Customer Reviews

Money Jungle

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Duke is the king. He was huge. Too much recent writing bogs down in arguments whether Strayhorn got enough credit, whether Hodges or Nanton or Williams were showcased properly. These writers, came to the banquet late, and are squabbling over table scraps. Ellington dominated the jazz world from the mid-1920s until he died in 1974. Ellington was the vanguard. This CD is one to prove it.

The year is 1962. Big bands are dinosaurs. Ellington's orchestra still performs, but dance hall venues of the 30s and 40s went out with the war. He's been doing studio work, some with the band, some with smaller ensembles. Everyone wants to record with the Duke. This time out he's with the angriest man in jazz, Charlie Mingus, the Black Saint himself. How did they do? Unbelievable.

Here's Duke, elegant, sophisticated, and smooth. He plays piano in the parlor. Probably in the Hamptons. Max Roach accompanies discreetly with brushes and cymbals. You can almost hear the whispers of liveried waiters circulating with champagne and canapés. But beneath this frothy party, up through the floorboards, comes a rumbling, and a thumping. Not a guest at the party, what you hear is an unpresentable, dangerous member of the family. Locked away for the night, he's Charlie Mingus, the beast in the basement, down there, pounding away at the foundations.

Max reacts. Brushes, cymbals and the quiet pretense of elegance, give way to sticks and traps and a harder edge- "Duke," he says, "Duke, you hear that?" The Duke doesn't answer right away. It's like maybe he didn't hear it, but then, when he answers, he answers with a discord. "Is that what you mean?" Another discord, "You mean that?" "Yeah, Duke, that's it. That's what I mean."

Bit by bit Duke and Max pick up Charlie's themes. Duke, over sixty, he's seen it all, commiserates with Mingus, the quintessential angry 60s black man. "Yeah, Charlie, we know, Charlie. We're angry, too, Charlie. It's not just you. You're not alone, Charlie." They grumble, angry together. But with age comes wisdom, and sweetness, and forgiveness, and after a bit, Duke hits a nice round churchy gospel chord. "C'mon, Chuck, lighten up." Another gospel chord. Max cracks a joke. And Mingus mellows.

The trio hits a nice rhythm. A bit of harmony, even. "Wanna come upstairs, Charlie? Join the party?" And, after a bit, he does, walleyed and nervous in the bright light. "You understand, Duke, this is just for you? I'm only doing this for you." He really doesn't like these people, but still-- It's better than the basement.

Mingus never really is comfortable in the parlor. And as long as he's upstairs, the guests look at the waiters with apprehension. This bass player, you know, he could lead a revolution. But Mingus likes jazz, and he likes the Duke. Duke's not just one of those lard-butted bandleaders, he's one of- Aw, man, forget `one of', he's the BEST jazz piano player EVER. so sit up and listen or Mingus will kick your--

You know, there are some albums that you pretty much think have to be good, and you have these enormously high expectations for them. And more often than not, they don't quite live up to them.

"Money Jungle" is one of the exceptions to that rule. A dream meeting-- bandleader Duke Ellington sits at the piano, generously supported by his compositional heir in bassist Charles Mingus and sublime bop drummer Max Roach. With this backing, Ellington is inspired in a far more assertive light than he is usually found as Mingus and Roach push him along. Mingus is downright aggressive and perhaps even angry throughout the proceedings-- check his playing "Money Jungle", where he occasioanlly switches from his swing to an aggressive repetitive figure, as if daring his collaborators to drift outside of the swing (they don't), or his fierceness on "Wig Wise" in sharp contrast to Ellington's light and bouncey touch. Somehow, Roach, often considered the most lyrical of drummers, finds a way to negotiate through this and keep the tension between Ellington and Mingus to a boil.

The entire record is pretty much a highlight-- from the fluttering bass of "Fleurette Africaine" (echoed by Ellington and Roach) to Ellington's beautiful revisitation of "Solitude" (in my favorite reading of the piece) to the straight blues of "REM Blues", there's not a bad cut on here, although I suspect anybody deeply rooted in the swing tradition will find the playing a bit out of character, and certainly Ellington is inspired into a different light by his younger protegees.

Nonetheless, as far as jazz records go, this one is pretty much indispensible. Highly recommended.

