Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (1972 Japanese Atlantic Vinyl LP)

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots | Vinyl LP - 1972 Japanese Atlantic/Warner-Pioneer Reissue (P-6099A, Jazz Age Series)

Mingus wrote in his own liner notes that this record came about because critics kept saying he didn't swing enough. Nesuhi Ertegun had suggested he make an entire blues album in the style of "Haitian Fight Song", and Mingus eventually agreed, on his own terms. The result was recorded in a single session on February 4, 1959, three months before Mingus Ah Um, and it may be the most direct, least complicated record he ever made. The nonet is enormous: two altos, a tenor, a baritone, two trombones, two pianos, bass and drums. "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" opens with call-and-response shouts over a churchy groove, and the whole first side builds from there. "Cryin' Blues" slows to an aching crawl with Booker Ervin's tenor carrying most of the weight. "Moanin'" (Mingus's own composition, not to be confused with the Bobby Timmons tune) runs nearly eight minutes and swings harder than anything else on the record, Mingus shifting from swing to straight eighths in a way that pulls the whole band with him.

Side B opens with "Tensions", where the two trombones take the lead and the writing gets denser. "My Jelly Roll Soul" is the album's quieter moment, a slow, almost tender blues with Horace Parlan's piano prominent in the mix. "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too" closes the record as a full nonet blowout, all nine musicians working through a stacked arrangement that builds relentlessly. The whole album was recorded by Tom Dowd at Atlantic Studios in New York and supervised by Nesuhi Ertegun. Pepper Adams's buzz-saw baritone is the secret weapon throughout, and Jackie McLean and John Handy split the alto chair in a way that gives each enough space to be distinct. This is the 1972 Japanese reissue on Warner-Pioneer Corporation (P-6099A), released as part of the Jazz Age series at ¥2,000. The pressing is licensed from Atlantic, manufactured in Tokyo by Warner-Pioneer. Lee Friedlander's cover photograph is reproduced from the original Atlantic artwork.