Customer Reviews

Let My Children Hear Music

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mingus just continues to wow me. Everytime I hear one of his albums I am left believing that music can never end, there is still so much yet to be composed...

Mingus has bridged the gap between jazz and classical music in this album, the two are pieced so well together that a symbiotic relationship is formed. To me, he has created a new kind of music all together. I have never heard anything like this album. So many elements are included; the master workings of the brilliant avante garde jazz and classical artists play a part in the arrangements. One can hear John Cage and John Coltrane but this does not mean that they do not hear Mingus. Everything is Mingus! Who can ever claim to be as expansive a musician or composer as Mingus? When Willie Dixon boldly said "I Am The Blues," no one doubted him. Mingus could say something similar, he is the prodigal son of jazz and classical, he always returns to his roots triumphantly while going far out and above and beyond.

I think that the secret of Mingus success, one secret, is his understanding of the timbre of many instruments. To be an excellent composer one has to understand timbre intimately, but Mingus manipulates and pullulates sounds. It was his idea to bring the bass into the horn section, to mix and match instruments and to never limit an instrument to one particular range of sounds or geographical placement both on paper and in the orchestra. "Let My Children Hear Music" explores this new possibility, redefining the geography of the orchestra and rupturing traditional sound. But there is always so much beauty involved! One can criticize Coltrane for being dischordant and abrasive at times, Mingus retains a flow and beauty sensitive to convention, but yet he swings and slants sounds! Is there any limit?

Few albums have radically changed music, few have held up over time. "Let My Children Hear Music" is one of the most brilliant and persuasive albums every recorded. This deserves intensive study, as does the mind of the man himself!

I usually buy music in, at least, pairs. Very rarely one CD. Sometimes it is interesting what I buy together. I bought this with a recording of Mahler's 8th symphony. Interesting that these are the only 2 discs I ever bought that I could not listen to all the way through on the first try. Both of them equally intense, both equal in composition and performance. L"Let my Children Hear Music" puts every other example of "orchestrated jazz" to shame (except for maybe Stan Kenton "City Of Glass"). Far beyond Frank Zappa "The Grand Wazoo". It's one of those ablums that leaves you totally devasted. Should not be passed up by ANY music lover.

Mingus proved himself once again to be one of jazz's most irrestible forces with "Let My Children Hear Music," a tempestuous set with amazing sweep and tremendous imagination. While a composer's reach sometimes exceeds his ability to grasp musicians, Mingus also managed with this recording to assemble the quality musicians required to do his work justice.

One can't adequately describe in a brief review the breadth of Mingus's work on this album, but it can be encapsulated by reference to two compositions, "Hobo Ho" and "The Chill of Death."

The former is a relentlessly hard-driving 10-minute exercise that plows forward behind an insistent bass vamp by Mingus. Throughout this tune of incredible energy, the horns swirl in, out, around and over each other. The best way to describe it is controlled chaos, anchored by Mingus's bass and the brilliant testimonial of James Moody's tenor.

The whirlwind of "Hobo Ho" scarcely has ended before you are swept into the orchestral strains of "The Chill of Death," on which Mingus orates his gothic meditation on a meeting with Death. Like his poetry or not, one can't help but admire Mingus's ambition and his insistence on stretching the definitions of a jazz performance. And it is a jazz performance, as Charles McPherson's yearning alto solo shows.

Mingus received considerable assistance on the release from Sy Johnson and Teo Macero. However, the vision for the date and the architecture of the pieces bear Mingus's indelible stamp. Few jazz musicians produced as consistently rewarding a discography as did Mingus. "Let My Children Hear Music" represents the great master at his challenging best.

There's a rumor going around that, starting very soon, Columbia/Sony and music re-release giant Legacy will discontinue their prodigious line of CD reissues and shutter themselves up completely to fully focus all of their considerable energies on the development and wi-fi distribution of the brand new Miles Davis Complete Cochlear Implant Chip. ;)

Before something crazy like that actually *does* happen, wouldn't it be great if Columbia/Legacy gave the royal treatment to just a few more deserving titles like this classic by Charles Mingus from 1971. Belden could straighten out the confusing personnel list once and for all, and we would no longer have to decode the very questionable messes now posted elsewhere; Tingen could identify every single one of Teo Macero's original edit points and describe with great detail the attributes of each clip left on the floor; and, perhaps most importantly, Charles Mingus' very own monumental essay "What Is A Jazz Composer?" could be reprinted in its ENTIRETY, unlike the present title which offers only brief excerpts. Right now, the only other way to read the entire essay is to obtain the indispensable book "Charles Mingus: More Than A Fake Book" (Jazz Workshop/Hal Leonard Pubs.), which comes *highly* recommended on its own terms. Or you might find the entire text posted on a site somewhere, which is *exactly* the sort of thing that rightfully pisses off people like Mingus' widow and prime-mover Sue Mingus.

