THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Charles Mingus’s musical legacy is still ongoing — from artists like Kamasi Washington bringing him to a new generation to Chrissie Hynde, whose latest album includes a Mingus cover, from Elvis Costello to Gang Starr sampling him, and Joni Mitchell writing lyrics to his music.
The greatest bassist jazz has ever known, Mingus, with his spirited playing and spontaneity, always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse. “Mingus was something else, man,” Miles Davis wrote in his own book. “A pure genius, I loved him.”
Recorded in one day in 1957 with pianist Hampton Hawes (a childhood friend of Mingus who’d been in bands with Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon) and drummer Danny Richmond (whose association with the bassist lasted over two decades) and originally released on the Jubilee label, this remastered and expanded anniversary edition includes a whole extra disc of never-released outtakes — only discovered by chance in the London Parlophone vaults — a miraculous find in jazz history.
The album has been released in time for Mingus’s centenary. The estate are planning a number of celebrations throughout the year, from the Mingus Big Band’s world tour, which starts at Ronnie Scott’s in London and includes a headline set at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, to educational activities and much much more.”
