CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a career photography retrospective, with many portraits of jazz musicians (as well as city life) in an exhibition entitled Lee Friedlander in Louisiana is at the New Orleans Museum of Art through August 12th.
Lee Friedlander in Louisiana to 8/12HAIL and FAREWELL to the last surviving Munchkin in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz”, Jerry Maren— part of the “Lollipop Guild” trio in the film, yet whose career spanned nine decades — who has died at the age of 98.
Next, to the English guitarist Danny Kirwan— who played with Fleetwood Mac during its middle period (1968-1972) yet was sidelined for many years by bouts of mental health issues and homelessness — who has died at the age of sixty-eight.
And, to the owner of a tiny (yet legendary) jazz club in Greenwich Village, Lorraine Gordon— who inherited ownership when her husband Max died in 1989 — whose death at the age of ninety-five means that the Village Vanguard won’t have a Gordon at the helm for the first time since 1935.
THURSDAY's CHILD is among the kittehs at an improbable shelter in rebel-held northern Syria, run by Mohammed Alaa al-Jaleel — nicknamed the Cat Man of Aleppo, with 170 cats to feed.
The Cat Man of Aleppo, SyriaYET ANOTHER bone of contention between the Trumpster and our allies is his hesitancy to renew the Columbia River Treaty between the US and Canada ….. and given that he considers Canadian negotiators to be spoiled and “very difficult to deal with” …. this may be ominous.
HAPPY TRAILS to the host of Only a Game (the weekly NPR sports show), Bill Littlefield— who will retire at the end of July after a twenty-five year run.
THOUSANDS of PROTESTORS marched in the streets of Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires to note violence against women — where according to the Supreme Court of Argentina, at least 251 femicides took place in the country in 2017.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Leonard F. Bend the Cat— a protest candidate for mayor of Bend, Oregon.
Leonard F. Bend for mayorBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the legacy of Vanguard Records— who signed blacklisted performers (such as The Weavers and Paul Robeson) that led to its heyday in the 1960’s folk and blues era.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — old-hat by now, but ….. First Lady Melania Trump and Tony Award-winner (and frequent TV guest impersonator) Laura Benanti.
Melania Knauss Trump Laura Benanti as Melania...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in the field of jazz, there have been several great bassists, several great bandleaders and several great composers - but only Charles Mingus truly fits all three categories, whose passing nearly forty years ago ended one of the most brilliant (and stormy) careers by an American musician in the 20th Century. He stated that his abilities on bass were the result of hard work, but that his composing "was a gift" - which he put to good use.
He was born in 1922 in a Nogales, Arizona army camp but came-of-age in the Watts section of Los Angeles. His stepmother forbade all music except church music, but he heard Duke Ellington on his father's crystal radio, and the rest is history. An excellent music student, at age 18 he wrote a score (Half-Mast Inhibition) that was semi-classical in nature and which he finally recorded in 1960. And while that blend of classical and jazz music was not his normal style, he dabbled in what is known as Third Stream throughout his career.
He went on the road at age 20 and played in many big bands of the day: Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and notably Duke Ellington (his original idol). Even more notably: Charles Mingus became (possibly) the only bandmember ever fired personally by Duke Ellington. Mingus went on to perform in Red Norvo's trio (with guitarist Tal Farlow) where Mingus first stood out as a soloist, leading to his beginning his own bands.
But first: he played in the legendary 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall concert in Toronto, Canada that many critics consider the best post-war jazz concert ever. In no small part since it also features Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Max Roach as well: some of the founding fathers of modern jazz.
From 1956 through 1966, Charles Mingus released a total of thirty albums - and although his sidemen often changed, and going on to noted careers (Eric Dolphy, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Jackie McLean among them) the one constant was his drummer Dannie Richmond— who stayed with him almost continuously from 1957 on.
