Charles Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (180g Vinyl LP) * * *

Vital Vinyl Series 180g Vinyl LP Reissue!

Verve and Impulse! Records launch the new Vital Vinyl series with UMe, celebrating essential jazz LPs from the enduring catalogues of the two iconic labels. Throughout 2019, Verve and Impulse! will be making no fewer than 40 key albums from the 1950s, '60s and '70s available again on 180-gram vinyl. Each will feature their original cover artwork, track listings and liner notes. Some of these albums will become available for the first time in years, while others that are already in print will now be perennially available.

This 1963 recording is a major showcase for the multi-talented Charles Mingus as a bassist, pianist, and writer. From the blues-painted bass moaning that opens "II BS," to the blazing fire of "Hora Decubitis," these tunes come furiously barreling out one after another. Speed and density aside, however, there are also multi-color, lovely tunes like Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" and Mingus' paean to Lester Young. More than anything, though, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a major document due to the presence of two alternating big ensembles, anchored by Jaki Byard on piano and fronted by a herd of horn players, Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin chief among them.