Charles Mingus - Presents Charles Mingus (Japanese Candid Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: VG
Obi: None

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Charles Mingus - Presents Charles Mingus Vinyl LP - Japanese Candid Reissue

A towering achievement in jazz history, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus captures the legendary bassist and composer at a crucial moment, leading a quartet through one of the most intense and uncompromising sessions of his career. Recorded on 20 October 1960 at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios in New York City and reissued in Japan in 1970 by CBS/Sony, this album documents Mingus with three exceptional collaborators: the visionary multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, trumpeter Ted Curson, and the indispensable Dannie Richmond on drums.

The album's four tracks represent Mingus at his most adventurous and politically engaged. "Folk Forms No. 1" opens with a collective improvisation that builds from whispers to roars, showcasing the group's remarkable ability to communicate without predetermined structures. "Original Faubus Fables" is Mingus' furious response to Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and the Little Rock school integration crisis, a piece of protest music as powerful today as when it was recorded. The bassist's anger and passion drive the composition forward while Dolphy's alto cries out with righteous intensity.

"What Love" demonstrates the quartet's ability to move from fury to tenderness, with Mingus' bass taking the lead in a haunting meditation. The album closes with the sardonically titled "All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother", a deconstruction and reimagining of "All The Things You Are" that showcases both Mingus' wit and his willingness to challenge jazz standards and conventions.

This Japanese stereo reissue includes the original insert and represents an important document from Mingus' golden period. Eric Dolphy's presence alone makes this essential, as his work here exemplifies the innovation and emotional depth that made him one of jazz's most important voices before his tragic early death in 1964.