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Charles Mingus: The Clown

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Atlantic Records
Released: 1957
Time:
 56:32
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Nesuhi Ertegün
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.mingusmingusmingus.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Haitian Fight Song (Ch.Mingus) - 11:57
[2] Blue Cee (Ch.Mingus) - 7:48
[3] Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Ch.Mingus) - 8:31
[4] The Clown (Ch.Mingus) - 12:29
         Deluxe Edition bonus tracks:
[5] Passions of a Woman Loved (Ch.Mingus) - 9:52
[6] Tonight at Noon" - 5:57

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Charles Mingus - Bass
Shafi Hadi - Alto & Tenor Saxophone
Jimmy Knepper - Trombone
Wade Legge - Piano
Dannie Richmond - Drums
Jean Shepherd - Narration

Nesuhi Ertegün - Producer
Tom Dowd  - Engineer
Larry Hiller - Engineer

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1957 LP Atlantic Records SD-1260

Recorded between February 13 and March 12, 1957 at the Atlantic Studios, New York City.



The Mingus aggregate that recorded this set lived by the perforations that saxophonist Shafi Hadi sent toward Jimmy Knepper's slippery trombone. If the arrangements for the horns sound Ellingtonian, they're scripted to do so. Mingus played temperately but importantly off the Duke's model for sectional playing here. And Mingus's bass was as wild as ever, especially on the intro to "Haitian Fight Song," which goes at a slow churn here. Hadi and Knepper sound more mainstream than, say, some of Mingus's other brass-reeds combos, but Wade Legge's strange piano voicings created a stormy harmonic frame for the band to thrive in. The title tune may be Mingus's most oddball early composition, with Jean Shepherd narrating a fictional tale of a performing clown as the band mimics and comments on the spoken word.

Andrew Bartlett - Amazon.com



It's a fact of life that some records get all the attention. We like masterpieces, the big statements; Kind of Blue, A Love Supreme, Bitches Brew. Records that seem to spring out of sudden flashes of inspiration. With Mingus, the albums generally considered as his best are the ones that are most consistent; Pithecanthropus Erectus, Blues & Roots, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. While these are undoubtedly fantastic, that leaves a lot of other records that while not exactly having fallen by the wayside, are worthy of more attention.

The Clown is one of those. Recorded in 1957 (but unreleased till 1961), it's notable for the first appearance of three classic Mingus tunes; "Haitian Fight Song", "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" and (here on this newly expanded edition) "Tonight at Noon". Several regular Mingus alumni are featured - the ever present Dannie Richmond on drums, Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Shafi Hadi on alto and tenor saxophones, plus pianist Wade Legge.

Throughout his life, Mingus remained devoted to both the bop and the blues; distrustful of the avant garde and those who went electric, his music was a hard-won exploration of the possibilities left in both, delivered with passion and intensity. "Reincarnation of a Lovebird" proves that those who know history aren't necessarily doomed to repeat it. The opening collage of bop phrases and quotes sounds startlingly contemporary, while Hadi's soaring alto flights resonate with Bird's easy grace. Meanwhile, Mingus and Richmond lay down a fat, bluesy swing, or chop things up with a razor sharp precision that left most contemporary rhythm sections in the shade.

"Haitian Fight Song" opens in typical style with a solo statement from the bass, then proceeds to take the roof off in an urgent display of call-and-response riffing and dark, insistent rhythmic interplay.Jazz doesn't get much better than this. The inclusion of these two pieces plus the explosive, high speed swing of "Tonight At Noon" (from the same original sessions) make this an essential purchase.

The title track is one of Mingus' spoken word experiments - an improvised tragi-comic narrative from beat poet Jean Shepherd set to a lugubrious feature for Knepper. Your mileage may vary, as they say. "Blue Cee" is (guess what) a blues in C which goes nowhere much, but even at his patchiest, Mingus is always worthy of your time...highly recommended.