But back to the wonderful things that Columbia/Legacy does and could do: They could investigate the existence of additional material from these same sessions, even rumors of additional material, like the strange appearance on the Jazz Discography Project's Mingus page of an extra song from the album called "Quand L'Amour Vient" ("When Love Comes", maybe?). What's up with that, JDP? And of course, we could have a very learned discussion about the true extent to which Mingus himself was or was not actually involved in the preparations and rehearsals and recordings for these sessions. Without trying to take anything away from the man's formidable musical prowess (and it must be stated that Mingus' importance as an American *composer*, and not just of jazz music but of *any* American music, is right there on a par with not only Duke Ellington but also with Aaron Copland and Charles Ives), the masterwork that is "Let My Children Hear Music" seems largely crafted by those who were behind the batons - the arrangers, the orchestrators, and the conductors, few of whom were Mingus himself. And so if any of those people whose contributions were so major are still around today, someone from C/L could talk with them about these sessions, and, and..! Oh heck, why don't I stop beating around the bush - they could hire *ME* to do it!!! "No more coffee for you, mister."

(switch to more appropriate reverential tone)

"Let My Children Hear Music" is an amazing album on so many levels - as a comeback for the man after nearly four years off the scene, as an important example of his compositional genius, as an incredible display of top-notch orchestral bravura, if not just for the sheer joy of the glorious passages of simultaneous free improv by the magnificent players assembled (whoever they may ultimately turn out to be) - that the whole thing deserves a special place on the shelves of all of us whose love for American Music is a primary driving force. Whether you have the original vinyl LP (I do, minus the complete essay insert sheet), or want to get this early 90's CD edition with just acceptable sound, or you want to wait for the deluxe-treatment-special-leather-bound-chip-based-millenium-edition that could be coming to a delivery system near you... just find a way to own this music - it will enrich your life many times over. I promise.

"Let My Children" is late-model Mingus playing with a big band. The details of exactly who he was playing with is a little sketchy, but included Dannie Richmond (of course), Jimmy Knepper, Snooky Young, Richard Williams, and four other bassists, including Ron Carter and Milt Hinton. This album was apparently one of Mingus's favorites, and it's very good. I'm not especially a big-band fan, but the songs are all Mingus songs, and I'm a fan of Mingus's writing. "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife", "Hobo Ho", and the "Eye of Hurricane Sue" are the best songs. "Taurus", added for the CD, and "The Chill of Death" are weaker. Mingus tried to incorporate speech with jazz a few times, and unfortunately "Chill" isn't much better than his other experiments. Some people have explained away any of the album's weakness as the fault of the arrangers - Mingus left it to Sy Johnson, Alan Raph, and Teo Macero. I think the arranging is just fine, and Mingus let the other guys do it because that's what he wanted. Mingus wasn't deathly ill or anything when this album was made. So, a very good album, moreso if you like big band jazz.

Five LEGENDARY Stars but deserves Six!! Near death from Lou Gerhig's disease in Cuernavaca Mexico, Charles Mingus sent a message to arranger Sy Johnson saying, all things considered, this was his favorite recording out of a huge Mingus discography. This is also one of Mingus' greatest bands playing like musical dervishes, performing some of his greatest music. On one section, he has Ron Carter, Richard Davis and Milt Hinton simultaneously on bass. I was fortunate enough to see the "Mingus Jazz Workshow"-version of this band, live at the Village Vanguard in NYC's Greenwich Village, performing this material and the impact of the studio and live performances are the same: SPECTACULAR! And Mingus WAS on bass and played superbly at the Vanguard. Mingus had not recorded in a while, so the influence of this recording on the jazz world was stunning!! And, trust me, besides Mingus himself on bass and Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet, Bobby Jones on tenor sax (hair pulled into a ponytail), was a star of this band, soloing with pure abandon (but never became the solo artist this performance indicated he could have been). Charles McPherson, who did become a star, was likewise excellent, blowing hot liquid notes all the way through. The ghost of Duke Ellington is everywhere, more so than on most Mingus recordings. And Sy Johnson's arrangements are engrossing and fascinating.

