{"id":30649,"date":"2026-01-29T05:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30649"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:04:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:04:58","slug":"album-review-charles-mingus-mingus-at-monterey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/album-review-charles-mingus-mingus-at-monterey\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Charles Mingus \u2013 Mingus at Monterey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-30650\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mingus_at_monterey.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mingus_at_monterey.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mingus_at_monterey-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mingus_at_monterey-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>This record would be remarkable if only for the fact that it\u2019s a superbly-recorded live document of the acclaimed jazz bassist at his creative peak. But it\u2019s also noteworthy as a fairly early entry in the world of double albums. I understand that Benny Goodman released one way back in 1950 (<i>The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert<\/i>), but when <i>Mingus in Monterey<\/i> appeared on record store shelves in 1965, neither Frank Zappa\u2019s <i>Freak Out!<\/i> nor Dylan\u2019s <i>Blonde on Blonde<\/i> had been released.<\/p>\n<p>Yet as always, it\u2019s about the music. And <i>Mingus at Monterey<\/i> sounds like it was recorded yesterday. Even restored to its original monaural format (the original release claimed it was stereo), the crystalline audio, sublime balance and high fidelity showcases all of the nuance of the performance. Long out of print, it\u2019s back now thanks to this Candid Jazz Workshop reissue.<\/p>\n<p>The entirety of Side One of this new vinyl reissue features a Duke Ellington medley; while each of the musicians gets his turn in the spotlight, Mingus\u2019 pliant and assured bass work is at the center of the proceeding. The subtlety of \u201cSophisticated Lady\u201d is contrasted with the wailing, high-energy bop of \u201cA Train,\u201d and while the transition from one to the other is a bit jarring, well, that\u2019s how they played it. Jaki Byard\u2019s ragtime-ish piano solo is thrilling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Train\u201d is such a wild ride that it doesn\u2019t even fit on Side One; you have to flip the LP over to hear the rest. In total, the track runs over 13 minutes. Not a second is wasted, either. And the long-form approach is carried forth. Side Two continues with a melodious Mingus original, \u201cOrange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk,\u201d which runs into Side Three. Midway through the tune the band gets a bit abstract, but then they shift gears and swing in spirited, upbeat fashion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMeditations on Integration\u201d rounds out Side Three and all of Side Four. Mingus&#8217; mid-piece bowed bass work is a thing of beauty. And despite its title, it&#8217;s no sort of meditative; it represents Mingus and band \u2013 who sound here like a bigger ensemble than they are \u2013 at their most unhinged (yet cohesive), bringing the set to a close in an ambitiously wild manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This record would be remarkable if only for the fact that it\u2019s a superbly-recorded live document of the acclaimed jazz bassist at his creative peak. But it\u2019s also noteworthy as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,42,64,65,73],"tags":[494],"class_list":["post-30649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-charles-mingus","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30649"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30728,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30649\/revisions\/30728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}