Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (2021 Impulse! Acoustic Sounds Series 180g Gatefold Vinyl LP)

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady | Vinyl LP - 2021 Impulse! Acoustic Sounds Series Reissue (B0033602-01, mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at QRP)

• One continuous suite in six movements, written for an eleven-piece band and recorded in New York on 20 January 1963, with Bob Thiele producing for Impulse! and Bob Hammer helping with the orchestration.
• Charlie Mariano, Jaki Byard, Quentin Jackson and Jay Berliner, with Dannie Richmond on drums and Mingus on bass and piano. Mariano’s alto was overdubbed after the session, and the master was assembled from dozens of tape splices.
• Verve Acoustic Sounds Series, all-analogue: mastered from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, 180g vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings, Stoughton tip-on gatefold with both sets of liner notes.

Mingus described it as “ethnic folk-dance music” and said he wrote it “for dancing and listening”. It is one continuous composition in six movements for an eleven-piece band, worked out on the bandstand at the Village Vanguard, orchestrated with Bob Hammer’s help and recorded in New York on 20 January 1963. Ellington is all over it. Quentin Jackson, who spent the 1950s in Ellington’s trombone section, growls through a plunger mute, and muted trumpets wah over the blues of “Duet Solo Dancers”. Jay Berliner’s classical guitar brings flamenco runs into the third and fourth movements, a sound Mingus tied to the Spanish Inquisition and El Greco. Dannie Richmond keeps everything moving as the music swings between lush ensemble writing and loose collective improvisation that sounds close to collapse. Charlie Mariano’s improvised alto rides over roughly a third of the record, and Brian Priestley wrote in Jazzwise that Mariano “perhaps never played better”. Hard to argue.

Some of that was built after the fact. Mariano came back about a week after the session to overdub his alto, and Bob Thiele later told Jazz magazine there were “literally 50 splices” to make, all of them planned in Mingus’ head. The same session also produced “Celia” and “I X Love”, which turned up on Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. The sleeve is unusual as well: alongside Mingus’ own liner notes is a second set by his psychotherapist, Dr Edmund Pollock. It sits at number one in our ranking of the 20 best Mingus albums, and we’d defend that against anyone. This Verve Acoustic Sounds Series edition was part of Impulse!’s 60th anniversary run. Ryan K. Smith mastered it at Sterling Sound from the original analogue tapes, Quality Record Pressings pressed it on 180g vinyl and Stoughton Printing made the tip-on gatefold, with both sets of notes inside. This is the 2021 Impulse! Acoustic Sounds Series reissue, catalogue number B0033602-01.