There are four Mingus releases on Candid (that I know of) and they're all essential. All four were recorded at Nola Penthouse Studios in NYC in October/November 1960: Mingus (Candid CD 9021) Charles Mingus: Mysterious Blues (Candid CCD 79024) Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid CD 9005) Reincarnation of a Love Bird (Candid CCD 79026) If you dig the Mingus/Dolphy avant garde stuff, be sure to check out Mingus at Antibes from 1960 (on Atlantic). Mingus and Dolphy have a musical argument in the middle of What Love? that's fantastic. I'm not sure that the audience agrees; I'm a bit unfamiliar with how to interpret European audience reaction as the sounds don't always mean the same things as they do for US audiences.
i am absolutely loving those July '78 Scarlet>Fires...he seemed to skip that verse pretty often around that time, but i can't think of other examples right now. the 11/30/79 Stanley Theatre Scarlet>Fire is the only version i know of that has TWO solo breaks between the verses! i think the 1st one was mistakenly started early, but they come out of both solos and into the vocals so smoothly it almost sounds planned...this is a new favorite Scarlet for me...Fire is no slouch, either!
I think he also skipped it in the possible-best-ever 2/5/78 version from Dick's Picks 18. I'll make a note to hear that 11/30/79 version soon.
It's a good one, but I favor Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. Dolphy's alto solo on Hora Decubitus is the soundtrack for Bugs Bunny drinking bad carrot juice. Also Let My Children Hear Music.
Yeah, all the above Mingus, plus Revenge! for me. Sound quality, maybe not the best, though. Now listening to disc 2 of the 30 Days' comp.
Antibes 1960 was my first jazz album. Bought it ~1991 along with Kind of Blue. I've not been in a Mingus way for many years but it is a great one. For me, along with the Candids, my favorite Mingus band/recordings. Ervin & Dolphy are a great ying and yang. Fwiw no headphones for me for many years. Most of my listening done while driving these days. Happy I do drive quite a bit. I spent a couple hours today I think in the car.
I included the data on the 5th verse, but it doesn't appear to show up in the shared data base. I'll try and update it to include those notes in an update. They started skipping the 5th verse more often than not 11/77 - 2/79. April 78 being an exception.
I've been a big fan of the Antibes show for years, it's incredibly powerful music. The audience receives the musical argument that you mention with boos, I guess it was too avant-garde for their taste.
My first love in jazz was Ellington's Blues in Orbit but what really got me hooked was Tijuana Moods. It may not be his absolute best but it is great and it certainly hooked me. Mingus is a force of nature. Sorry for the OT comments but I can't resist jumping in on the Mingus comments.
Just listened to it. Hot version although in addition to the Scarlet peculiarity, Jerry only sings two verses of Fire (they go to the repeat chorus after the "almost ablaze" verse).
This DS is so stupidly good it must be illegal. This will be my DS installment for today: 9/19/70 Dark Star, Fillmore East This star starts pensively and much like the 2/13/70 version, features some nice work on guiro by pig. Shortly after the 5:00 mark, Jerry becomes more strident, then steps back a bit to state the theme just after the 6:00 minute. The first verse soon follows, sung quite well by Jer. After the verse we get a brief feedback buildup which is then followed by a very minimalist approach to something of a John Cage impersonation. Portions of this segment remind me a bit of the center section of King Crimson's Moonchild. Then we get more feedback buildup starting at 9:45 followed by someone removing the jack from their instrument to provide some buzz. Just after the 10:30 mark, Bobby starts hinting at some very eastern-sounding dissonant chords while Jerry drags his pick along his wound strings to get a metallic drone effect. At this point I would advise everyone to ensure that their seatbelts are securely fastened and their seat backs are in the fully upright position. At 11:30, Bobby reiterates the dissonance, but it's a rich dissonance. He develops this into a rhythmic pattern that is reminiscent of the the middle jam in the 2/13/70 star. After 12:30, as @notesofachord indicated, the air starts to get thick (thick air, man) and at 13:14, Jerry introduces a cyclical lick that may seem familiar to many of you. At 13:45 it develops its identity and coalesces into a slashing rhythm (thanks to Bobby, whose playing is top drawer on this). Meanwhile, Jerry's tone, which I described as strident before, is light-years beyond what it was; he's driving carpentry staples into my parietal lobe with an oversized ball-peen hammer. And what do I hear? It's hard to believe, but sir Phil, Mr. herky-jerk doesn't believe in the "1" sets up, fully establishes and damn; maintains and intensifies a simple ostinato from 13:50 to 16:05 that serves as a perfect ledge from which to leap. And Jerry leaps. This is stunning stuff, folks. 1970 for President. From 16:05-16:07 the guitars stop and we hear the drummers maintaining the off beats for a bit and then they dive into Groovy. And so it is. Phil, having served his purpose in the rhythm section, threads his lines through Jerry's and, in turn, returns to the rhythm section. By the 18:00 mark, it's suddenly something else. Jerry drops off in intensity for a while, but by 19:45, the energy is back on and they're cookin'. Jerry introduces DS again at 20:50, eventually sings the second verse and they take it into St. Stephen.
