift.

Sign of the times.

 

[Pim]

So how do these UHQCD discs sound? I have a couple of SHM cd’s and they sound good but not much better than a ‘regular’ cd. 

[bertrand]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

I can get perfectly stoked by "First Official Release" of "Previously Unissued" or something like that. That's accurate language, and is indeed a reason to be excited.

"Lost" or "Never Before Available" and shit like that, no, that's usually not true, not in the least. The recent Hasaan things, yes. This Mingus and other such stuff, no.

The inability to hype without being able to resort to what is, objectively, an untruth demonstrates a core lack of imagination that is only a few steps (or less) from an actual grift.

Sign of the times.

 

I agree.

[Late]

11 hours ago, Pim said:

So how do these UHQCD discs sound? I have a couple of SHM cd’s and they sound good but not much better than a ‘regular’ cd. 

They sound good (those that I've heard) — essentially identical to the SHM-CDs on the market. The "ultra high quality" and "super high material" markers are of course gimmicks. Perhaps they make a smidge of a difference*, but really it's the transfer and remastering that count. If you have the "regular" CD of certain material, you're probably set. In some cases, the recent Japanese issue is noticeably better (sonically), but that's always on a case-by-case basis. I don't have a lot of the live Mingus sextet material (even though I'm familiar with it) in hardcopy, and so I'll probably pick up some of these centennial releases.

*Notable exceptions, to my ears, are the Blue Note SHM-CDS from 2013/14, and the Impulse! UHQCDs from 2020. They sound really good.

[david weiss]

On 2/16/2022 at 2:46 PM, Dub Modal said:

I'm on board for it. Will be interested to hear of any differences between it and the bootleg floating around. I think it was Resonance's Rollins in Holland that had some edits, making the boot still attractive despite the official release. 

How shall I put it. The edits on the Rollins set were based on the artist's comments or wishes. He is in the habit of wanting to put out the best product possible and approached his feedback to us in this way. I don't think he has an appreciation for the keep it complete blemishes and all school of thought. 

As for this set, I came on board a little later than usual for this one. I did not hear any dropouts but I'm not sure if it was because the tapes were clean or the dropouts were addressed in mastering. However, there are edits on this set as well but it is for the opposite reason this time and quite fascinating to me. Since this was a live set and there were a few ensemble train wrecks, Mingus actually rerecorded the sections in question to be edited into the tracks as needed. I think one of the inserts they recorded was actually included on the bootleg of this music. It was pretty ambitious thinking for the time and with the tools they had then, essentially a razor blade, the edits probably would have been impossible at the time but with modern technology, the edits are possible and the train wrecks were edited out and replaced by the rerecorded inserts. It made my job more interesting at least....

19 hours ago, JSngry said:

I can get perfectly stoked by "First Official Release" of "Previously Unissued" or something like that. That's accurate language, and is indeed a reason to be excited.

"Lost" or "Never Before Available" and shit like that, no, that's usually not true, not in the least. The recent Hasaan things, yes. This Mingus and other such stuff, no.

The inability to hype without being able to resort to what is, objectively, an untruth demonstrates a core lack of imagination that is only a few steps (or less) from an actual grift.

Sign of the times.

 

I have nothing to do with this aspect of things of course but it does annoy me. Perhaps not as much as new releases being called instant classics or groundbreaking or musicians being called the most important of their generation or innovative or something. Perhaps not as easily provable as a blatant misrepresentation but for whatever reason, it annoys me more at times.... But hey, they got to sell records....