Home
Incarnations
Incarnations in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $14.39
Loading Inventory...
Size: CD
A collection of recordings culled from
Charles Mingus
' 1960 sessions on the
Candid
label, 2024's
Incarnations
is a swinging yet still heady album that finds the bassist bridging the mainstream jazz of the '40s and '50s with the avant-garde post-bop and third-stream explorations he would pursue just a few years later. By the time he entered the studio for
with producer/label owner
Nat Hentoff
,
Mingus
had already started to embrace, or at least respond to, free jazz players like
Ornette Coleman
. Though still rooted in blues, bop, and hard swing,
had put together several line-ups of both younger and veteran players whose conflagration of styles worked to both expand and deconstruct the sound of standards-based modern jazz. Putting a swing-era star like trumpeter
Roy Eldridge
alongside a burgeoning iconoclast like saxophonist
Eric Dolphy
(as he does here on several tracks) may seem odd at first, but the clash of styles proves electric, underscoring how the lineage and language of jazz are passed down through the generations. It also grabs the listener's ear and makes you pay deeper attention.
Featured here are many of the same musicians that appeared on 1960's
Mingus!
and 1961's
Newport Rebels
, including
Booker Ervin
Charles McPherson
Ted Curson
Lonnie Hillyer
Jimmy Knepper
Britt Woodman
Tommy Flanagan
Paul Bley
Dannie Richmond
, and
Jo Jones
. Essentially,
is an alternate version of
Reincarnation of a Love Bird
, which was also recorded on
in 1960 but not released until 1988. Here, we get a very similar track listing, with alternate takes on the frenetic
Charlie Parker
bop contrafact "Bugs" and the swinging "R&R" featuring some tasty, muted trumpet work by
Eldridge
. There are also equally engaging versions of "Body and Soul," also featuring
, and the noir-ish "Reincarnation of a Love Bird," both of which compete favorably with the versions released in 1988. Most intriguing, however, is the inclusion of the previously unreleased "All the Things You Are (All)." Notably, we hear
introduce the song and explain that it is a reworking of the standard "All the Things You Are" based on chord changes he picked up when playing the song with
Art Tatum
in the '40s.
' arrangement, a polyphonic chamber ballad with modern classical intimations, bears little resemblance to the source material and prefigures the ambitious, third stream ensemble sound he would soon explore on landmark albums like
Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
. Although
is more of an alternate takes collection than a lost album, the inclusion of "All the Things You Are (All)" makes it essential listening for
fans, showcasing just how boundary-pushing he was. ~ Matt Collar
Charles Mingus
' 1960 sessions on the
Candid
label, 2024's
Incarnations
is a swinging yet still heady album that finds the bassist bridging the mainstream jazz of the '40s and '50s with the avant-garde post-bop and third-stream explorations he would pursue just a few years later. By the time he entered the studio for
with producer/label owner
Nat Hentoff
,
Mingus
had already started to embrace, or at least respond to, free jazz players like
Ornette Coleman
. Though still rooted in blues, bop, and hard swing,
had put together several line-ups of both younger and veteran players whose conflagration of styles worked to both expand and deconstruct the sound of standards-based modern jazz. Putting a swing-era star like trumpeter
Roy Eldridge
alongside a burgeoning iconoclast like saxophonist
Eric Dolphy
(as he does here on several tracks) may seem odd at first, but the clash of styles proves electric, underscoring how the lineage and language of jazz are passed down through the generations. It also grabs the listener's ear and makes you pay deeper attention.
Featured here are many of the same musicians that appeared on 1960's
Mingus!
and 1961's
Newport Rebels
, including
Booker Ervin
Charles McPherson
Ted Curson
Lonnie Hillyer
Jimmy Knepper
Britt Woodman
Tommy Flanagan
Paul Bley
Dannie Richmond
, and
Jo Jones
. Essentially,
is an alternate version of
Reincarnation of a Love Bird
, which was also recorded on
in 1960 but not released until 1988. Here, we get a very similar track listing, with alternate takes on the frenetic
Charlie Parker
bop contrafact "Bugs" and the swinging "R&R" featuring some tasty, muted trumpet work by
Eldridge
. There are also equally engaging versions of "Body and Soul," also featuring
, and the noir-ish "Reincarnation of a Love Bird," both of which compete favorably with the versions released in 1988. Most intriguing, however, is the inclusion of the previously unreleased "All the Things You Are (All)." Notably, we hear
introduce the song and explain that it is a reworking of the standard "All the Things You Are" based on chord changes he picked up when playing the song with
Art Tatum
in the '40s.
' arrangement, a polyphonic chamber ballad with modern classical intimations, bears little resemblance to the source material and prefigures the ambitious, third stream ensemble sound he would soon explore on landmark albums like
Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
. Although
is more of an alternate takes collection than a lost album, the inclusion of "All the Things You Are (All)" makes it essential listening for
fans, showcasing just how boundary-pushing he was. ~ Matt Collar
Shop Similar Products