Peter Marsh, 2004
BBC Review



The Clown was Charles Mingus' second masterpiece in a row, upping the already intense emotional commitment of Pithecanthropus Erectus and burning with righteous anger and frustration. With Pithecanthropus, Mingus displayed a gift for airtight, focused arrangements that nonetheless allowed his players great freedom to add to the established mood of each piece. The Clown refines and heightens that gift; instead of just writing heads that provide launch points for solos, Mingus tries to evoke something specific with every piece, and even his most impressionistic forays have a strong storytelling quality. In fact, The Clown's title cut makes that explicit with a story verbally improvised by Jean Shepherd (yes, the same Jean Shepherd responsible for A Christmas Story) from a predetermined narrative. There are obvious jazz parallels in the clown's descent into bitterness with every unresponsive, mean-spirited audience, but the track is even more interesting for the free improvisations led by trombonist Jimmy Knepper, as the group responds to Shepherd's story and paints an aural backdrop. It's evidence that Mingus' compositional palette was growing more determinedly modern, much like his increasing use of dissonance, sudden tempo changes, and multiple sections. The Clown introduced two of Mingus' finest compositions in the driving, determined "Haitian Fight Song" and the '40s-flavored "Reincarnation of a Lovebird," a peaceful but melancholy tribute to Charlie Parker; Mingus would return to both throughout his career. And, more than just composing and arranging, Mingus also begins to take more of the spotlight as a soloist; in particular, his unaccompanied sections on "Haitian Fight Song" make it one of his fieriest moments ever. Mingus may have matched the urgency of The Clown on later albums, but he never quite exceeded it.

Steve Huey - All Music Guide



I vaguely recall reading a statistic stating that around 80% of all proposed and legitimate phobias only occur in the United States. While a part of me finds this hard to believe, another part of me realizes that it’s probably true. Americans are not only more exposed to all kinds of media than perhaps any other country, but the images, sounds, bold letters, and the oh-so-bright lights are more over the top; more intense. Case in point, I have a positively unshakable fear of clowns, which is also known as coulrophobia. So you can imagine my troubled, almost compromised point of view when dissecting jazz legend Charles Mingus and his eponymous album “The Clown."

Nonetheless I am in love with this record. It was recorded during a stage when Mingus seemed interested in exploring technical proficiency rather than the personality and ideas of his compositions. There’s no doubt, from the catchy and vibrant opening riff of “Haitian Fight Song” he makes his hunger for respect on his instrument known. At first he starts to noodle aimlessly on his bass on its lonesome, seemingly unsure of where he wants to go with this album opener, but then he decides exactly where he wants to go, and begins to subsequently enter what is undeniably one of the best riffs I have ever heard. Although after about a minute-and-a-half the obligatory drums and horns come, the production still manages to speak volumes of his intentions with this record. For one thing, the bass is the loudest in the mix. Whereas in jazz and really most music in general the bass is not usually at the forefront, “The Clown” completely defies this concept. It’s very true that as a musician Mingus was a virtuoso but as a composer he was better, and this threatens at times to be the albums downfall. However, his desire to be acute and technical is one of the album’s quirks and charms.

Another one of Mingus’s most interesting qualities is the various moods he incorporates in his music. In a documentary on him, there was a section that consisted of the man talking in the studio. At one point he seemed calm, respectful, and completely at peace. Then seemingly without cause or reason he exploded into a childish and vulgar fit, cursing at the producer. He was openly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and this scene, along with most of his music certainly reflects that. Although his inability to stay in one place might make it hard to concentrate on creating art, like the best artists before him he uses his flaws to create something timeless and beautiful. He allows this disparity to make his music interesting, and diverse. Channeling his problems is actually one of his most celebrated qualities. It’s what artists like Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Mozart did before him, and it’s what artist like Eminem, Omar-S, Kanye West, and perhaps even Taylor Swift did long after him. What this leads us to is the album’s versatility.

