Customer Reviews

Revenge

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

 

 

The most striking thing about this recording is that 36 years after the Paris concert that it preserves, it sounds fresher and more original than most of the jazz releases being generated today.

Sue Mingus issued "Revenge" as an answer to the bootleggers who have over the years made fistfuls of money off Charles's 1964 European tour. That tour was significant not only for the quality of the music but because it was a farewell for altoist/flutist/bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy, not only from Mingus's band, but sadly, from the world. Dolphy died later that year.

Listen to the concert here and you'll wonder how someone as ill as Dolphy was could generate all that musical power and inspiration. His alto sax and bass clarinet solos are searing, but his flute work, as on "Meditations on Integration" is delicate, ethereal.

To listen to Mingus's working bands was to learn that there is such a thing as musical telepathy. Mingus demanded that his bands change tempos at the drop of a dime, and they delivered. "Meditations" offers a great example of this. As Mingus nears the end of a long bass solo, the tempo shifts and suddenly Clifford Jordan is off on an uptempo tenor sax solo, and pianist Jaki Bayard and drummer Dannie Richmond are right with him.

"Revenge" also shows how Mingus managed to form bands whose members had completely individual voices, yet operated within Mingus's strong group concept. Listen, for example, to "So Long, Eric," in which each member delivers a personal tribute to Dolphy. Each solo is unique; for example, Jaki Bayard's piano offers a mini history of the instrument.

Finally, this great band shows that extended jazz performances can move far beyond the limitations of the blowing session. Four of the six cuts are more than 20 minutes in length. Yet each is musical fantasia. "Meditations on Integration," for example, swings fiercely, borders on abstraction, sings poetically, and shifts tempos unpredictably throughout the course of 22 completely fulfilling minutes.

This CD offers reinterpretations of earlier works, such as "Fables of Faubus," and captures the spirit of Mingus's music -- earthy, bawdy, but with a spiritual element not often found today. Mingus was a great American original; so is the CD.

... from the European tour with Dolphy, Byard, and the rest. Just a note: track 1 of disk 2 is actually "So Long Eric", not "Goodbye Porkpie Hat". This mislabelling dates back to the bootleg release.

By now well documented on bootleg recordings, official releases and DVD the Charles Mingus sextet/quintet active in the spring of 1964 was a virtuosic power house that can be enjoyed on several different levels. The Salle Wagram concert in Paris documented here is typical of what the group proclaimed on its many other engagements throughout Europe in April of 1964. Long pieces with changing tempos and moods, extended solos and lots of passion and fury. "Peggy's Blue Skylight" differs a bit from other versions I've heard from this tour in a just under two minute semi rubato intro that features Dolphy on alto and Jordan playing counter lines prior to entering the head of the tune. Jordan sounds particularly strong during "Fables of Faubus" and as usual we have the driving force of the "Almighty Three" (Byard, Richmond, Mingus) keeping it swinging so hard you can't help but crack a smile. This release is a must for compleatests but I think I'd recommend the following night at Theatre de Champs-Elysees The Great Concert of Charles Mingus or perhaps the recent DVD release of recordings Jazz Icons: Charles Mingus Live in '64 from around this same time before exploring this concert.

The one tragedy and missed opportunity on Revenge is the sound quality of "So Long Eric". It sounds as though either the remaster engineer used an LP master without deemphasis or had the mis-guided idea to add high end to the original tape. The result is a shrill, un-listenable mess. This used to sound good on previous "bootleg" releases like the three LP set, The Great Charles Mingus Concert (Prestige 34001). I was hoping to retire my LP but instead I will go to it for this song instead of the "remaster" on Revenge. I was relieved to find that the rest of the Revenge set does not have this glaring sound quality error so this is worth getting for the rest of the music with sound quality typical of the other dates released from this tour. Kind of sad when the "official" release falls short of the bootleg version especially for something like sound quality. Note that the CD reissue of The Great Charles Mingus Concert (Verve B0002860-02) includes "So Long Eric" from the Theatre de Champs-Elysees show instead of the Salle Wagram as was included in the LP release mentioned above so I'm unaware of a decent sounding "So Long Eric" from Salle Wagram other than on LP. Also note that Coles is heard only on the first half of "So Long Eric" as he took ill during this show and did not perform for the remainder of the tour.

Mingus in paris playing with some of the greatest musicians of all time.. the song list is also one of mingus' strongest - it features some of his best compositional work including fables of faubus, peggy's blue skylight, and the gorgeous 'orange was the color of her dress then blue silk'.. Eric Dolphy is particularly in good form here and his style is interesting in juxtaposition with clifford jordan.. Byard, mingus, and richmond are of course one of the greatest rhythm sections of jazz history.. I cannot recommend this album enough..

Charles Mingus' 1964 European tour is one of the most widely documented of his excursions on the road, and yet if I'm not mistaken, this performance, recorded in Paris on April 17 of that year is the first legally released show of the tour, and was indeed sourced from a bootleg. With a powerful band featuring longtime rhythm partner Dannie Richmond on drums, pianist Jaki Byard, and a frontline of Johnny Coles on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, and the incomporable Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet and flute, Mingus had a band capable of stretching out and wailing with the best of them and one that could delicately express his most whimiscal melody, his tenderist love song, and his fiercest swing.

This tour, and this show are famous for a number of reasons-- primarily that this would be the last time Eric Dolphy would play with Mingus as he died of diabetes-related complications shortly after leaving Mingus' band ("So Long Eric", on the second disc was recorded as a farewell to him). More interesting is that on that tribute piece, Johnny Coles evidentally felt uncomfortable and left the show only to collapse and wake up in a hospital-- it was the only song he performed with the band on this set.

The set consists of six songs, each receiving extended performances (the shortest is just under 12 minutes, the longest is just under 30). The band is in stunning form (somewhat surprising given that they lost their trumpet player), and performs beautifully-- Byard never ceases to amaze, moving from sort of atonal splatters to Ellingtonish swing and colors in between, and Dolphy, who often seemed restrained on Mingus' albums, really cuts loose and delivers an unceasing level of variety and inventiveness in his soloing.

One thing of note, the sound of this recording is a bit thin-- to be sure, it was sourced from a bootleg. A good bootleg, but a bootleg nontethless. The performance is magical enough however that I can't bring myself to rate it any lower than five stars. Recommended.

To be precise this is the music from the FIRST Paris concert by the Mingus group on April 17/18 at Salle Wagram and Johnny Coles- UNMENTIONED!- plays trumpet on the first tune of record 2 (which was in fact the first tune of the concert: I was there) This is the time when he collapsed on the scene!I believe Mrs Mingus should have mentioned that in her liner notes in stead of the longish tale of her bootleg chase!
The second concert is now released as "The great Charlie Mingus Concert Paris 1964" with correct liner notes mentioning that an earlier version had substituted the Salle Wagram version of "Goodbye Pork Hat" to the actual one (a quintet in lieu of a sextet in fact).Initial release was a mess too in other words.
Zylberstein (Paris,France)

If you are looking for a representative sample of live Mingus from this time period, I recommend Mingus at Antibes. The playing here is fine, and is a good addition to the Mingus catalogue (and only merits three stars relatively speaking compared to other Mingus albums), but is marred by a few problems. Most notably, due to a medical emergency, there ain't no trumpeter for most of the first CD. The gang makes do without him, but there is still "something" missing. With all due respect to the Amazon.com folks, this is not an "essential" Mingus recording.