Search - Charles Mingus :: Thirteen Pictures: The Charles Mingus Anthology

Mike M. from SEATTLE, WA
Reviewed on 12/28/2006...

I had to buy this from a library because I couldn't find it in time so it has some tape and stickers on it. There is no booklet, only the CD case, which is a book with hardcover fabric on it. It opens up to show both CD's.

Ah, um!

Mike Stone | 06/22/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To my ears, the most transcendent moment in the history of recorded music (please excuse the hyperbole) occurs about twenty seconds into "Jump Monk", the third song on disc one of this collection. After a nimble bassline intro by Mingus himself, tenor saxman George Barrow unleashes six soulful, lilting notes that never fail to conjure up images of what it must be like to stare into the face of god.Now, one 3 second phrase does not an album make. I know this. This is one of my favourite jazz collections because the rest of it manages to live up to that one magnificent moment. Its consistency is what amazes me. Mingus manages to write music the way Tom Robbins writes books: with a focus on the narrative whole, while adding enough raw nuggets of buoyancy to make the whole thing go down easy.Highlights for me include "Cumbia & Jazz Fusion" (like listening to the history of man), "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (melancholic without being melodramatic -- an impossible feat in my books), and "Better Git it in Your Soul" (spunky energy). And of course, "Myself When I Am Real", a haunting seven-and-a-half minute piano improv.Sometimes jazz baffles me for its insistence on staying within the basic and cliched forms. Mingus never falls into that deep hole."

Mingus 101

mason williams | bloomington, in USA | 07/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"being a long time mingus fan i'd like to chuck my two cents in here. there are many mingus "best of's" out there but they are usually very poorly compiled. This is the only one you should bother with to get a good start on what will be your latest, greatest, and possibly final music obsession. covering everything from the early debut singles up through his final recordings. mingus fans get almost violent over what his greatest period was. i myself lean towards the unpopular vote and dig the early beatnik mingus (the complete debut recordings box is the greatest musical treasure ever, of all time, daddy-o)in fact i stopped buying music after i nabbed the 12 disc debut box. I could'nt follow it up with anything. The early mingus is very experimental in a 50's kind of way, beat heavy jazz that would make a great soundtrack to any DALI painting. I think the early mingus is what lands him in "high times" magazine so often (heh heh). mingus shifted gears on his bethlehem and columbia recordings, very mainstream but absolutely perfect jazz. so groovy and soul stirring that you will chuck your over-rated miles davis reissues out in the street. The atlantic years (that this comp is heavy on) is easily his most popular era. his relationship with roland kirk was made in heaven. most likely the atlantic stuff will hook you first. the highlights are all here (no "eat that chicken" tho). in short if you dig the genius of cool-daddies like MONK, SUN-RA, ORNETTE, COLTRANE etc... dig in you will never be the same. (oh and save your pennies for the debut box while it's still in print!)"