The orchestra's performance, even in Mingusian terms was huge, thrashing about like a beautiful huge living organism, grabbing us and taking us along for this wonderful ride. The three 'Pieces De Resistance' begin with "The Shoes of the Fisherman Wife....", a lengthy beautiful symphonic head gives way to a hard-swinging second part, with some awesome 'free' play, and a great symphonic coda ending on a hopeful note. "Adagio Ma Non Troppo" (aka "Myself When I Am Real", an orchestration of the piece from the "Mingus Plays (Solo) Piano" CD) is another wonderful symphonic, but swinging performance that has to be heard to be believed. Mingus' arco (bowed) passages are multitracked and breath-taking. "The Eye of Hurrican Sue" (dedicated to his wife) was a wonderful orchestral romp starting with actual hurricane sounds, then it morphs into a great straight-ahead swinger with a really great bridge. McPherson and Jones are stunning in their solos.

Elsewhere, "Taurus in the Arena of Life "is a great bonus track, not on the original LP. "Hobo Ho" (with great James Moody) and the whimsical "Don't Be Afraid....." are equally exciting pieces with some unusual editing. "The Chil of Death" is a curiousity with Mingus' spoken words illuminating a personal phase of his life, with some wonderful orchestral flourishes going on in the background, but that's what he was about: surprise and wonder!! Five Stars are not enough, make it a SIX!!

(Notes:
*I know we keep using the term "Masterpiece", "Legendary", etc with respect to 'this Mingus CD or that CD', but it's true. Mingus was simply one of the greatest musicians in jazz, whether it was playing his bass violin (his pizzacato work is stunning, but his arco work it's almost other-wordly in it's virtuosity), his small groups (from "The Clown" to "Tijuana Moods", to "Mingus Changes" and beyond) to this large orchestras ("Town Hall Concert", "Let My Children Hear Music", "Mingus at Monterey", and of course, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady").
*Even death itself couldn't silence him for long as Gunther Schuller and Sue Mingus opened an old trunk and discovered another lost Masterwork in "Epitaph", which spawned a huge studio recording and a band tour, and the Mingus Dynasty band and Mingus Big Band rage on to this very day in varying combinations of ex-Mingus sidemen playing his classics.

In 1971, if you'd asked me, "Who is the greatest jazz musician?" I would have said, "John McLaughlin hands down"! At the time I was listening to the unrelenting sounds of Mahavishnu Orchestra ("Inner Mounting Flame", "Birds of Fire", etc.) Well, now I can say, like many of my peers, that I wasted a whole lot of time on MO. I could have been listening to "real music"; Mingus' "Let my Children Hear Music"(1971) and by far the greatest album from the decade of experimentation. Wow! This is in a league of its own, as the previous reviewers, who are much more knowledgeable than I, can attest. Mingus was at the forefront of "modern music". In my opinion, only the GREAT Duke Ellington, Mingus' mentor, compares. Ellington's influence is felt on many of the "Swing" passages. For an interesting comparison, listen to Duke's "The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse" which is also a 1971 masterpiece. Although the music on "Let My Children Hear Music" is as intense and unrelenting as Mahavishu's "Inner Mounting Flame", the execution and instrumental palette are worlds apart. This is a masterpiece by a very bi-polar obsessive-compulsive perfectionist.

True to his nature, Mingus DEMANDS that we listen to his inner "voice". Each instrument INSISTS we hear its timbre. The deep, rich tones reflect the majestic status Mingus sought for himself. "Let My Children Hear Music" has many twists and turns, as is true with all of Mingus' work. At times this music borders on chaos, i.e.) a lot of animal sounds running riot. Children will love this! At other times, Mingus shows his grandiose classical side. He trained as a classical performer before changing course. This music is not for the faint of heart and I suggest one listen to each piece individually before listening to the CD as a whole. Each cut except for one is long. All are complex and challenging arrangements by Sy Johnson. As with all of Mingus' work, this music REQUIRES active, not passive, listening. CAUTION: I imagine this "experience" is like spending one hour in a bi-polar ward at your regional asylum. For more accessible but just as interesting Mingus music, check out "Changes 1 & 2" from 1974.