The late 1950's saw the release of some of the most legendary jazz albums, including Kind of Blue from Miles Davis and Time Out by Dave Brubeck. Another in this category was Charles Mingus' 1959 debut album for Columbia Records Mingus Ah Um - which ranged from Gospel/good-time blues (Better Git It in your Soul) .... to elegies (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat) being his most famous tune (that rock stars such as Jeff Beck often perform) ... as well as his ode to the segregationist governor of Arkansas, Fables of (Orval) Faubus - as Charles Mingus was quite outspoken for the day about racism.
Some of his later works include his magnum opus Epitaph - that was never successfully performed in his lifetime - as well as other songs about injustice: Remember Rockefeller at Attica was a more recent example. At this time, Mingus also sought to create collective workshops and artists guilds - and while many did not last, they created almost a university-like atmosphere in his bands.
That is, unless you crossed Charles Mingus. While most of the time he was known as a gregarious man, he was known to upbraid inattentive audiences, and to fire musicians on-stage who weren't up-to-snuff. In his autobiography, Miles Davis (no slouch in having a temper) was even surprised at some of the latent anger inside Mingus. Mingus once punched out trombonist Jimmy Knepper, whose playing was never quite the same after the injury. Over the years, his fiery personality mellowed but it remained part of his aura (along with his inventive music).
His career peaked in the early 1960's, despite an infamous 1962 Town Hall rehearsal session (foolishly billed as a "concert") in which "Epitaph" did not come off successfully. He recovered with his 1963 Black Saint and the Sinner Lady album, which also makes it into his top albums list, intended as accompanying music to a ballet. But by 1966 (unable to find a publisher for his Beneath the Underdog autobiography) he largely left the music business, tired and frustrated.
He returned in the early 1970's, revived not only by finally seeing the publishing of his autobiography and the re-release of several old works: but also by a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. More secure, he sought out younger musicians and began to produce some innovative music that once again endeared him to audiences and critics (Cumbia and Jazz Fusion adding Colombian music to his mix) - and his days of frustration were behind him.
Sadly, he contracted ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and became more of a producer than performer. Still releasing some fine recordings, he was honored by President Jimmy Carter at a 1978 White House concert. He produced Joni Mitchell's album Mingus (though he did not live to see its release). Charles Mingus died from ALS in January, 1979 at only age 56, and his ashes were spread in the Ganges River. His widow Sue oversees his estate, and the Mingus Big Band performs his works to this day.
The legacy of Mingus is extensive, and not only in the jazz community. Besides being a favorite of Joni Mitchell, a 1992 tribute album Weird Nightmare features the likes of Elvis Costello, Keith Richards/Charlie Watts, Dr. John, Henry Rollins, Robbie Robertson and Chuck D. - in addition to jazz and even bluegrass performers. Recorded a full thirteen years after his death …….. somehow I think that Charles Mingus would have been impressed.
Charles Mingus in the 50’s ….. and later, in the 1970’sYears after his death, a jumbled-up score for Epitaph was discovered. The noted Third Stream conductor Gunther Schuller (who had worked with Mingus previously) was hired to (first) decipher it, and then bring it to life: to be the conductor to finally lead a successful public performance.
Which he did in 1989 at Alice Tully Hall in New York (with six of the original 1962 Town Hall musicians still alive to perform on it). It was also performed in 2007, with a Walt Disney Concert Hall recording made of it.
And while much of the music of Charles Mingus is instrumental, one song in "Epitaph" was recorded with vocals by itself in 1963 — Freedom— which the English punk/New Wave singer Ian Dury often recited (as a poem). And below you can listen to it.
This mule ain’t from Moscow This mule ain’t from the South But this mule has something in him: Mostly mouth-to-mouth
This mule could be called stubborn and lazy But in a clever sort of way this mule could be working, waiting, learning and planning For a sacred kind of day
A day when burning sticks and crosses is not mere child’s play But a madman in his most incandescent bloom Whose lover’s soul is imperfection and its most lustrous groom
So stand fast there, young mule Soothe in contemplation That burning whole and aching thigh Your stubbornness is ever living And cool anxiety is about to die
Freedom for your daddy Freedom for your momma Freedom for your brothers and sisters But no freedom for me
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