Mingus is God

Tuesday, the middle of the work week, another one of those unexplained traffic slowdowns where the highway seems like a parking lot more than a thruway. Just as soon as I entered the highway from the La Guardia exit, I was already making my way back out at the Shalom exit, to continue up the main road parallel to the highway, that takes me northward to the edge of the urban center.

There is an old Jazz musician's joke about the musician who just arrived in heaven, and is sitting in at the big band rehearsal with all the great legends of Jazz, and there is one guy in the corner with a trumpet playing something awful. The punchline is: "oh, that's just God, he thinks he's Miles". Well to me, Mingus has always been and always will be God.

I finally cracked open that Mingus at Antibes CD that my buddy Yair gave to me for my birthday. This is a classic live session (so many of Mingus's recordings are...) from a festival on July 13, 1960 at Juan Le Pins, France. On hand with "Chazz" (Mingus never liked the nickname Charlie - he felt it was demeaning like calling a Black man "boy")were Ted Curson (Tpt), Eric Dolphy (various reeds), Booker Ervin (T Sax), and Dannie Richmond (Dms), with special guest Bud Powell sitting in on one song.
The first tune, "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" is true Mingus, a happy and upbeat Gospel song that allows each of the musicians to stretch out a bit and "present their case" as it were with Mingus egging them on with shouts and screams as well as his bass riffs.
The third track, "What Love" has an amazing blowing session as both Curson and Dolphy get to really explore some of the "outer limits", Curson soloing first, followed by Dolphy, who then gets into a direct dialog of call and response with Mingus's bass and the encouragement by Dannie Richmond from time to time.

As I make the turn into Devora Ha Nevia St. I see a bit of a slowdown, so I try the shortcut through the Ramat Hachayal residential neighborhood, only to find just as big a pileup on Raoul Wallenberg. Well, I finally get through it all as I hear the beginning of "I'll Remember April" with Bud Powell as a guest on piano.
It must have been a very hot day on stage at Juan Le Pins that day,
Mingus is God!!!