Two big bands with Mingus at the composer's helm help to create a unique jazz mix of classicism, avant-garde, and a whole lotta swing. Mingus had a lot of arrangement help with this one, and the results were fantastic. The album is thick with ideas, and together they form a very broad but accurate picture of the kind of person Mingus was... immodestly brilliant, violently passionate, emotionally bipolar, and absolutely dedicated to his craft. Mingus was getting on at this point, and this is probably the last groundbreaking album he put it before he passed away in 1978. This album takes a lot of chances but still manages to be listenable, and you'll come away with something new every time you listen to it. The standout track is the opener, which starts with a slow minor-key dirge before restating the theme in a rollicking swinging big-band arrangement (did I say bipolar?) You'll feel like you've taken a journey through the man's mind after listening to this, so be prepared.

Charles Mingus does not really belong in the jazz idiom. He is an artist who's music transcends the limited boundaries that critics draw upon in an attempt to help themselves understand it. Let My Children Hear Music is an excellent example of this. Mingus uses a larger band here than listeners of his early work are accustomed to. Like a few of the orchestral movements Mingus has written and recorded, this album has over a dozen musicians. The eloquent voicings of the individual soloists and the power with which the band as an entity exude are spine-tingling. If you like jazz and haven't explored classical as I hadn't until buying this album, Let My Children Hear Music will place you on the path to wanting to find out more. You will also realize, as I'm sure the majority of serious Mingus fans have, how silly critics are when they label Charles a "jazz" musician.

Even if you disagree with Mingus' assessment of this as his greatest recording, the musical evidence is sufficiently compelling to make you respect the composer's judgment. Mingus was a larger-than-life figure and dreamer of Faustian proportions, though his projects frequently fell short of realizing their maker's designs. In some respects, he's remarkably similar to the filmmaking genius, Orson Welles (and not only in terms of artistic vision). After the controversy and commercial failure of "Citizen Kane," Welles was largely sentenced to pursuing his Promethean ambitions with self-financed films on shoe-string budgets that simply could not conceal their frequently ragged, unpolished production values.

Recent recordings like Mingus' UCLA and Cornell concerts often show much of the same disparity between the artist's lofty conceptions and inadequate resources for implementation of them (in terms of money, time, personnel, promotional agents, circulation channels). But with the help of arranger Sy Johnson, Mingus came closer than ever to realizing the "grand design" in "Let My Children Hear Music," which amounts to a literal and fitting "valedictory" by the composer-bassist-leader. Call the music portentous and pretentious: it IS. Romantics, dreamers, visionaries, idealists always ARE. And lest there be any doubt, the liner notes quoting Mingus on the project are practically a jeremiad on the state of art and culture in the late 20th century.

Like Welles, William Blake, Shelley, Pound and perhaps all under-appreciated or ignored geniuses, Mingus was a true "maverick" (quite unlike the Presidential candidate who claims the title because he disagreed with his commander-in-chief 10% of the time), distancing himself from liberal revolutionaries as much as conservative stand-patters. As his program notes make clear, Mingus wanted to liberate listeners by opening their ears not just to the music of the present but to the brilliant compositional structures of the past. He was at once "progressive" and "conservative," intensely committed to conserving the best music by insisting that it be heard amidst the frequent noise of the present.

"Let My Children Hear Music" is Mingus writ large (if that's possible), music that's more absorbing compositionally than some of the earlier recordings of these same works. If there's a deficiency to the music, it's ironically the comparative absence of the normally irrepressible Mingus himself. The program opens with a thrilling "Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife" that practically recalls Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration." Yet the impact of the piece is partially dependent on the listener's familiarity with previous, less polished and fully "orchestrated" versions of the composition. Soon, the textures of the program tend to overwhelm individual soloists and even Mingus. In terms of a final result doing justice by each of the personalities in the ensemble while representing in full the character of the leader, Mingus inarguably falls short of his hero, Ellington.

All the same, the textures and scale are in themselves a wonder, and the saxophones of the ageless James Moody and the noble (if wronged) soldier Bobby Jones are added "clinchers" to this fascinating, if not essential, recording. Looking at Amazon's current price for this item and factoring in a tax and postage-free transaction, I'd be surprised if you found many better values on Amazon. But don't take it for granted. Some of Ellington's best music is currently unavailable. In the "culture" of the present, as Mingus himself sensed, there are major obstacles to being heard. Why not pick up a boxful of these and hand them out to young people in exchange for a promise to give up some of the time devoted each day to the Xbox, iPhone, and Face Book. (I know--what to do about the problem of the suddenly obsolescent CD player?) As loud, omnipresent, and inescapable as the "medium" has become, Mingus was enough of a maverick to believe there's still a message that needs to be heard. Some of us are old-fashioned enough to agree with him.