1.Haitian Fight Song
2.Blue Cee
3.Reincarnation of a Lovebird
4.The Clown.
Charles Mingus (bass), Curtis Porter (alto,tenor saxes), Jimmy Knepper (trombone),
Wade Legge (piano), Dannie Richmond (drums).
The Clown is an album by Charles Mingus recorded and released in 1957. The follow-up to 1956's Pithecanthropus Erectus, it further established Mingus' reputation as one of jazz music's premiere band leaders.
Though perhaps best-known for featuring the improvised narration of Jean Shepherd, it is considered by many to be one of Mingus's major works as well as being arguably his most diverse.
The Clown
ReplyDeleteMingus is a true original, and THE CLOWN is an album on which his genius for melding tradition with experimentation is particularly pronounced. In the stunning "Haitian Fight Song," the track which opens the album, there are strains of indigenous ... Full Descriptionfolk styles and church music pastiched with raw-nerve intensity and compositional sophistication. Mingus's bass, in particular, in its strident manipulation of the fretboard and powerful sound, seems to express the emotional ferocity which propels the track.
The mood becomes deceptively more traditional in "Blue Cee," but even here sections are broken up, colored by daring lines and rhythms, shifting and synthesizing stylistic modes. "Reincarnation Of A Lovebird" is Mingus' tribute to Charlie Parker, again employing what seems to be an "old-fashioned" theme which is actually a complex, extended line that flows, loops and reinvents itself., THE CLOWN boasts outstanding compositions, superior musicianship by four members of the artist's Jazz Workshop and what is arguably some of Mingus's best recorded bass work.
THE CLOWN is probably best known in the Mingus canon for its long title track, which flirts with jazz-poetry. However it's also noteworthy for "Haitian Fight Song," a boisterous folk meditation on prejudice, reincarnated on the Impulse album MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS as "II B.S."
"Haitian Fight Song" has many classic trademarks of Mingus at his best, with a slow horn build up and the wild hollering that Mingus associated with the prayer meetings of his childhood. "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" is a mournful tribute to Mingus' departed friend Charlie Parker, which evokes a more measured, introspective bebop. "The Clown," like the title track of PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS, tells its story through melody and dissonance, with an improvised spoken narration by radio personality Jean Shepard. Mingus envisioned the story of the clown as similar to that of the jazz musician, with both artists' work being appreciated only posthumously; however Shepard's narration leaves this tragic tale open-ended.
Recorded at Audio-Video Studios, New York, New York on February 13, 1957 and Atlantic Studios, New York, New York on March 12, 1957. Originally released on Atlantic (1260). Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff.
Personnel: Charles Mingus (bass); Jean Shepherd (spoken vocals); Shafi Hadi (alto & tenor saxophones); Jimmy Knepper (trombone); Wade Legge (piano); Dannie Richmond (drums).