Joni Mitchell: "Mingus" Song By Song Thread

Beautiful Joni turned 75 years old on November 7 (Happy Birthday Joni!), I have had a break and now we continue on with our journey through Joni's complete catalog. I am looking forward to delving into the lesser-known and often underappreciated second half of Joni's career. I hope you will join me! Today we begin discussion of Joni Mitchell's challenging 1979 foray into jazz--Mingus.

Previous threads in this series
Joni Mitchell: "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Hejira" Song by Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Court and Spark" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "For the Roses" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Blue" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Ladies of the Canyon" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Clouds" Song By Song Thread
Joni Mitchell: "Song to a Seagull" Song By Song Thread

Mingus


Album Notes
Released June 1979

The first time I saw his face it shone up at me with a joyous mischief. I liked him immediately I had come to New York to hear six new songs he had written for me. I was honored! I was curious! It was as if I had been standing by a river – one toe in the water – feeling it out – and Charlie came by and pushed me in – "sink or Swim" – him laughing at me dog paddling around in the currents of black classical music.

Time never ticked so loudly for me as it did this last year. I wanted Charlie to witness the project's completion. He heard every song but one – GOD MUST BE A BOOGIE MAN. I know it would have given him a chuckle. Inspired by the first four pages of his autobiography – Beneath The Underdog – on the night of our first meeting – it was the last to actually take form – two days after his death.

This was a difficult but challenging project. I was trying to please Charlie and still be true to myself. I cut each song three or four times. I was after something personal – something mutual – something indescribable. During these experimental recording dates, I had the opportunity to play with some great musicians. I would like to thanks them here – they helped me to search.

Eddie Gomez - Bass
John Guerin - Drums
Phil Woods - Alto Sax
Gerry Mulligan - Baritone Sax
Danny Richmond - Narration
Tony Williams - Drums
John McLaughlin - Guitar
Jan Hammer - Mini Moog
Stanley Clark - Bass

I would especially like to thank Jeremy Lubbock for helping me to overcome inertia. And thank you Daniel Senatore for introducing my music to Charlie. Thanks to everyone who played on the final sessions. These versions satisfy me. They are audio paintings.

Sue Graham-Mingus graciously gave me access to the tapes I have interspersed throughout the album. For me they add a pertinent resonance. They preserve fragments of a large and colorful soul.

Charles Mingus, a musical mystic, died in Mexico, January 5, 1979 at the age of 56. He was cremated the next day. That same day 56 sperm whales beached themselves on the Mexican coastline and were removed by fire. These are the coincidences that thrill my imagination.

Sue, at his request – carried his ashes to India and finding a place at the source of the Ganges River, where it ran turquoise and glinting with large gold carp, released him, with flowers and prayers at the break of a new day.

Sue and the holy river
Will send you to the saints of jazz –
To Duke and Bird and Fats –
And any other saints you have.

Joni Mitchell - Guitar & Vocals
Jaco Pastorius - Bass; Horn Arrangement on The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
Wayne Shorter - Soprano Sax
Herbie Hancock - Electric Piano
Peter Erskine - Drums
Don Alias - Congas
Emil Richards - Percussion
Wolves

Wayne Shorter appears courtesy of ARC Records
Herbie Hancock appears courtesy of Columbia Records

God Must Be a Boogie Man and The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey by Joni Mitchell © 1979 by Crazy Crow Music (BMI)
A Chair in The Sky, Sweet Sucker Dance and The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines by Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus © 1978 by Crazy Crow Music and Jazz Workshop, Inc. (BMI)
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus © 1979 by Crazy Crow Music and Jazz Workshop, Inc. (BMI)
Happy Birthday, Funeral, I's a Muggin and Coin in the Pocket raps © 1978 by Jazz Workshop, Inc. (BMI)

Recorded at A&M Studios in Hollywood by Henry Lewy and Steve Katz

Additional recordings at Electric Lady Studios in New York by Henry Lewy and Jerry Solomon