This is one of the truly great albums, an album that epitomizes the great preoccupations of jazz--the breaking down and building back up, the fighting between the old and new schools. It is also more evidence of the Duke's continued reign as undisputed champ of music in America; he was willing to do anything, go anywhere. And so he followed Mingus and Max Roach into their world, and what may have turned into a sort of gang initiation for any other musician becomes an all-out musical brawl, a record that is hard-driving and forceful and unpolished but still beautiful. It's not surprising that Mingus, in the presence of Ellington, plays as well as he ever has. No matter how far Mingus reached, no matter how experimental he got, he came from Duke, and worshipped Duke (even though he was the only man Duke had ever fired), and this anxiety is palpable all through this record. And Duke? What can one say... In addition to being a wonderful soul, he was a very smart man, and knew quite well that he was not Bud Powell or Oscar Peterson, and he doesn't try to be, he doesn't need to be. He didn't sign up with Mingus and Roach for a gag, to dip his toes cautiously and quickly into the bebop waters. He wanted--like all great artists--to challenge and to be challenged. So it is not terribly surprising that he sounds at times like Thelonious (another who was deeply touched by Duke)--angular, sparse, very rhythmic. This is above all else a confrontation of styles and ideas and personalities. It is musical interplay at its most complex because it plays off of what we know and what we expect from these musicians, reaching and eventually exceeding those expectations.

This album has been talked a lot about and I can say little more about the musicians themselves, each phenomenal in his own right. But perhaps less mentioned is that while this session ended up being a bona fide success, it really had a very good reason to fail or at least flounder in mediocrity. That reason, simply, is that Duke, Roach, and Mingus, though all brilliant jazzmen, learned and played jazz in different worlds -- just diiferent enough that it could've broken down communication among them, resulting in something much less that what became the Money Jungle album.

Duke was a celebrated godfather figure of not just jazz, but of American music in general, at the time of this recording. His reign as a bandleader and contribution as a composer have never been paralleled. His rise to musical prominence was during the very popular swing era and his earliest introduction into jazz performing was in a time very different than that of either Roach or Mingus. Roach, although getting his start in the latter days of the swing era, refined his craft and paid his dues during the bebop era, when audiences and critics weren't so accepting of jazz's latest innovators, forcing the beboppers underground where their music became iconic for the various subcultures of the day. Mingus made a name for himself in a crowded post-bebop jazz world where he and his many notable contemporaries had to walk through an ever more dense forest of Ghosts from Jazz Past to find their own niche and make their own individual contributions.

It's easy to pick up this album and think "Duke, Roach, Mingus -- this MUST be good." Yet, upon realizing just how different of musicians each of these men were coming into this session, the listener should be struck with awe at what they accomplished. Despite the very real chance that it would be dismal failure to connect, it ended up becoming a testimony to the greatness of these three musicians, both individually and collectively. Moreover, only musicians of a most superb caliber could transcend such personal and social differences so effectively without losing their respectively individuality and bring their individual contributions together so cohesively and complimentary as Duke, Roach, and Mingus did here. Because of this, the significance of this album lies not just in the fact that it's brilliant music. It speaks volumes of jazz as a genre spanning over generations and of the profound and astonishing degree of musicianship that can be found among some of jazz's greatest names.

For these reasons, it's downright criminal that this album's talked about much more than actually listened to. I can only hope that this better-late-than-never remastered edition will be incentive for jazz fans to cool the hero worshipping banter long enough to give this album some most deserved listening time.

Duke Ellington recorded two albums in the same month with younger musicians near the peaks of their powers. There is the disc with John Coltrane, and this one with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. I wish Duke had done more of that, because both discs are very good. "Money Jungle" shows a surprisingly avant-garde side of Duke Ellington.

This CD opens up with the title track, which is an absolute 5-star song. "Money Jungle" sounds unlike anything you'd expect from Duke Ellington. It wouldn't sound out of place on a Bad Plus CD, for example. It bristles with raw energy. Charles Mingus hits the same note on the bass like he was Neil Young. The song is timeless, and reason alone to get the CD. Things settle down for "Fleurette Africaine" where everyone plays with more touch and subtlety. "Very Special" can be considered the "average" song on this CD - it's blues-based, mid-tempo, and has very tasty playing. "Wig Wise" is a revelation to me, this version sounds better than any other I've heard. The version of "Caravan" puts a unique twist on an often-played classic. "Solitude" is in large part a Duke solo spot. "A Little Max" is a sprightly, catchy tune. Not counting the alternate versions, the rest of the disc and the bonus tracks are similar to "Very Special" in their bluesiness. The playing is stellar across the board. It's great to hear Duke without a big band, Mingus is Mingus, and Max Roach doesn't play flashily, but he always a very musical drummer. This CD is highly recommended, even if you're not a big fan of Duke's big band stuff.