Beautifully articulated there! Drawing on Archtop's own comparison, as much as I like the 02/13/70 DS, Jerry's early 1970 Strat tone is fine for detail, but lacking in fibre for me - by contrast, the fat Gibson SG tone he has on that Star (and, in particular, the distorted octave overtones he dials in once the post verse space section is done) is just otherworldly. It's as well-constructed as the 02/13/70 version, but the sound of it takes it into another dimension for me. A landmark version and all the better for the Stephen > NFA > China Cat jam > NFA > Lovelight that follows - an astonishing show.
Thanks for that bit of information regarding the SG. I was wondering how that 13:45- section you referred to was functionally different, and knowing now that it's an SG makes it all add up. It's a shame that there's so little proper official musical documentation of '70.
Enjoying a few glasses of wine tonight with a Chuck box show or two and starting with 7/1 which I have not gotten to yet. Still dialing in the mix on these first few songs but I am already loving Phil's tone tonight.
For some reason, my link to Relisten I posted above for 9/19/70 takes one to another version that I wasn't listening to (and is of much lesser fidelity). Odd; just select 9/19/70 manually and you should go to the version I heard - it starts with DS and does not have the acoustic first set.
The last two days were brutal for me at work. A grocery store bagger is the worst position to have on Memorial Day weekend. Oi. Not so much the bagging - that's fine. But the CONSTANT running out and in to get carts because there are so many people that once you get a few carts back inside they are gone again five minutes later! I slept 13 hours uninterrupted last night. I usually sleep only 6 or 7! My back is still in shambles.... But at least I have the Dead to soothe my aching back and head tonight with 10/22/90 So far, this Frankfurt gig hasn't been great. Not bad, but exceptionally lacking any spark or X factor. I just got through the super rare first set Foolish Heart. This about sums it up - Jerry is grasping at straws trying to figure what to play but the band is cooking, but somehow it's just not really gelling tonight unfortunately. Nothing poor tonight or bad, just completely unmemorable. :/
Not that I could ever top your Arch, but I'd like to point out another highlight: From 22:40 to 23:20 they go into a sort of "half-time" feel and Jerry adds an extra note into the usual Star riff, making it extra driving and hypnotic.
I've been listening to Aoxomoxoa a lot lately. All of the reviews I've read of it are lukewarm except Robert Christgau's, and yet I've really been loving it lately. Also, I used to be one of those guys whose love of the Dead ended at the hiatus, but recently I've really been digging some Brent-era stuff, including DP 5 and DP 13, and the Red Rocks 7/8/78 show has been in rotation a bit as well. Thank God for spotify so that I can listen to these before I buy them.
10/22/90 - Frankfurt God, this is a really weird show. Almost literally, the show flip flops song-by-song from awesome to lame. We get a first set Foolish Heart. We get a set 1 closer of Valley Road. Set two has SOTM in only the 2nd slot! Bird Song was 12 minutes of nothing more than pleasant background noise. That being said, the highlights so far have been the rocking GSET, a gorgeous Peggy O and a fun Wang Dang Doodle. One of the best Desolation Rows ever. This SOTM is damn fine too. This show is weird.
Listening to more of the September '70 Fillmore East run this afternoon (thank you Vets, btw) with the very good-sounding audience recording of 9/18. Jerry shreds on his wah-solo during Sugar Magnolia - plus I love that the "doo doo-doo" harmony vocals are still there on these early versions. Next comes a lovely version of Candyman. That's it for The Other One blew my face clear off my head. Then, to follow with a heart-aching "Brokedown Palace"? Wow I LOVE 1970 GRATEFUL DEAD!!! I mean, just look at 9/18's setlist. I think I'm in for a treat: Casey Jones Sugar Magnolia Candyman That's It for the Other One Brokedown Palace It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World 'Til the Morning Comes Me & My Uncle Operator Dancing in the Street St. Stephen Not Fade Away Good Lovin' Bid You G'nite Relisten ยป Quoted from the Deadlists.com description of these shows: SBD TAPES OF THE SEPTEMBER 1970 FILLMORE EAST SHOWS As they did in February and May '70, enterprising Fillmore East stagecrew patched a reel-to-reel deck under the stage into the PA feed and made SBD masters of the September '70 Fillmore East run. It is not clear how much of the run they managed to master. At present (10/00) no SBD tape from 9/17/70 has emerged into circulation but this does not mean that no masters exist. Several years ago about 50 minutes of SBD excerpts from the 9/18/70 electric Dead set (Operator through the encore) came into circulation, initially as FM-SBD broadcast by David Gans. During the same period approximately 70 minutes of SBD excerpts from the 9/19/70 electric Dead set came into circulation in the same fashion. Two SBD cassettes from 9/20/70 have been in circulation for more than 20 years; they contain both the acoustic and electric Dead sets nearly complete but nothing of the NRPS set. Recently a lower gen copy of these tapes have come into circulation (see Comments under 9/20/70). Much of this run of shows has not yet emerged into circulation on SBD tape. To judge from the nearly complete SBD of 5/15/70 made by the same tapers, it seems plausible to think that all four September shows were taped in their entirety, including the NRPS sets. Whatever these masters contain, they are not in the vault; they are said to reside on the East Coast. Hmmm.... East Coast, eh? Archtop, it's time to start knocking on doors and raiding houseboats. We're gonna find those reels come hell or high water.
