Mingus Ah Um
"My whole conception with my present Jazz Workshop group deals with nothing written. I 'write' compositions--but only on mental score paper--then I lay out the composition part by part to the musicians. I play them the 'framework' on piano so that they are all familiar with my interpretation and feeling and with the scale and chord progressions to be used. Each man's particular style is taken into consideration, both in ensemble and in solos. For instance, they are given different rows of notes to use against each chord but they choose their own notes and play them in their own style, from scales as well as chords, except where a particular mood is indicated. In this way I can keep my own compositional flavor in the pieces and yet allow the musicians more individual freedom in the creation of their group lines and solos."
This is the first jazz record I really got into. My thinking is that it represents a well conceptualized link between the old (big band swinging type jazz) and the coming (free, improvising intellectual type jazz). There's also a lot of communal blues power in this record. Listen for Fables of Faubus...that main horn melody makes me want to crack open an ice tray, fill up my glass with ice and bourbon.
"My whole conception with my present Jazz Workshop group deals with nothing written. I 'write' compositions--but only on mental score paper--then I lay out the composition part by part to the musicians. I play them the 'framework' on piano so that they are all familiar with my interpretation and feeling and with the scale and chord progressions to be used. Each man's particular style is taken into consideration, both in ensemble and in solos. For instance, they are given different rows of notes to use against each chord but they choose their own notes and play them in their own style, from scales as well as chords, except where a particular mood is indicated. In this way I can keep my own compositional flavor in the pieces and yet allow the musicians more individual freedom in the creation of their group lines and solos."
This is the first jazz record I really got into. My thinking is that it represents a well conceptualized link between the old (big band swinging type jazz) and the coming (free, improvising intellectual type jazz). There's also a lot of communal blues power in this record. Listen for Fables of Faubus...that main horn melody makes me want to crack open an ice tray, fill up my glass with ice and bourbon.
2 comments:
I'm hoping that Ellington at Newport makes it into the jazz section of your Armpit Collection. It's literally and figuretively a riot!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_at_Newport
Well, I will take your word on this given that you've only had the best intentions in the past and I've discovered some great music via the Glisson (I didn't know you were into any jazz...where was this back when). I'm a bit skeptical...not of the music or playing, because I know some Ellington, but it seems chronologically his earlier stuff might play a weightier role. By '56 so many other things were going on that it seems this type of performance from Ellington solidified his career, rather than demonstrated some unique or curious cross-section of music.
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