Charles Mingus - The Complete Savoy and Period Master Takes (1954) {Fresh Sound Digital Download rel 2015}

The compositions herein are performed by two of the famed Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop groups and they are considered among his best recorded works. These 1954 recordings represent the grass roots from where all the innovative forms and expressions of tomorrows jazz conceived by Mingus really began. From then on, Mingus became the most influential composer and bassist of various generations in jazz history. After its first date, he said about the improvised interplay between every instrument: I feel that it is usually impossible to attempt such delicacies with musicians who do not enjoy the unusual freedom or understand the thought of the leading instrument. Teo Macero, John LaPorta, George Barrow and Mal Waldron, of course, are just as responsible as I am for the final construction.

Tracklisting & personnel:

01. Purple Heart (C.Mingus) 5:37
02. Gregarian Chant (C.Mingus) 2:51
03. Eulogy for Rudy Williams (C.Mingus) 6:22
04. Tea for Two (Youmans-Caesar) 6:20
05. Getting Together (C.Mingus) 4:42
06. What is This Thing Called Love? (C.Porter) 8:08
07. Stormy Weather (Koehler-Arlen) 3:17
08. Minor Intrusion (C.Mingus) 10:12
09. Abstractions (T.Macero) 4:14
10. Thrice Upon a Theme (C.Mingus) 6:40
11. Four Hands (Mingus-LaPorta) 8:50
12. The Spur of the Moment - Echonitus (C.Mingus) 8:38


Personnel on tracks #1-5:
Teo Macero, George Barrow (ts, bars), Mal Waldron (p), Charles Mingus (b), Rudy Nichols (d).
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, N.J., October 31, 1954.

Personnel on tracks #6-12:
Thad Jones (tp), John LaPorta (cl, as), Teo Macero, George Barrow (ts, bars), Charles Mingus (b), Clem DeRosa (d), Jackson Wiley (cello).
Recorded in New York City, December 1954.