Mixed by Joni Mitchell, Henry Lewy and Steve Katz

Mastered by Bernie Grundman

Personal Management Elliot Roberts
Paintings by Joni Mitchell
Art Direction by Glen Christensen



Mingus is the tenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, and a collaboration with composer and jazz musician Charles Mingus. Recorded in the months before his death, it would be Mingus's final musical project; the album is wholly dedicated to him. Mingus was released on June 13, 1979.[2]

The album is quite experimental, featuring minimalist jazz, over-plucked, buzzing acoustic guitars, and even wolves howling through "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey". All of the lyrics are by Mitchell, while the music for four of the songs was composed by Mingus, three being new tunes, a fourth being his tribute to saxophonist Lester Young from his 1959 classic Mingus Ah Um, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", for which Mitchell wrote a set of lyrics.

As with the release preceding, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell hired personnel from jazz fusion group Weather Report, notably bassist Jaco Pastorius to play on the sessions. Mingus would also mark the first reunion of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock in the studio since recording together on Shorter's seminal Native Dancer album, featuring Milton Nascimento, released in September 1974.

The album is spliced with excerpts, which are labelled "(Rap)", from recordings provided by Sue Graham Mingus, including a scat singing interplay between Joni and Mingus, and Charles and Sue arguing over his age at a birthday party. In "Funeral", Mingus and others discuss how long he'll live and what his funeral will be like. He refers to the Vedanta Society and asserts that "I'm going to cut Duke [Ellington]!". "God Must Be a Boogie Man"—having taken shape two days after his death—was the only song Mingus was unable to hear. Mitchell suggests in the liner notes that Mingus would have found it hilarious.

The artwork features several paintings by Mitchell of Mingus. It peaked at #17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.

Contemporary Reviews
"The best songs in those folk-flavoured collections chronicled romance with a rare, fascinating blend of a reporter's objectivity and diary-like revelation. The elegantly signed tunes dealt with relationships without being giddy and with disappointments without showing self-pity.

Still, I approached this collaboration with the late Charles Mingus, the greatly respected jazz musician scepticism. Mitchell's work since "Hissing" in 1975 has consisted chiefly of unconvincing flirtations with jazz. Not only was the music often stiff, but the lyrics were weary, self-centred confessionals.

When this album opened with a birthday salute to Mingus, my fears were heightened. But the album is a surprise - warm, confident, engaging.

It is similar in spirit - though not in style - to John Lennon's first solo album and Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night," two of the most arresting LPs of the '70s. Like them, "Mingus" is an uncompromising artistic statement, uncluttered by the usual commercial considerations of pop."
Los Angeles Times, June 1979

"JONI MITCHELL - Mingus (Asylum): Mitchell's infatuation with jazz is no news. Her modified scat-singing, glottal stops and meandering lyrics added fuel to her evolution from folkie to funky. That does not make an attempt at the dubious practice of grafting words onto established jazz compositions any less feeble. Mingus' music has been celebrated, on its own merits, for years. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," for one number, needs no clarification by a former rock groupie turned jazz groupie, as tribute to the late bass great. Available Mingus sessions from the '50s and '60s are a better bet than this frizzled fusion."
Berkeley Barb, June 1979

""Mingus" by Joni Mitchell is the best kind of tribute one could give to the recently deceased jazz bassist Charles Mingus.

The album is the result of a curious collaboration between the white female folksinger and the legendary black jazz musician.

Mingus, intrigued by Mitchell's music, composed the last six melodies of his life for her to write lyrics to and sing. Mitchell worked on the monumental project for a year and a half and completed all but the song "God Must be a Boogie Man," before Mingus' death in January.

Mitchell has created an album to be treasured, but one which won't be worn out on a turntable. It is not an easy record to listen to because she and Mingus place many demands on their audience. The melodies flow in all directions and several tempos run through a song at the same time.

