Anything played – and recorded – by Charles Mingus after the 1960s would probably have refusniks and naysayers sharpening their claws. It’s not simply this wonderful recording – Charles Mingus in Argentina – The Buenos Aires Concerts. “Decline…,” “…well past his prime… his powers…” would be a constant refrain. But do people – especially critics with no musical background, no appreciation for Mr Mingus and what he stands for – what life, especially the life of a black man meant to him and his peers, his musicians.
And it wasn’t just from Fables of Faubus, but Haitian Fight Song and Meditations on Integration and most of all how he used his bass technique and voice to express rage, love and hope. Very few productions could capture, which might account for why Mr Mingus was so enamoured of the Turkish musician and producer İlhan Mimaroğlu, who worked with legendary Turkish label impresarios Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun and brought some of Mr Mingus’ best-known work to the listening public.
Unfortunately, the stupidity of white music critics knows no bounds. Read Amiri Baraka, AB Spellman, Stanley Crouch and so many others – flawed, like all of us [including Mr Mingus], but true to their hearts and the music they wrote about. Mr Mingus proved everyone wrong. EVERYONE, except those who were able to listen to him with open minds, appreciate his technique and voice. He was the proverbial Black Saint, who, as he himself once said:
“In other words, I am three. One man stands forever in the middle, unconcerned, unmoved, watching, waiting to be allowed to express what he sees to the other two… The second man is like a frightened animal that attacks for fear of being attacked. Then there’s an over-loving gentle person who lets people into the uttermost sacred temple of his being and he’ll take insults and be trusting and sign contracts without reading them and get talked down to working cheap or for nothing, and when he realizes what’s been done to him he feels like killing and destroying everything around him including himself for being so stupid. But he can’t – he goes back inside himself… Which one is real? … They’re all real.”
But one digresses… Back to this recording, Charles Mingus in Argentina – The Buenos Aires Concerts.
Unlike the remastered Craft recording of the Massey Hall concert of 1955, or the numerous “Revisited” recordings restored and mastered by Michael Brandli for the ezz-thetics label of Werner X. Uhlinger. Consider Charles Mingus at Antibes, 1960 [revisited in 2023] and Charles Mingus presents Charles Mingus and Mingus Pre Bird, [1960 and revisited in 2024].
Those recordings apart only George Klabin’s Resonance Records can be counted upon to understand Mr Mingus’ technique and voice, and how both were used to create his art. Like Lao Tzu Mr Mingus always believed that “”The truth is not always beautiful…” This is why it takes deep listening to get the sound right… then the music and its truth would surely follow.
This is true of both the last two Resonance Records issues, Charles Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s [recorded in 1972 and reissued in 2022], and Charles Mingus in Argentina – The Buenos Aires Concerts [recorded in 1977 and reissued in 2025].
Now, one has heard from numerous bassists [who should remain nameless for now] that “it’s all in t he strings.” Of course, they were paid to advertise so you cannot tell truth from untruth or technique or lack of it as something to make great art Mr Mingus was always true to himself. Myself When I Am Real was the title of one of his songs on the recording Mingus Plays Piano, a beautiful, heartfelt doffing of the proverbial hat to Duke Ellington. Everywhere else, when he played bass, he used gut strings until he allegedly discovered gut spiralled with fine gold thread. Almost always there was no pick-up [until much later, one has been told].
But the technique was more precious and more unique than any bassist. He learned the rudiments from concert bassist Herman Reinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, with whom he studied for five years. He was also schooled by his friend, the tubist and bassist Red Callendar. He also studied compositional techniques with Lloyd Reese, another symphonic bassist and pedagogue. Mr Mingus may have also admired Jimmy Blanton and Oscar Pettiford, but his own voice was singular.
With gut strings raised higher than others from the neck of his lions-head bass made in 1927 by the German maker Ernst Heinrich Roth, Mr Mingus crafted the art of an “uber-hard” [to coin a term] and expressively fierce strings management – both neck hand and playing hand. For the technically inclined here is Jason Heath:
“The [Mingus’] Roth is a 3/4-size, 41 1/2″-scale upright with a maple neck and headstock, and an ebony fingerboard. The body has a carved spruce top and flame-maple back and sides. The G string is quite close to the fingerboard edge, which may have facilitated Mingus’s unusual technique of “over bending” the G string, pulling it over the side of the neck for a percussive, almost flamenco-like sound that you can hear on many Mingus recordings.”
