Customer Reviews

Changes One

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had this one and companion, Changes II, since they came out on LP in '75, and have since got 'em on CD. I've not heard any Mingus that surpasses them (or much of anything that surpasses them), and they remain among my favorite records of all time. George Adams invents a whole new style of improvisation - noise metamorphasizing into beautiful melody, huge tone, back of the brain ideas spewing forth. Don Pullen is the great jazz pianist in that his discourse (like on D.Ellington's Sound of Love) transcends "jazz piano," that horribly predictable group of cliches that most players strive to master and the greats strive to avoid. Mingus at his best uses the jazz idiom to create wonderful music. This group and this music is as good as it gets, as far as I've been able to hear.

I'd put Mingus at Antibes really close to the top too, but Changes I and II, are just magical. And you only have to buy one at a time! What a marketing concept! If you dig it, you'll certainly buy the companion set.

Orange was the color of her dress - it's the best! Mingus walking down into and then up out of the chaos. God this is good stuff. But, give it a little time to sink in. Enjoy.

Both this album and its predecessor are two bright points in the 70's jazz canon. This is Mingus at his best. The fury is there, the passion is there, and Jack Walrath and George Adams are there. This is seriously a high point of jazz no matter what the time period, and it is yet again more proof that Mingus was a helluva bandleader, easily on par with Blakey or Miles. If you're looking for some music that can challenge its listeners and still be very listenable, this, along with Changes One, is your album.

Keep Your Ears Open,

Paul

I've been listening to these albums since their original release in 1974. I had the great fortune to be at a Mingus concert in Boston in the late 70's at which they played several of the cuts on the Changes albums. A few personnel changes from the album (Ricky Ford replacing George Adams) but Don Pullen was amazing. I consider Mingus to be among the best American composer. He seems to have the ability to get the musicians in the band to 'give' more of themselves than any other band leader. I could wax poetic about this for a long time....

Let me explain: I do not have a jazz background in the least. When I became attracted to what Mingus had to offer, it had solely to do with his own sound. Mingus' compositions felt special to what he was doing and I never associated it with jazz, only with that strange, erratic world that he and only he seemed to create. There was no label for it. So for those of who are similar to me in that you were lead to Mingus somehow, and fell in love with that powerful organic energy and oddity, I would like to warn you to avoid Changes One & Two when collecting his catalogue. Why? Because it feels "safe". It doesn't have the abrasive quality that I love in some of his other work. It's produced, often thin of sound, and mostly it sounds more like Jazz than it sounds like Mingus. It is nearly emotionless compared to Pithecanthropus Erectus, Mingus x5, and what I consider his masterpiece The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady. On the other hand: there are wonderful moments. There is some good intense turbulance here and there (and the pianist he works with on this album is great at that) and there is one or two melodies that remind me of why his music can take me so much. Now, I realize a lot of people love these two discs. And I'm here to reassure that I am only speaking to the Mingus followers who dwell as outcasts from the Jazz realm. These are probably very good jazz albums, but to me it simply sounds like what one would expect from a good jazz album. It doesn't draw the pictures in my head that I get from tracks like "Heart Beat and Shades and Physical Embraces" or "Pithecanthropus Erectus". It doesn't touch my heart like "Theme for Lester Young". And of course, I'll admit my aethsetic bias, it just isn't plain loud enough! Change One % Two is merely safe and quiet jazz that reminds of being in a fancy hotel (which is an environment I loathe). Many of you may not agree with me, but I know there's people out there like me who'd be very, very disappointed to spend their money on these two albums.

Why Atlantic never reissud Changes One and Two as a set is beyond me. Both use the same, genius ideas. They are Charles Mingus' last great work.

In 1974, when both were made, Mingus assembled debatably his best band: Jack Walth, Don Pullen, George Adams, and everpresent Dannie Richmond. Eric Dolphy was gone, but where he helped invent avant jazz, these guys had been through both the free jazz and fussion storms. None but Mingus were innovators, but they were the best around when jazz forms were being comingled by the music's smartest students.

Changes One and Two have two types of constructs: Shorter pieces like "...'tis Nazi USA," and long essays like "Green as The Color Of Her Dress......".

All the numbers move through chords quick as an arrow. The condenced peices generally stay within the changes. The longer ones start this way, but build like tornados, the harmonics moving further and futher from the center. Just when it sounds like chaos will run wild, SNAP: a messure starts and the band is completely back in, tight as a vice.