"Mingus" marks a culmination of three albums worth of musical experimentation for Mitchell."
Ohio State Lantern, October 1979

Some Joni quotes:
"He hadn't given up hope of living at that point," Miss Mitchell said, "so it was not necessarily that I was contacted to write his epitaph. We all shared his optimism that he would beat it, even though it was incurable. He had finished another album, "My Myself an Eye" (on Atlantic), and was looking for projects to busy himself with during what was hoped would be a convalescence, not a general decline.

"Initially I felt his invitation was an honor and a challenge. I thought it was an odd combination, yet I was looking for a peculiar project. Deep in the back of my mind I was trying to decide what to do. I knew I wanted to study music (she does not read music), but not in an institution." Mingus' inquiry "came to me as a perfect gift, an opportunity to study jazz with a master in a way that suited my learning process - by muddling through it."

"After this, rock 'n roll is like a metronome."

 

Here are some tags to alert some regulars who have been participating in the threads:
@Cokelike- @Planbee @VU Master @Sordel @Socalguy @EddieMann @lemonade kid @Damiano54 @chrisblower @DocBrown @DrJ @maui jim @HenryFly @Manapua @mkolesa @Fender Relic @audiotom @bob_32_116 @mark winstanley @Black Thumb @lightbulb @Comet01 @Smiler @lschwart @DmitriKaramazov @Tuco @Rfreeman @DirkM @Pines Brook @gregorya

For the first day, please discuss the first song on the album and the album as a whole. I'm not going to do separate discussions for the extremely brief spoken word 'rap' interludes between the songs. Please discuss them if you wish.

(Track 1: Happy Birthday 1975 Rap)
Track 2: "God Must Be a Boogie Man"


Lyrical Excerpt:
He is three
One's in the middle unmoved
Waiting
To show what he sees
To the other two
To the one attacking so afraid
And the one that keeps trying to love and trust
And getting himself betrayed
In the plan oh
The divine plan
God must be a boogie man!

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

 

PW thank you for staring up another thread . Was worried we would have to wait longer than we have.
I personally was in vervdifferent place in 1979 from the last Joni album. Am I’m not talking about physically.
New wave and punk music had taken over just about everything I listen to then. Think only Neil’s Rust and a new female,Rickie Lee was not in the genre. Reviews and not knowing Mingus’ music did not make me run out to purchase

 

My thoughts on Mingus
I am really looking forward to picking everyone else's brains in this thread dedicated to Mingus. This album has always been a challenge for me. I haven't listened to it nearly as often as many other Joni Mitchell albums (it is easily one of my least played by her, in fact). I have a lot of respect for it and a lot of interest in the story of how this album came to be, but the music itself is not always my favorite. Charles Mingus and Joni Mitchell seemed to occupy two entirely different musical worlds but they came together just before the end of Mingus' life and Joni actually ended up writing the album that would be his epitaph and a reflection on his life and work...if you choose to approach it that way. It's a difficult album that is wholly jazz. She has moved completely away from the world of popular 1970s music at this point in her career and is journeying into worlds even less connected to rock/folk than what we saw on the already wild and experimental Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. This album feels different from anything she had done before it--or anything after it. It's slow and the subject matter is often different than what we've been getting from Joni. It often has a very traditional jazz feeling (from what I know from my very limited exposure to jazz) and the players are outstanding--many of them legends in their own right. I have spent years trying to connect with this album and I still admire it much more than I really enjoy it. I really like several of the tracks and others on here leave me scratching my head a bit. In many ways, this is a one-off for Joni and not a path she continued down in the records that would follow it in the '80s. However, I do think this is as honestly 'Joni' and as heartfelt as any of her other records. It just captures her at a different time in her life, pushing herself to new soundscapes in the public eye and daring her audience to follow along with her. It's not the kind of record I would listen to if I weren't a fan of Joni Mitchell, but I'm very glad that I am a fan of Joni's and that I've heard this album. It has exposed me to sounds and styles I don't ordinarily listen to. I hope to learn to enjoy it more as we discuss it and find new levels of appreciation for it. I know there are real riches here. I have found some of them but I am just waiting to unearth more.

