Charles Mingus - Let My Children Hear Music (1972)

"Special acknowledgement to Teo Macero for his untiring efforts in producing the best album I have ever made", Mingus stated at the foot of the back cover notes on this 1972 LP.  Let My Children Hear Music was the great writer, arranger & musician's return to Columbia, and a late-career renaissance after a period of inactivity.  On his deathbed in 1979, Mingus sent a message to Sy Johnson, the key arranger on this album, declaring it his favourite of all his recordings.

That's two fairly unequivocal recommendations from the man himself, but how does LMCHM sound today?  Still as phenomenal, as far as I'm concerned.  An hour [including Taurus In The Arena Of Life, dropped from the original LP] of Mingus' most ambitious and colourful material since The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (see links below), it just keeps on giving with every listen.  From the slow introduction to The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers to the final howling winds of The I Of Hurricane Sue (a tribute to Mrs Mingus), this is orchestrated jazz at its finest.

As expected from Mingus, not all of the material was brand new: Adagio Ma Non Troppo reworks themes from his solo piano LP (see below), and the Edgar Allan Poe-esque Chill Of Death was actually written in 1939 when Mingus was a teenager, and precociously absorbing influences from Richard Strauss.  My two absolute favourite tracks here are the furious groove of Hobo Ho and the Stockhausen-at-the-circus brilliance of Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too, but the recommended tracks are: all of them.  Download and hear music.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Oh Yeah
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Mingus Plays Piano
plus:
Money Jungle
Blue Moods
BBC Proms Tribute by Metropole Orkest