The Mingus Big Band are dedicated to keeping the beat of Charles Mingus’ music going, and they do it in style. During a weeklong stint at Ronnie’s they profess to be playing the whole book – and a big book it is – that is Mingus’ back-catalogue. So, rather than an appraisal of greatest hits, this evening feels like an exploration of many aspects of the bassist’s composition.
The band have a clustered line-up on Ronnie’s cramped stage – 5 saxophones, 2 trombones and bass trombone/tuba, 3 trumpets, bass, piano and drums – but are “big” in more than one sense, featuring jazz luminaries such as Eddie Henderson, Guy Chambers, John Stubblefield and pianist Kenny Drew Jr, whose father played with Coltrane, Rollins and Lester Young among others.
The opening strident riffs of Power Point Blues balance on a discordance of trombones and saxophones, with charismatic vocal interjections by Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Rastafarian trombonist and soul man, judging by the way he swings it.
The sound of a tight big band is one that can get under your skin and coarse through your veins…
The sound of a tight big band is one that can get under your skin and coarse through your veins, and the tempo and mood changes that are so vital to Mingus’ music sweep past with the character of scenery on a chauffeur-driven ride. An extract from Mingus’ two-hour through-composed suite Epitaph, Children’s Hour of Dream is especially sumptuous, developing a successive series of ideas.
When Lacy again grasps the microphone it is to recite the pointed Don’t Let It Happen Here a German priest’s remorseful poem concerning the Nazi era, which Mingus sets to an anguished cacophony of brass that builds to a foaming climax. On lighter tones we hear the instrumental romantic story of Passions of a Woman Loved, with a compelling dialogue between ‘female’ alto sax and ‘male’ trombone. And the Thelonious tribute Jump Monk.
The band’s second set opens with the rousing funky soul calls of Lacy on Devil Woman – don’t we all want one? And then we doff caps to the influence of Duke Ellington’s suites with his Sound of Love. The bass-led Peggy Blue Skylight gives Boris Zoslov the chance to deliver a delicate solo and Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk emphasises the stroking glissandi of the trombone section.
The night draws its veil with the irresistible Boogie-Stop Shuffle, a standard given a twist with the overlay of the apparently derivative 70s Spider-man theme on top – Is he strong? / listen ‘bud / he’s got radioactive blood…
Very cool. D.Rose
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