Charles Mingus, Jazz In Detroit

Charles Mingus. Jazz In Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden. BBE. 2018.

Pithecanthropus Erectus : The Man Who Never Sleeps : Peggy’s Blue Skylight : Celia : C Jam Blues : Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk : Dizzy Profile : Noddin’ Ya Head Blues : Celia (alternate take) : Dizzy Profile (alternate take)

Charles Mingus, bass : Joe Gardner, trumpet : John Stubblefield, tenor : Don Pullen, piano : Roy Brooks, drums, saw. All compositions except “C Jam Blues” (Duke Ellington) by Charles Mingus. Recorded February 13, 1973.

This five-CD set presents music from the opening performance of a five-day residency at Detroit’s Strata Concert Gallery, 46 Selden Street. The performance was broadcast live on a local public-radio station, whose tapes ended up with Roy Brooks. And now, forty-five years later, everyone can tune in to three-and-a-half hours of music and another forty-five minutes of conversation with Brooks and radio announcer Bud Spangler.

The music herein is excellent, a mix of favorites (“Pithecanthropus Erectus,” “Peggy’s Blue Skylight,” “Celia,” “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk”), some Ellingtonia (“C Jam Blues”), and three rarities (“The Man Who Never Sleeps,” “Noddin’ Ya Head Blues,” and the otherwise unrecorded “Dizzy Profile,” a delicate waltz written for Dizzy Gillespie). The band is tight, shifting effortlessly from collective tumult to stately ensemble passages. Though Joe Gardner and John Stubblefield are more than capable players, Don Pullen is the standout, creating solos that move from crystalline single-note streams to gospel-tinged harmonies to wild flurries up and down the keyboard. Roy Brooks, the hometown favorite, is a busier drummer than Mingus stalwart Dannie Richmond: think Elvin Jones. Brooks also plays a mean saw on “Noddin’ Ya Head Blues.” The one musician who seems to be missing: Mingus, who contributes just two short solos and is sometimes hard to hear in the mix. “Is he soloing much these days?” Spangler asks Brooks in an interview. “Uh, no,” is the reply.

It’s both exciting and sobering to hear this band playing for an audience. The applause suggests a small, intensely appreciative crowd: when Mingus says “Thank you,” someone replies, “You’re welcome.” Spangler exhorts radio listeners to show up: $4 in advance, $5 at the door. A call goes out over the air for an amplifier, presumably for Mingus’s bass. The economics of music can be precarious.

Thank goodness that Hermione Brooks, Roy Brooks’s wife and, later, widow, held on to these tapes. Jazz in Detroit, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles (ECM), and The Savory Collection (Mosaic) are my records of the year.

Related reading
All OCA Charles Mingus posts (Pinboard)