Charles Mingus: Mingus Moves
Author: Brian Priestley
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Doug Hammond |
Label: |
Warner/Atlantic |
Magazine Review Date: |
July/2014 |
Catalogue Number: |
8122-79598-4 |
RecordDate: |
29-31 October 1973 |
The bookends of Mingus's second connection with Warner/Atlantic, with Moves being his first album since the recently reissued Columbias (Let My Children and In Concert, reviewed in Jazzwise 186). The first Dynasty album organised a mere six months after the composer's death, Chair In The Sky, takes its title and two other tunes (and the cover painting) from Joni Mitchell's Mingus, material which hadn't been previously recorded by the bassist's own group. With Handy playing lead on ‘Chair’ and the lovely ‘Sweet Sucker Dance’, and the remaining three items drawn from Mingus Ah Um, it set a high standard for the whole concept of a repertoire band. Of course, it doesn't have the bassist but Haden does well in the role, whereas Mingus is relatively subdued on Moves, which certainly has points of interest (including the extra two tracks added in 1993, one being the first version of Don Pullen's ‘Big Alice’) but isn't on the same level as Changes One and Two, recorded after Jack Walrath had replaced Hampton. It was all new material at the time, yet ‘Opus 3’, which grows on you, is a hard-bop adaptation of the same structure as ‘Pithecanthropus Erectus’ but miles apart in impact.

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