Jazz / Avant-Garde; Post-Bop
Recorded:
* Apr 1951, Los Angeles, California
* Apr 14, 1953, New York, New York
Charles Mingus - acoustic bass
Spaulding Givens - piano
Max Roach - drums
This is part of the Limited Edition Original Jazz Classics Series. A young Mingus and Spaulding Givens (Art Tatum's fourth cousin, and for the record about as close stylistically here as he was in the familial sense) gently feel their way through the first nine tracks of standards, creating a texture that is at once intimate and compelling. "Body and Soul" features piano accompaniment with lilting, bright chords as Mingus makes his bass sing. Givens generously magnifies the element of fantasy in his solo take of Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays," with a sweeping, rolling technique that makes true romance of some of the melody's most poignant notes. Givens' own "Blue Tide" carries on in a similar vein, the melody rendered dreamlike and entrancing by Mingus' pedal point bowing. The addition of Max Roach makes for glad, up-tempo trio swinging on both takes of the "Rhapsody In Blue" theme, Mr. Roach's cymbals aglow throughout.
Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler. |
