This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Trailblazing bassist and composer Charles Mingus has been dead for more than a decade, but his muscular, majestic music lives on in The Mingus Big Band, an ever-changing group of former sidemen and devotees who perform his tunes — and even use his old standup bass.
Now, thanks to technology, the big man himself jams with his proteges for the first time on Blues & Politics. Using an unreleased live rap from 1965 and Mingus’s vocals and bass track from the classic Freedom, Randy Brecker and the rest of the band rework the tune, one of several Mingus favourites covered here (including his Lester Young tribute Goodbye Pork Pie Hat). The grooves simmer and smoke, the horns percolate and gleam, and Mingus’s son Eric steps into his dad’s vocal shoes (and is a perfect fit) on Don’t Let It Happen Here and others. A must for Mingus fans.
