After Let My Children Hear Music, his last hurrah for CBS, Charles Mingus returned to Atlantic Records for the rest of his final decade. He assembled a new band around reedsman George Adams, pianist Don Pullen and drummer Dannie Richmond: this would be the group that recorded his other late masterpieces Changes One & Two (all links below).
Falling in between these late-career peaks, Mingus Moves (recorded in October 1973) sometimes gets lost in the shuffle or just plain underrated, but it's a great record in its own right. Mingus' compositional touch was still strong, in the opening Canon (a deft bit of arranging that does what it says on the tin), and Opus 3 & 4, all classic pieces of writing & playing.
In between there's tracks penned by Let My Children.... arranger Sy Johnson (Wee), by band members Adams (the lovely Flowers For A Lady), and Pullen (the serene Newcomer), and an old-style ballad written by Doug Hammond and sung by him in duet with Honi Gordon that gives the album its title. An album well worth having in any Mingus collection.
link
pw: sgtg
Previously posted at SGTG:
Jazz Portraits: Mingus In Wonderland
Oh Yeah
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Mingus Plays Piano
Let My Children Hear Music
Changes One & Two
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
plus:
Blue Moods
Money Jungle
BBC Proms Tribute by Metropole Orkest