This is at the heart of Mr Klabin’s expertise when it comes to capturing the emotive “Mingus” sound. Of course, all of his [Mr Klabin’s] and the restoration and mastering engineer Matthew Lutthans’ lies in the expert and true reproduction of “the Mingus sound” mined by Mr Heath. It pays to listen especially deeply to Mr Mingus’ soli on this double disc. In ensemble playing, of course Mr Mingus is true to the music as he can be heard pushing his musicians to be true to it and to themselves – first and foremost.
Having an audiophile stereo system helps. Mine features a 40-year-old valve amplifier, bipolar speakers and a CD player – I actually prefer vinyls to get the recording. But remember that the producers of this package and the Ronnie Scott’s one, first ands foremost, allow Mr Mingus’ unique compositions to tell their heartbreaking stories. Mr Mingus himself would not have had it any other way. That is why he frowned upon any of his musicians taking long and multi-chorus soli. Reverence to the music and nothing else. No showboating… just play as Mr Mingus envisioned and with the emotion and with the requisite expertise that the bassist demanded…
Throughout the recording Mr Mingus rings in – and often shouts out as was his wont – the changes in mood and tempo, making for a constantly interesting programme. He is a master of both – and atmosphere, with the ability to coordinate colour and structure to a rare degree. He is, after all, a volcanic artist and entertainer with humility and virtuosity in equal proportions. There is, of course, nothing usual about Mr Mingus’ compositions – and how they are played from day to day and concert to concert.
What you can certainly count on, however, is that you will be taken to a different world. It is full of glinting lights, mysterious depths, expectations, frustrations, hopes and doubts, each like the shattered shadows of a sinister, quasi-Mendelssohnian scherzo, glimpsed by moonlight in a restive city [Fables of Faubus] or a magical forest [Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love and Sue’s Changes], or in a wild South American comparsa [Cumbia & Jazz Fusion]. In sheer colour and variety, in the depth of characterisation and in the exceptional range and refinement of his artistry, Mr Mingus [and this band] imparts a tragic structure to Three or Four Shades of Blues and Noddin’ Your Head Blues. There is a bigness to it all even when compared to his groups of the 1960s – a bigness that few artists could achieve.
The performers are all fully attuned to the leader’s genius and artistic vision [even though one cannot help but miss Jaki Byard. Still, the bassist’s soul brother number one – Dannie Richmond – make up for it in good measure. Mr Mingus plays with effortlessness, fire and lyricism. He is both seductive [Goodbye Pore Pie Hat and Sue’s Changes]. And on For Harry Carney and Cumbia & Jazz Fusion the leader inspires the rest of the group. For he is buoyant, plays with aristocratic grace psychological ambiguity. And his playing throughout is almost insolently effortless, bringing a debonair virtuosity and swagger to every piece as few musicians can.
The considerable degree of balance and integration, of melody, harmony and rhythm, of composition and improvisation, of deep exploration, individuality and tradition makes for an impressive programme. The recorded sound balances detail and warmth. And Mr Mingus’ unique voice – his sound and fury glows like a fire rekindled. Bravo tutti.
Deo Gratis…
Music – Disc One – 1. Introduction; 2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat; 3. Duke Ellington’s Song of Love; 4. Noddin’ Ya Head Blues; 5. Three of Four Shades of Blues; 6. Koko/Cherokee; 7. For Harry Carney; 8. Cumbia & Jazz Fusion; 9. Solo Piano Improvisation. Disc Two – 1. Sue’s Changes. 2. Koko/Cherokee; 3. Fables of Faubus; 4. Solo Piano Improvisation.
Musicians – Charles Mingus: contrabass and piano [disc one 9, disc two 4]; Ricky Ford: tenor saxophone; Jack Walrath: trumpet; Robert Neloms: piano; Dannie Richmond: drums.
Released: 2025
Label: Resonance Records HCD-2077
[resonancerecords.com]
Runtime: Disc One 1:17:50 Disc Two 33:32
Credits: Penultimate photograph by Joseph L. Johnson; Mingus band in Argentina by Uberto Sagramoso