Charles Mingus Quintet – Remember Rockefeller At Attica (Live)

Last night’s Mingus birthday broadcast on WKCR blew me away, particularly the tracks from Changes, an album I had never been exposed to previously. That’s the joy of radio, exposure to material you would’ve never come across otherwise. My life is so much richer for all the great music WKCR has exposed me to over the years.

Here’s a live cut of a song from that session…

Jack Walrath (trumpet); George Adams (tenor saxophone); Don Pullen (piano); Charles Mingus (bass); Dannie Richmond (drums)

Live in Bremen, Germany, 1975

Happy Birthday, Charles Mingus!

My relationship with Mingus is a complicated one. There was a period in my young life where I just absolutely devoured his music, hiding out in the stacks of WXXI’s record archive listening to Atlantic Record’s Passions of A Man box set on repeat. I wore those recordings out. They’re completely inside me. I can call them up at any moment and hear Mingus’ fingers dancing in my head.

I hardly ever listen to Mingus now outside of Money Jungle. In the wake of Guru’s passing, however, I’ve been diggin’ into Mingus a lot, reconnecting with those first feelings I had when listening to his music. It’s eclectic, enlightening, spine-tingling stuff…

Charles Mingus – Piano and Vocals; Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Flute, Tenor Sax; Booker Ervin – Tenor sax; Jimmy Knepper – Trombone; Doug Watkins – Bass; Dannie Richmond – Drums (Atlantic Records, 1962)

As usual, WKCR is running their annual 24hr Mingus birthday broadcast. You can tune in on-line here:

http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/tune-thursday-charles-mingus-birthday-broadcast

Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, & Max Roach – Money Jungle (1962)

Duke Ellington – piano; Charles Mingus – bass; Max Roach – drums

Recorded for United Artists, 1962

The empathy between these three men is astounding. There is a crackling tension that elevates the mood, driving everyone to swing hard. An absolutely magical recording that belies the idea that Ellington wasn’t hip to the advances in jazz. Over the years, this has become one of my all-time favorite jazz recordings.

RIP, Keith Elam aka Guru of Gang Starr (1966-2010)

Gang Starr got me into Jazz. Their “Jazz Thing” got me interested in the music. Gang Starr, along with Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest, took advantage of the late 80′s liberal sampling laws to feed their love of jazz into rap, transforming the music and giving it back to the masses. So many jazz purists thumb their noses at early hip-hop but it was Jazzmatazz that introduced me to Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Freddie Hubbard, and Lonnie Liston Smith. I started tracking down the samples, digging out gems from the dusty crates of discount vinyl at my local Salvation Army.

“I’m The Man” introduced me to two of my favorite musical artists ever: Charles Mingus and Jeru The Damaja. For the last third of the song, over a sample of “Haitian Fight Song,” Jeru spits fire — the perfect mix of jazz and rap. This was my first exposure to Mingus and it changed my life. I devoured as much Mingus as I could find and it wouldn’t have happened without Guru and Gang Starr.

RIP, Keith Elam, Guru, Gang Starr Foundation, Jazzmatazz, NYC.

Charles Mingus Quintet – Nostalgia In Times Square (1959)

Charles Mingus – Bass / John Handy – Alto Sax / Booker Ervin – Tenor Sax / Richard Wyands – Piano / Dannie Richmond – Drums

Jazz Portraits: Mingus In Wonderland, United Artists, 1959