'Changes' by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus wasn’t content to be a fluid, inventive jazz bassist. Working with Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk as models, Mingus composed extended musical forms with spaces for improvisation.
Mingus recorded for Atlantic Records in the late 1950s, moved on to other labels but returned to Atlantic for the seven albums (1973-78) that marked his brilliant final years. All seven are collected in Changes, a box set with a booklet of extensive historical and musicological descriptions. The music is more or less timeless because Mingus synthesized so many elements of jazz history while making history with bold departures. He could draw on gospel music, was cognizant of soul, wrote emotive ballads and sharply angled melodies, always presented with rhythmic vibrancy. Even compositions that began as standard post-bop bristled with surprises at every turn.
Mingus wasn’t making jazz only for jazz’s sake. “Remember Rockefeller at Attica” opens Changes One (1975) on a swinging note suitable for Johnny Carson but then you notice the title, a reference to the violent suppression of a prison uprising in New York State. Mingus expressed similar thoughts on Changes Two (1975) with “Free Cell Block F, ‘Tis Nazi U.S.A.” The anger in the solos never jars like Albert Ayler but remains committed to an Ellingtonian elegance. Mingus paid twice paid tribute to the Duke’s inspiration with different versions of “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” from Changes One and Two.
The Atlantic box set includes several abstract versions of 12-bar blues, but Mingus was also eager to dig new roots beyond the U.S. Three or Four Shades of Blue (1977) married Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms with East Indian melodies and Arabic scales. Guitarist Larry Coryell brought that album’s opener, “Better Git Hit in Your Soul,” as close to rock as Mingus ever came. Never resting on laurels, Mingus worked with Columbian village rhythms and rainforest sounds on Cumbia & Jazz Fusion (1978).
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Stream or download Changes on Amazon here.
