Reviewing the second of the two original Mingus releases on Candid in Jazzwise 289, I found myself requesting the re-release of Newport Rebels (see under Jazz Artists Guild above) and also of the further tracks with Mingus’ participation that had first surfaced only during earlier reissue programmes. The latter request is partially satisfied by the present 41-minute compilation – with hopefully more to come – which includes four tracks from the November 1960 session and one total surprise.

The previously released material here complements the Newport Rebels album (or vice versa) with two items from the Roy Eldridge set that has Mingus plus Dolphy and Knepper, namely a lengthy rhythm-changes routine ‘R&R’ and an almost equally long ‘Body And Soul’.

The remaining three tracks are all led by Mingus and relying on his current and recent sidemen, with the extremely Parkeresque theme of ‘Bugs’ (also on rhythm-changes) naturally inspiring good work from McPherson, Hillyer and Ervin. The octet track ‘Reincarnation Of A Lovebird (2nd version)’ – its title distinguishing it from a sextet performance recorded in October 1960 – has acceptable solo work with a slightly lumbering ensemble arrangement that sacrifices the melancholic tone of Mingus’s 1957 original.

Rather more ponderous, though, is the surprise track that has eluded all previous reissue programmes, a tentet piece with minimal improvisation that Mingus announces as being based on a standard but disguised “so that I get the royalties”, and disguised to such an extent that it’s virtually unrecognisable. Here titled ‘All The Things You Are (All)’, it also bears no resemblance to “Sigmund Freud’s wife” (more’s the pity). If you’re a Mingus completist, you obviously need to hear this, but it sounds like something he might have written in the early 1950s before his signature Jazz Workshops had really taken off.