Mingus live after "Changes 1/2" (1976,77)

[JSngry]

Don Heckman!

[kh1958]

14 hours ago, erhodes said:

Dreck is in the ear of the behearer.  I was at that concert as well.  I thought the orchestral "juxtaposition" with Ornette's quartet worked out well enough, though I wouldn't have had as much to say as that review.  but Dewey Redman played his ass off.  I just about jumped out of my seat.

The most interesting thing I remember about the Mingus set was the pianist, John Foster.  That's the only time I ever saw or heard him.  Didn't know his name until I looked it up years later in various Mingus discographies.  I remember that Foster's glasses seem damaged and he had repaired one of the side pieces with a band-aid or some light colored tape.  I remember too that he seemed a bit disheveled.  But his piano playing was outstanding.  At least as strong as anything that Don Pullen did with the band.  At a distance of almost half a century I would venture that it was the best piano playing I had heard with Mingus since Jaki Byard (though I never saw Byard live, with or without Mingus).

But the really interesting thing is that, at a certain point, Foster got up from the piano and paced back and forth across the stage in a manner reminiscent of what Mingus might do when he was excited or agitated.  Foster seemed agitated.  Then Mingus got up and started pacing too almost as if he felt obliged to do that.  So at one point they were both pacing on the stage.

Nothing happened from there but Foster was the most interesting figure on the stage...musically and in his stage persona...other than Mingus.

John Foster is the pianist on the unreleased Ronnie Scott's recordings from August 14-15, 1975.

He is also the pianist on the excellent concert recording, Live in Chateauvallon 1972.

Charles Mingus Live In Chateauvallon, 1972 © 1989 Wotre Music France's Concert FCD 134 Compact Disc (unauthorized)

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Tracks

1. Duke Ellington Medley (26:46)
   1. Blues in G (bass solo) (3:45)
   2. In A Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington)
   3. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington)
   4. ?? (Ellington)
   5. Mood Indigo (Ellington, Barney Bigard)
   6. Take The "A" Train (Billy Strayhorn)
2. Fables Of Faubus (19:10)
3. Diane [Body And Soul] (6:56)
4. Blues Medley [Blues for Some Bones] (15:32)
   1. John's Blues (10:21)
   2. Blues for Roy's Saw (2:02)
   3. Noddin' Ya Head Blues (2:51)

   All compositions by Charles Mingus unless otherwise noted

Personnel

• Charles McPherson - alto sax
• John Foster - piano, vocal
• Charles Mingus - bass
• Roy Brooks - drums, musical saw

Information

Date and location

August 22, 1972, Chateauvallon, France

Total time

68:26

Liner notes

Jacques Chesnel

Comments

The track listing on the CD liner notes is almost completely wrong and it is fixed here, except for Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson tune (?) 'Blues For Some Bones', which appears also as 'John's Blues' on "Stormy & Funky Blues". Liner notes also list 'Stormy Weather' (even that is mistitled 'Stormy Monday') and 'I'll Remembered April' (sic) to have been played as part of Ellington medley, but neither of them are recognizable.

[Gheorghe]

On 17.7.2021 at 5:01 PM, John L said:

I was just getting seriously interested in jazz in 1976 and went to the Berkeley Jazz Festival for the first time.  That was the only time I ever saw Mingus and I cherish the memory.  Rahsaan Roland Kirk led the bill.  Too bad there was no reunion.  

Yeah, this might have been Walrath, Ricky Ford, Danny Mixon, the band that toured Europe in August/September 1976.

[John L]

On 7/19/2021 at 10:32 PM, Gheorghe said:

Yeah, this might have been Walrath, Ricky Ford, Danny Mixon, the band that toured Europe in August/September 1976.

Yes, it was exactly that band.

[Gheorghe]

8 hours ago, John L said:

Yes, it was exactly that band.

Yes, and then I saw the band again, after Danny Mixon was replaced by Bob Neloms. I don´t know the reasons, if there were clashes with Mixon or what was the reason, but Bob Neloms was great. There is a piano solo section in "Cumbia" just before that two-beat stomping with the Mingus rap on "Shortnin´ Bread", and it´s with that spanish tinge and Neloms did that really great, with some quotes of spanish flamenco music to the delight of the spanish audience that summer 1977, and he did some great stride on "Noddin´ya Head Blues" . Really a great choice of Mingus.