God Must Be a Boogie Man
As she wrote in the liner notes, this is the only track on the album that Mingus did not hear before he died. It is also one of the two songs on the album that Joni wrote both words and music for, rather than just words. I find it really charming. I love the very simple arrangement and the ghostly, chanting quality of the chorus vocals singing the title. There is something somber and elegant about this song, with a little bit of a wink in the eye as well. As Joni said, it's supposed to be somewhat amusing. Jaco is unmistakable in his playing (and I enjoy the fact that an album for a famous bass player essentially begins with bass). The lyrics are based on the first chapter of Charles Mingus' autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. He wrote, "In other words, I am three. One man stands forever in the middle, unconcerned, unmoved, watching, waiting to be allowed to express what he sees to the other two. The second man is like a frightened animal that attacks for fear of being attacked. There's an almost over-loving gentle person who lets people into the uttermost sacred temple of his being and he'll take the insults and sign contracts without reading them and get talked down to working for cheap or nothing, and when he realizes what's been done to him he feels like killing and destroying everything around him including himself for being so stupid."

He clearly felt a real tug within his own psyche between his stronger and gentler sides (or his ego, superego and id, if looked at another way) and Joni captures that in her lyrics--the multifaceted and paradoxical nature of Charlie.

The Happy Birthday singalong is an interesting way to begin an album for someone who had passed away when it came out. I like how the album weaves in Charles Mingus' voice and spirit throughout these songs for and about him. A very enjoyable beginning to the record.

 

John McLaughlin mentioned once that he, Joni, Jaco and Tony Williams recorded a track for this album, but that Joni mixed everyone but herself and Jaco out. Presumably it is "God Must Be..." since that is the only Joni/Jaco duet. I'm curious about the outtakes with the musicians she listed but I doubt we will ever hear them.

 

I'm still trying to figure out what the painting on the cover is

 

My preferred tracks are A Chair In The Sky, and The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey.

 

Me as well. I've stared and stared at it. I *think* it may be a very abstract painting of a jazz band playing. I kind of see a figure playing a horn at the right (their bent elbow going into the white space at the right hand side). But it is such an abstract image. The other paintings in the album are much more in a realism style and capture Charles clearly.

 

God Must Be A Boogie Man is a truly haunting track and the first one that comes to mind when I think of this album

 

I notice a lot of Don Van Vliet influence in that one, whether intentional or not.

 

You see Joni depicted off to the left, yes? With her hair flying across in front of her face. And her bunda plunked down on a divan, or something. Kicking up one leg, maybe.

It's a Rorschach blot...

 

I was a Mingus fan before being a Joni Mitchell fan; this album puzzled and disappointed me as a Charles Mingus fan.
I am revisiting it, and like Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Blue, I realize I have been unnecessarily harsh in my condemnation.

 

Yes, I see the Joni figure on the left as well. I agree with you that this one looks like a Captain Beefheart painting! It's quite visually compelling and I like the colors a lot, even if it's a bit confusing.

Here's a great performance of 'God Must Be a Boogie Man' live in London in 1983. Larry Klein on bass.



It works really well live. Joni's guitar playing/sound is so distinctly 'Joni' on this. Her signature sound.

 

Ah, Mingus...

I actually find the interludes, "raps", whatever more interesting than half the songs. "Boogie Man" is a good tune, but there's dullness straight ahead.

As I type this, Mingus' cover of Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" is playing on the Dish Network jazz station. Sort of satellite TV radio (haha). If only more of Mingus sounded like that...

 

While I'm trying to muster my enthusiasm to listen to Mingus, here's last week's (very faithful) performance of “Blue” by Rufus Wainwright from Joni's 75th Birthday Celebration:

 

I see this album doesn't quite generate the enthusiasm of many of the works that preceded it. Understandable, and I'm there with you guys. There are several tracks on here I love, though. Not that today's is really one of them...