Ellington/Mingus/Roach - the names alone mean greatness. This album stands alone in Duke's 40-plus-year career covering everything from bebop to swing and everything in between; it's a rare piano trio recording rather than being done with his more common big band, and it's his only record with these two fantastic sidemen (both giants in their own right). Money Jungle is the kind of thing you can't classify: it stretches between hard bop, blues, swing and a hint of the freeform avant-garde while occupying its own space outside all of them. Duke's piano constantly twists and turns around the framework of chords he lays out for the others, occasionally flirting with atonality but never becoming unlistenable. Roach, a drummer with the self-effacing personality of a bass player, would be content to add his own little tricks and riffs behind the others without hogging the spotlight.. but there really is no spotlight, since everyone's basically equal in listening & responding to each other throughout. You might have to adjust the stereo to really hear Mingus's bass, but it's well worth a good batch of listens in itself - there's enough going on to suggest two Minguses (Mingusi? Mingi?) at work. This is what an ideal trio recording is - an equal collaboration among all the members in terms of inventiveness and improvisation.

The song list is all Ellington-composed (or co-composed) and almost all new to this session. His standards "Solitude," "Warm Valley" and "Caravan," as is usual when revisiting one's older tunes, are tweaked and reworked in this setting; everything else was all-new. It's quite an impressive display of how fertile Duke's musical imagination was even after 37 years or so. There have been rumors of clashes during this session between him and Mingus, but I really don't hear it anywhere. They play against each other, sure.. around practically every corner you can hear all three of them challenging and tossing curveballs at each other, prodding each other to bring out the best they can do. But it never sounds unpleasant to me. (Duke gives Mingus a good compliment after a false start to "Backward Country Boy Blues.") It's simply three top-notch players bouncing some ideas around and bringing the best they can do to the table. Any other details are secondary.

The sound quality is stellar except for some fuzziness to the high piano notes (probably unfixable). Duke's harmonic invention at the piano is as rich as ever; his quirky way with chords and licks here never seems to get stale. There's no use trying to pinpoint where this stuff falls on the scale; bebop, swing, blues, hard bop, whatever. Even the extra non-album tracks are eminently worthy additions. They're not exactly unique (three of them are just standard blues), but as with all the other songs, it's the interplay among the group that makes these recordings special. Maybe we could wish this wasn't the only time this trio played together, but that only makes Money Jungle stand out even more. Piano-trio recordings are a dime a dozen out there, but sessions like this one are a rare thing indeed. Money Jungle will keep you coming back to hear new things for years.

A new 24 bit mix edition of the classic recording with two alternate takes never before released. I just program my CD player and play the album as it was originally intended, and it is amazing. Mingus and Roach are great, but dont expect long solos from these guys, they are backing up the Duke. He is in the spotlight, and I am grateful for that.

After listening to this excellent cd I feel I must point this out. Although Duke wrote all these tracks, it seems to me that the Duke's performance was completely inspired by Charles Mingus's playing. You will never hear Ellington sound as raw and as immediate and as he sounds here. Duke gets top billing but to me this cd is as much Mingus (and Roach) as it is Duke.

This album was bought for me many years ago by a friend, and I have been listening to it ever since. The sessions were recorded in 1962 and feature Max Roach on Drums, Charlie Mingus on Bass and Duke Ellngton on the Piano.

Most of the material was written especially for the session and there are some wonderful compositions here. Like a lot of Ellingtons material they all sound deceptively simple. However my favourite track is their version of 'Caravan'. This is a thunderous version with Ellington playing the melody lower down the Piano than you would normally expect. Perhaps he did this just wind Mingus up - who knows. Anyway its a stunning performance by all 3 of them.

This is a must-have Jazz Trio album by Ellington, who is frequently forgotten when great Jazz Pianists are mentioned, because of his superb writing and arranging skills. This shows off his playing skills better than any other album I know.

This is one of those albums that transcends the word "jazz" and reminds me of how useless a term it can be when trying to talk about art music of this quality. Ellington, Mingus and Roach drove the tap deep into the well of the universal with this one. Ellington's ability to approach the music with a compositional freshness rather than becoming mired in the formulaic makes Money Jungle a true joy; alive with spontaneity but steeped in jazz tradition. The instrumental virtuosity of all three working on the scaffold of Ellington's compositional leadership yields a priceless result. African Flower alone would justify owning this album.