About

A TAV Curator’s Pick.

Bassist / composer Charles Mingus is one of the most radical figures in American music. Throughout the '50s, he worked as a sideman with legendary players Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and more. In the '60s, he gained recognition as a bandleader, often followed by controversy for making strong-minded statements in the press about race, politics and stodgy music critics. While Mingus received many honors posthumously as well as during his career, perhaps his greatest achievement was transcending the restrictive label of jazz.

The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady is without question Mingus' magnum opus. Originally released on Impulse! in 1963, the album broke new ground in both genre-defying composition and innovative recording techniques. A six-part suite with dramatic shifts in mood and tempo, The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady features the three-way brass dialogue of trumpets, trombone and tuba, swooping reeds and awe-inspiring rhythm section. Balancing delicate Spanish modes and Ellingtonian themes, the ensemble breaks into a divine cacophony of group improvisation on par with free jazz giants Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor.

In his best-known essay, "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung," Lester Bangs praises, "the experience of the first few listenings to a record so total, so mind-twisting, that you authentically can say you'll never be quite the same again. Black Saint And The Sinner Lady did that, and a very few others. They're events you remember all your life, like your first real orgasm."

This long out-of-print vinyl release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes. – Superior Viaduct

“This suite is a feast of virtuoso performances, shifting moods and textures, and detailed background work by Mingus’ eleven-piece band. Jerome Richardson is heard to great effect on baritone sax near the beginning of the work; he contributes some beautifully supportive flute (with Dick Hafer) and soprano elsewhere. Quentin Jackson’s trombone work is arresting, and the other hornmen (Rolf Ericson and Richard Williams on trumpets, Don Butterfield on tuba, Hafer on tenor sax as well as flute) are excellent. But the pervasive voice of the entire piece is Charlie Mariano on alto sax. Mariano’s playing is wrenchingly emotional and evocative, conveying pathos, fervor, and undying conviction…Solo voices emerge from the welter and are drawn back into it. Occasionally the ferocity of each voice clamoring with the others reaches such a furious intensity that it would take just one more step for it to reach the world of the medium-sized group free jazz that would be recorded not long after this album: Albert Ayler’s New York Eye and Ear Control, Coltrane’s Ascension, etc. Then in an instant the ensemble stops on a dime with a unison statement executed with high-energy precision. It is an extraordinary thing to hear.” – All About Jazz

Musicians:

• Charlie Mingus - bass
• Charlie Mariano - alto saxophone
• Jake Byard - piano
• Jay Berliner - guitar
• Don Butterfield - tuba
• Dick Hafer - tenor saxophone, flute
• Quentin Jackson - trombone

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