The previously mentioned “Haitian Fight Song” is a catchy jazz classic. "Blue Cee" is a standard pretty piece. "Reincarnation of a lovebird" engages in a free-jazz onslaught at break-neck speed, and then there’s the album’s centerpiece, the album titled track. Not only is it exactly in the middle, it is “The Clowns” most important song; it is also one of the most joyfully psychotic numbers I’ve ever heard. It starts off with wacky melodies that make me feel like I am trapped in some sort of insane carnival packed with horrifying monsters right-and-left dressed up like clowns scarier than any I could make up without the song’s help. As the song kicks off, you can hear a sample of a crowd laughing. The hilariously 50’s like narrator of the song tells a story of a clown devoted to his craft. The mysterious announcer tells a story of a clown who worked as hard as he could to entertain people, but never got any positive response from the crowds he performed for. Despite wanting with all his heart to just make audiences happy, he’s still not good enough for them. This is no doubt a reflection of Charles Mingus’s own view of himself. It’s clear that as a performer he was uncomfortable with his role in society. He understood that the concept of working hard to create something then waiting helplessly while audiences and critics tear it apart is a little masochistic. At one point, the Clown accidently hurts himself on stage, and the crowd loves it. They joyfully laugh at his broken nose, and after that horrible and degrading night he starts to finally do well and find success. This represents that most of the great achievements of the human mind come from accidents. This means that Charles Mingus sees himself as a clown, living to serve the entertainment of others who don’t respect him as a musician or as a multi-racial American. After all, it was the 1950’s and people wanted to hear his music then they wanted him to get out of their faces, which he didn’t like one bit.

Overall, “The Clown” is a selection of superb songs and two classics which, despite variation, work cohesively together. It was written at the beginning of his career, and he would go on to bigger and better things but he accomplished something here. It’s an album that lights up the other side of one of 20th century music’s most volatile minds. Coulrophobia or not, clowns aren’t so bad, I guess, are they?

Copyright 2005-2014 Sputnikmusic.com



The Clown is an album by Charles Mingus recorded and released in 1957 on Atlantic Records as SD-1260. It is the follow-up to 1956's Pithecanthropus Erectus and features the improvised narration of Jean Shepherd. A deluxe edition of The Clown was issued in 2000 on Rhino featuring two bonus tracks. All the tracks were recorded on March 12, 1957, except for "The Clown", recorded on February 13 of the same year.

According to Nat Hentoff's liner notes, Mingus explained why he chose those four tracks for the album: "I selected these four over two others that were more intricate because some of those guys had been saying that I didn't swing. So I made some that did. This album also has the first blues I've made on record."


The following excerpts come from the original liner notes and are statements made by Mingus himself.

On "Haitian Fight Song", Mingus said "[...] It has a folk spirit, the kind of folk music I've always heard anyway.[...] My solo in it it's a deeply concentrated one. I can't play it right unless I'm thinking about prejudice and persecution, and how unfair is it. There's sadness and cries in it, but also determination. And it usually ends with my feeling 'I told them! I hope somebody heard me!'".

"Blue Cee" is a standard blues in two keys, C and B♭, "but that's not noticeable and it ends up in C, basically", he said and continued "I heard some Basie in it and also some church-like feeling".

"Reincarnation of a Lovebird" is a composition dedicated to Bird. "I wouldn't say I set out to write a piece on Bird. [...] Suddenly I realize it was Bird. [...] In one way, the work isn't like him. It's built on long lines and most of his pieces were short lines. But it's my feeling about Bird. I felt like crying when I wrote it."

"The Clown" tells the story of a clown "who tried to please people like most jazz musicians do, but whom nobody liked until he was dead. My version of the story ended with his blowing his brains out with the people laughing and finally being pleased because they thought it was part of the act. I liked the way Jean changed the ending; leaves it more up to the listener."

Wikipedia.org
 

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