Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus & Max Roach - Money Jungle (1963)

A firey, tempestuous trio date organised at the suggestion of the great bandleader who wanted to record a piano trio album.  The musicians booked to back up the 63-year old in September 1962 were two decades his juniors, drummer Max Roach and bassist Charles Mingus.  From the opening title track, this was a session that cooked hard, with Mingus sounding like he's about to tear his strings off.  The almost-stern sounding, staccato take on Caravan was my introduction to the classic tune, back when it appeared on a popular Blue Note best-of CD in the 90s.

The famously short-fused bassist actually walked out on the sessions at one point before being coaxed back by Ellington, and much has been written about how the tension in the studio audibly contributed to such exciting uptempo tracks.  There is light and shade on the album too though, especially on the gorgeous Warm Valley.  Originally issued as an eight-track LP, Money Jungle was expanded to ten in the 80s, with this CD reissue following the original order then putting all the extra material afterwards - all of it absolutely essential listening.

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