MINGUS IN ARGENTINA

THE BUENOS AIRES CONCERTS

Resonance Records

Charles Mingus, bass/piano/composer; Robert Neloms, piano; Donnie Richmond, drums; Jack Walrath, trumpet; Ricky Ford, tenor saxophone.

Side 2 of the MINGUS IN ARGENTINA double disc recording begins mid-song with a flurry of energy.  Ricky Ford takes an exploratory solo that has the audience shouting and ecstatic in their seats. This recent Mingus release is a deluxe package that includes notes from the Mingus biographer in an accompanying booklet.  It was 1977, and the South American city was on fire with the music of this iconic bassist, bandleader and composer, along with his awesome cohorts.

The place was Buenos Aires, inside the Teatro Coliseo and, in part, inside the Teatro Sociedad Hebraica Argentina (SHA) on June second and third. These shows took place just six months before Charlie Mingus was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or better known as ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. That’s the illness that took him from this world on January 5, 1979.

This quintet has amazing energy. You can feel their camaraderie with each other, and how in-tune they are with the music of Mingus and his improvisational, on-the-spot ideas. As usual, Mingus fuses his music with virtuosity, and takes every audience on a wild and wonderful adventure. I love the way they build the crescendos of excitement, then drop down to a tinkling piano solo or the Mingus walking bass that tickles our interest. From a whisper they grow to a energetic growl.

On Side 1 of this double set recording, they open with “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”

“The audiences on the tour always loved us.  I think it was arguably the best band of the time.  In Argentina, they went crazy.  They loved it.  We reached all different kinds of people and it was great,” said Walrath who was the trumpeter on this date.

“It’s fantastic to hear this music now, after all these years,” exclaims Ricky Ford, the tenor sax man on this concert performance.

Mingus takes one of his iconic solo bass excursions during this old familiar tune, with Neloms sparse piano notes egging him on. This tune floats into a rendition of “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” a song Ford interprets beautifully on his saxophone, thrust ahead by the powerhouse drums of Dannie Richmond, who was Mingus’s long-tenured drummer.

“…Now people are going to have another final stamp about the Charles Mingus band and how he had a really strong consistency in his musical expression, even late in his life,” Ricky Ford added with pride.

I am captivated by their energy on the tune “Noddin’ Ya Head Blues” and also on “Three or Four Shades of Blue.”  I love the blues! During this awesome concert, Mingus stepped to the piano and played a pair of short solos.  One of those improvisations closed out the #1 Compact Disc. Walrath sparkles on trumpet during the “Cumbia & Jazz Fusion” arrangement.

Any lover of jazz, or collector of prized ‘live’ recordings, will treasure this historic album.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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