This sounds accidemic: writting falls so short when discribing a viceral musical experiance. But these peices are masterpieces of loud and soft, frigtening and lyrical. Each instrument will reveal more on each listen. It is like hearing five people having different conversations, and finding they are all geniusess.

I reviewed Mingus' The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady, calling it the best jazz album of all time. You might infer these Changes Albums are not to this level.

Well, when you heard Sgt. Pepper, did you throw Revolver away?

While Mingus' weirder side is the one more often discussed, I find him to be at his best when he explores blues and roots. That is exactly the territory Changes 1 enters. Which is why I like it, see? Either this or its successor (aptly titled Changes 2: The Summer Sequel Starring Everyone's Heartthrob, Charles Mingus!) is my favorite late-period Mingus disc. The best moment has got to be "Devil Blues", with a raw, convincing vocal and several wild sax solos that seem to be right out of Oh Yeah; the Ellingtonian big-band shuffle "Remember Rockefeller at Attica" (a very Mingus-ish title) has a wonderfully weird melody; and "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" is a graceful tribute to the Duke, though Mingus does spend a bit too much time fiddling with his bass. The only questionable song is the never-ending story "Sue's Changes", which is totally weak, apart from the muted trumpet melody which seemingly escaped from Miles Davis' canon. Along with the likes of Changes 2, Oh Yeah and Mingus Ah Um, Changes 1 represents Mingus at the height of his powers playing rootsy, earthy jazz.

Unique figure in the history of jazz, Mingus was at the same time able to be both at the cutting edge of the developments and completely immersed in the jazz tradition. Even more than that - for him Parker and Ellington were not the only equally challenging peaks of the musical idiom; he included elements from forms other than jazz (gospel, work song, spiritual), developing thus a unique style that, one might speculate, proved to be one of the most influential models for contemporary jazz.

In this stage all Mingus' old strenghts are still present (in composing, playing his instrument, assembling great musicians, leading them toward unity...), but there were some changes as well, for instance a bit more prominent place for the trumpet, which is a great thing if you ask my humble opinion...

Mingus in his late years got his act together in an astonishing fashion. "Changes One" is among that group of recordings. His "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" (instrumental version) is one of the greatest single recordings in the history of Jazz, I believe. Gone are all the chaos of noises, sloppy ensemble and ego-saturated free solos, etc. of his early years, here instead is exquisite organization, and with this fantastic band playing at it's height, it is simply a masterpiece. A masterpiece of composition and individual solos. Gorgeous music, above and beyond genres and styles.
(Four stars because of the tedious vocal and unsatisfying "Sue's Changes".)

Been about 2 years into my discovery of Charles Mingus. According to the research I did on this album, it was done when music lovers, and Jazz "insiders," were finally catching on to just how vital Mingus was. Some of his most elaborate ideas are presented here, specifically on the epic/ballad "Sue's CHanges," (a tribute to his wife), and the forward-thinking attitude presented here is continued on his follow-up/companion album, CHANGES TWO. Less than 5 years after achieving such creative peaks, Mingus died as a result of ALS (nicknamed "Lou Gehrig Disease") in 1979; it's a shame, in the sense that his profile was finally elevating to the place it had always belonged in 20th Century American music. But there's a very good chance that without the accomplishments of the "CHANGES" period, a lot of people, including me, may have never discovered Charles Mingus at all...and that would be an even GREATER shame.

Mingus' "Changes One" & "Changes Two" prove that the 70s were about more than fusion and both are much more accessible than Mingus' earlier orchestral work, "Let My Children Hear Music", from 1972. Both "Changes One" and "Changes Two" were released at the same time. Mingus' disregard for passing musical fashion, as evidenced on these CDs, establishes him as one of the few giants of 2oth century American music. These two CDs illustrate Mingus' gift for musical insight, imaginative composition and the ability to put together a brilliant band that brings his musical ideas to fruition. It is difficult for me to understand why this music has not been sited as the best of the 70's by critics and reviewers. Of the two CDs, "Changes Two" is best for being a cohesive whole rather than four distinct and unrelated tracks, as I feel is the case with "Changes One".

Soaring solos by Don Pullen (piano), George Adams (sax) and Jack Walrath (trumpet) are nothing short of perfection. Charles Mingus' bass and Dannie Richmond's drums are the glue that holds everything together. Mingus' expectations were always high, even in his later years with failing health, and these men did not disappoint! Their tenure with Mingus helped establish a musical legacy unsurpassed by later 80s and 90s prodigies. After Mingus' death, they went on to form their own great band. But, this is the beginning and also the best of Pullen, Adams, Walrath and Richmond.