The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady [Original recording reissued]

Charles Mingus | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 7, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Grp Records
• ASIN: B000003N81
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,748 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #100 in Music > Jazz > Swing Jazz > Contemporary Big Band

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

This 1963 recording occupies a special place in Mingus's work, his most brilliantly realized extended composition. The six-part suite is a broad canvas for the bassist's tumultuous passions, ranging from islands of serenity for solo guitar and piano to waves of contrapuntal conflict and accelerating rhythms that pull the listener into the musical psychodrama. It seems to mingle and transform both the heights and clichés of jazz orchestration, from Mingus's master, Duke Ellington, to film noir soundtracks. The result is a masterpiece of sounds and textures, from the astonishing vocal effects of the plunger-muted trumpets and trombone (seeming to speak messages just beyond the range of understanding) to the soaring romantic alto of Charlie Mariano. Boiling beneath it all are the teeming, congested rhythms of Mingus and drummer Dannie Richmond and the deep morass of tuba and baritone saxophone. This is one of the greatest works in jazz composition, and it's remarkable that Mingus dredged this much emotional power from a group of just 11 musicians. --Stuart Broomer

Product Description

Japanese 24 Bit/96KHz remastered reissue of 1963 album originally issued on Impulse!, packaged in a limited edition miniature gatefold LP sleeve. 2001. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Mingus' Best Work..., March 19, 2000

By 

"pipcelot" (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (Audio CD)

...but by no means his most accessible. If you are new to Mingus, do not start with this one. Go for Mingus Ah Um, then Pithecanthropus Erectus or Mingus at Antibes. THEN immerse yourself in The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. By then, you will be familiar with the whole cast of characters and Mingus' revolutionary approach to musical composition. Jaki Byard's piano will sweep you away. Charlie Mariano's saxophone will leave wondering about might have beens. Dannie Richmond's skins will leave you in awe. And all of them playing together will leave you with an overriding sense of how Mingus cultivates genius in those around him. There is vast musical freedom, yet remarkable structure throughout. Robert Frost was once asked why he never wrote in free verse; he responded that he didn't feel like playing tennis with the net down. I think of Charles Mingus the same way; you often think that the music will degenerate into chaos, but it never happens (well, at least not unplanned chaos). One of the top five jazz albums ever made.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This One Into Your Soul!, May 5, 2001

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (Audio CD)

Regarded by "The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD" as "Mingus' masterpiece," this can be a challenging CD. The compositions are titled as dance pieces, and I'd love to see the album performed that way. The album is of one piece; its separation into six tracks is somewhat artificial. (Indeed, some tracks blend together without discernable separation). The opener, "Solo Dancer" features passages with soaring Coltrane-like abstraction over the usual Mingus abstract intensity mixed with lush quiet beauty. It's a brooding piece with a terrific baritone sax leading the noire way over Mingus' moving bass lines, moving to a very full arrangement and then back to the sax. Overall, it reminded me of a little of Ellington/Strayhorn effects on Chelsea Bridge.

"Duet Solo Dancers" is, again, very Ellington, and the 11 pieces in the Mingus band are so big, varied, and so "present," that it sounds more like an orchestra. Absolutely superb recording. Mingus manages, as always, to fit abstract and free-sounding expression within a swinging, coherent structure. It's an almost dizzying piece and (like the rest of the CD) an organic extension of went before.

"Group Dancers" is one of the most beautiful pieces here, with a piano-led motif that leads easily to visuals of dancers. Mingus lays back, and lets Jackie Byard' piano and Jerome Richardson and Dick Hafer's flutes tell the story. About midway through, the composition picks up some flamenco touches from guitarist Jay Berliner, then the horns (Dick Hafer, Charles Mariano, Jerome Richardson on sax, Quentin Jackson on trombone, Don Butterfield on tuba) sing out before revisiting the main theme (with dazzling work by Mingus ). "Group Dancers" leads seamlessly to Tracks 4-6 (there's no break) which emphasize the Flamenco accents even more. Just about perfect! Anyone who thinks Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain" is THE word on classical/jazz confluence (or on "Spanish" interpolations) has got to hear this album (a much superior work, in my opinion). My only complaint is some redundancy: A few minutes might have been cut from Tracks 4-6 without losing much.

Again, one of his most organic and original efforts, this belongs in just about every jazz library (well, along with "Ah Um" and "Oh Yeah" and a few other personal favorites). It may take a couple of listenings to fully appreciate it, but it is both raucous and sublime.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums of all time, January 25, 2000

By 

Zachary Schwartz-Weinstein (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (Audio CD)

Charles Mingus had always incorporated elements of modern avante-garde composition into his bop-esque and free-jazz/avant garde work while holding himself firmly within the jazz idiom. Here, he cast aside all the restrictions of both genres and meshed the two into an unbelievably complex, and yet emotionally and musically stunning magnum opus. Unlike Mingus' previous albums, rather than being merely a showcase for different tunes which may have had little to do with eachother melodically and structurally, this cd comprises the six movements of a symphony, and the music and ideas flow into eachother seamlessly. My favorite moment comes during the third track, "Group Dancers" when, after Mingus hints at an amazing melodic figure on the piano, the full ensemble plays it in all its glory. Anyone who loves music is missing something if he or she has never heard this milestone of melodic ingenuity.