The latest public domain recycling of classic Mingus features two albums often relegated to second tier status, yet eminently worth close study and wholesale enjoyment. And, though Mingus Revisited is very different from the Jazz Portraits/Mingus In Wonderland quintet, they form a stronger combination than the EJC edition of Blues And Roots (see Jazzwise 150). The basic Revisited album (originally called Pre-Bird) itself falls into two halves of roughly equal length but different ambitions, all based on the ideas of Mingus up to the age of 25. The big band session revives ‘Mingus Fingers’, with the opening bass-line doubled by Don Butterfield's tuba, plus two more orchestral items, one featuring Dolphy's version of Johnny Hodges. The smaller group has pretty short solos (apart from Yusef Lateef on the 1960 vintage ‘Prayer For Passive Resistance’) and includes examples of Mingus playing two different songs simultaneously. On the other hand, the 1959 quintet in concert was, prior to the Candid albums, the first example on record of Mingus stretching simple material to great length through pushing and exploiting his soloists, never more so than on the Handy-Ervin exchanges of ‘No Private Income Blues.’