'REINCARNATIONS' A New Entry In The Mingus CanonRare Material From Legendary Sessions

A New Entry In The Mingus Canon
Rare Material From Legendary Sessions
Remaster By Bernie Grundman
Available on 180 Gram Vinyl 
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​The music Charles Mingus and his group recorded during his landmark 1960 sessions for Candid Records produced three of the most revered jazz albums of the era. REINCARNATIONS is a new masterpiece thoughtfully assembled from rare material from those sessions that stands proudly in the Mingus canon of masterworks. 

The songs compiled in this set are more experimental than their original versions, and convey the freedom that Mingus prioritized. By the time he recorded these sessions, at the behest of Candid's A&R and producer Nate Hentoff, he was already a pillar of progressive improvisation leading fellow A-type personalities from behind the upright bass. That was a rarity; bassists weren’t seen as bandleaders. But Mingus was an undeniable presence creatively and visually, a personality so bold, open and businesslike that it only made sense for him to agitate change. A forefather of avant-garde jazz, he could play standards and explore left-of-center arrangements with the same discipline, and had already become a cornerstone of experimental sound when these songs were captured. But there was still the feeling that Mingus had more to prove, more barriers to break, more feathers to ruffle. 

A reimagined version of “Reincarnations of a Lovebird” appears here as an upbeat celebration of the fallen saxophonist, not the mournful iteration of its 1957 recording.  The 1951 original version of “Body and Soul” is a methodical, romantic ballad suited for quiet reflection beneath cloudy skies. This iteration, thanks to inspired solos by Dolphy and his screechy wails in the upper register, and the trombonist Jimmy Knepper, whose rumbling moans teeter between big band and New Orleans second line, the speed quickens, prioritizing movement over stillness of mind. 

Elsewhere, on “Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams” a jazz standard first written by Harry Barris in 1931, the trumpeter Roy Eldridge and the drummer Jo Jones take center stage. “Vassarlean,” a sentimental tune, plays like a dreamscape, walking through the hushed and contentious moments of sleep - from the opening moments of stillness, to the events you can’t fathom once you awaken. “Melody From The Drums,” a nine-minute percussion solo from Dannie Richmond, Mingus’s most consistent and longest serving drummer and trusted collaborator, toggles between up and down tempos, with sporadic chanting, using silence and space to emit a festive aura. 

Without constraint or second-guessing from a label head, a pronounced independence filters through this music, offering a blueprint for other creators to do the same. Mingus was no different from overt avant-garde musicians like the pianist Sun Ra and the saxophonist Albert Ayler, whose cosmic expanse shone yet was a little too left for the jazz establishment. Mingus was a rare hybrid, a guy who could play posh art galleries and smaller nightclubs in Brooklyn and resonate the same. That we’re still assessing the Candid sessions sixty-three years later only speaks to his vitality as an innovator, and of Reincarnations as important art with evolving context. Now and always, true resistance simmers without fading away.

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​SIDE A
1. Reincarnation Of A Lovebird
2. Melody From The Drums
3. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

SIDE B
1. Vassarlean
2. Body And Soul