Track 3: "Funeral (Rap)"
Track 4: "A Chair in the Sky"


Lyrical Excerpt:
There are things I wish I'd done
Some friends I'm gonna miss
Beautiful lovers
I never got the chance to kiss
Daydreamin' drugs the pain of living
Processions of missing
Lovers and friends
Fade in and they fade out again
In these daydreams of rebirth
I see myself in style
Raking in what I'm worth
Next time
I'll be bigger!
I'll be better than ever!
I'll be resurrected royal!
I'll be rich as standard oil!

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

 

A Chair in the Sky
I'd say 'A Chair in the Sky' kind of encapsulates all my problems with Mingus and why I haven't been able to fall in love with it over the years. I want to like it because I like the idea of this partnership so much, but the song just does nothing for me. It's long and slow and lacks a strong melody and Joni's vocal performance feels almost like an impersonation of what she thinks a jazz singer should sound like. It doesn't sound authentically like her, even in the way that a song like 'Blue Motel Room' did. There's just nothing for me to grasp onto with this song. I know Charles Mingus wrote this music and seems to have told Joni it was about 'some things he was going to miss' and she captures some of that in the lyric, but it's just not an interesting song. Nearly seven minutes and I feel every second of it. There are a couple of highlights of this album that have kept it in my rotation over the years (plus my general fandom of Joni's and my natural wish to connect with all of her works). 'A Chair in the Sky' is not one of those highlights. Instead, it seems to showcase all of the lost potential on the record. Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus writing, a great band, and we end up with this tuneless snore.

 

Can we all just agree that "The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines" is a wickedly great song that almost redeems the entire Mingus project and jump ahead to Wild Things Run Fast?

 

Lol, I'm tempted. We're not exactly lighting up the boards on this one.

 

"The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey" is the highlight of the album for me, by miles.

I remember finding "A Chair in the Sky" fairly haunting as well, but it's been a while since I've heard it.

 

I do hope to pull the album out before the thread is done, but I admit it will be without enthusiasm. I've played it just a few times over the years and remember it as disappointing and unengaging, particularly melodically. Maybe the next listen will be different... As always, I am enjoying reading your posts, however.

 

The 'sperm whales' anecdote in the liner notes is pretty much the only thing that has stuck with me since I first heard Mingus in the 90's. I hope it's a true story!

 

Mingus was the first Joni album I bought around the time of its initial release and I loved it. It's the album that made me a fan.

At that time, I only knew the hits played on the radio. Now I am more familiar with her earlier more accessible albums, I can see why some don't like it so much.

I've listened to my original vinyl copy three times today. It is just as wonderful as I remember it and I still rate it one of my favourites.

 

To each their own and all that good stuff, but I'm curious what you see in "Wolf." It drags interminably, and is easily one of my least-favorite Joni songs of the '70s. At least with "A Chair in the Sky", while the music is similarly "unmusical", at least Joni's excellent lyrics perfectly capture Mingus stuck in a failing body watching the world go by in his final days, looking back at his regrets and forward to his hoped-for reincarnation. So, at least "Chair" has THAT going for it.

I suspect things would've sounded a good bit different had Mingus been in better health, so I kinda give Joni a mulligan for this album. I agree with John Guerin that she should've taken on this challenge. Elliot Roberts told her she'd ruin herself commercially, but the way I see it she was already on that path since Hissing, so...

 

I enjoy the eerie, wintry feeling of "The Wolf" a lot and that crazed dropped tuning guitar twang, and Don Alias's congas. It is an odd entry on this album since it doesn't have an obvious connection to Mingus or jazz. I've read that it was held over from Don Juan's..

As with Newton John, this was one of the first Joni albums I heard (along with Court and Spark) so I have a different perspective on it than most of her fans.