Revenge! [LIVE]

Charles Mingus

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 14, 1996)
• Original Release Date: May 14, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: 32. Jazz Records
• ASIN: B000004CUV
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,928 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Peggy's Blue Skylight

2. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk

3. Meditations on Integration

4. Fables of Faubus

Disc: 2

1. So Long Eric

2. Parkeriana

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

For years, tapes of Charles Mingus's concerts have been pressed into albums and CDs and sold without permission from his estate or royalties to it. Sue Mingus has made a habit of grabbing these bootleg recordings out of stores, marching out without paying and then daring the store to create an incident by arresting her. Now she has come up with an even better idea, a record label called Revenge! which will issue the pirated material in an official form. The first release is from the much-bootlegged April 18, 1964, concert by the Mingus Quintet in Paris. The two-CD set includes six of Mingus's most famous compositions in extended arrangements that include a 25-minute version of "Fables of Faubus" and a 28-minute version of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," with lengthy solos to match. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two hours well spent, April 25, 2000

By	Tyler Smith (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Monument of Musicianship, April 6, 2001

By	Piet De Ridder (Gent, Belgium) - See all my reviews

The Mingus European Tour '64 generated some of the very best live music mankind is capable of. This is a set which should have been included in the space vessel to Mars. Some recordings capture human creativity at its very best and among these, 'Revenge' sits at the very top. This Mingus album is my all time favourite work of art. 5 stars doesn't even come close, it deserves a whole galaxy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The wonderful 64 Quintet with one major oversight, May 14, 2008

By	Sky Mann (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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.