Charles Mingus - Pre-Bird (1973 US Mercury EmArcy Series Mono Vinyl LP)

Charles Mingus - Pre-Bird | Vinyl LP - 1973 US Mercury Mono Reissue (MG 20627, EmArcy Series)

The title says it plainly. This is music composed before Mingus heard Charlie Parker, or at least written in the spirit of the era Parker upended. The Ellington tributes on side A anchor the concept. "Take the 'A' Train" runs Billy Strayhorn's melody in the left channel against "Exactly Like You" in the right, the two lines pulling apart and snapping back together while Booker Ervin, Yusef Lateef and Joe Farrell tear through the gaps. "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me" gets the same treatment with "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart." Mingus takes Ellington's polyphony and pushes the tension further, keeping the swing but adding an urgency the originals never carried. Between the Ellington pieces sit Mingus originals: "Prayer for Passive Resistance" is a hard, direct blues; "Eclipse" and "Weird Nightmare" slow things down with Lorraine Cusson's vocals floating over dissonant, atmospheric arrangements; and "Mingus Fingus No. 2" brings the full orchestra in for the first time, four trumpets deep.

The larger ensemble tracks (recorded the day before the smaller group sessions, May 24, 1960, at Plaza Sound Studios) use a 22-piece orchestra that producer Leonard Feather described as a shock when he walked into the studio. Schuller conducts "Half-Mast Inhibition" on side B, a through-composed work that operates somewhere between jazz and classical without settling comfortably in either camp. Dolphy's alto is at the centre of the larger arrangements, and the brass section (Clark Terry, Marcus Belgrave, Richard Williams, Hobart Dotson on trumpets; Slide Hampton, Eddie Bert, Charles Greenlee and Jimmy Knepper on trombones; Don Butterfield on tuba) gives the orchestral tracks a weight the smaller group sessions don't attempt.

Originally released on Mercury in September 1961 as Pre-Bird, later reissued on Limelight as Mingus Revisited in 1965, this copy is the 1973 US mono reissue on Mercury, part of the EmArcy Series, mastered at Masterdisk, catalogue number MG 20627.