The College Boy, The Angry Man and The Duke

I've made a few more Jazz purchases recently. For the most part these are recordings that piqued my interest from other CDs I've bought. As a result I've gone for Dave Brubeck's Time Further Out, Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, and a collection of Duke Ellington's works.

Time Further Out is a "sort of" sequel to Brubeck's Time Out album and contains the same experiments in weird time signatures. In fact, it's probably more experimental than the first album but that doesn't mean it is any less accessible. In fact it has two very familiar tunes in Kathy's Waltz and Unsquare Dance - one of those tunes that absolutely everyone knows: you may not recognise the title but you do know the tune... just believe me, you do. Aside from those there are various compositions which can be seen as a follow on to the earlier album including two in 5/4 time, Far More Blue and Far More Drums, which are like variations on a theme of Take Five.



The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is regarded as one of Mingus' masterpieces. I didn't find it to be as instantly catchy as Pithecanthropus Erectus or Mingus Ah Um but it's worth sticking with. After a couple of listens it becomes much less of a sprawling mess and works better as a whole. It's not background music, mind, and needs to be heard as a single dance suite - a jazz ballet, possibly. Also, the sleeve notes are extensive and contain both Mingus' thoughts and interpretations from his psychotherapist - of all people. He was known as The Angry Man of Jazz and sounded a complete psychopath by all accounts - he received a suspended sentence for punching trombonist Jimmy Knepper at the time this album was recorded. I wonder if the recording was intended as therapy?

The Final CD was The Essential Duke Ellington. This is part of Sony music's "Essentials" series which are remastered releases offering a considered selection of an artists entire career. I was actually torn between this and the recording of the classic Newport concert but I think this offers a better overall picture of his recordings from the 1920s through to 1960 with a concentration of the early Jazz of the 20s and 30s. The problem with recordings this old is that the old acetates and 78rpm records are very fragile and have usually degraded to some point. This does mean that some of the original sound will, inevitably, be lost but nowhere on this collection does background noise interfere with the music - although a couple of tracks sound like they are composites from several sources. The result is a historical record of one of America's greatest 20th Century composers. I have heard quite a few of these songs performed by other artists so it's interesting to hear the originals. Some songs are new to me but this does backfill quite a few holes in my knowledge of Jazz.