Saturday, October 22, 2016

Oslo Jams II: Mingus and Them

It's the weekend and I am about to go on a mini-vacation, but before I do allow me to feature the second of these NRK-TV vintage rebroadcast posts, recorded 46 years ago. This one's a rare gem indeed.
The man leading the band through this 40 minutes of Heaven on Earth needs very little if any introduction. If you are unfamiliar with who in the world Charles Mingus was and is, you need either a lobotomy or a history lesson, perhaps both.
Concert footage of this particular seminal figure of legend is pretty hard to come by, especially when it's a full set like today's show is. Most amusing about this one is that the screen says "Quintet" at the beginning of the performance, yet there are six guys onstage. Maybe they have a problem saying "Sex"? Who knows.
It makes precisely zero difference, it's forty minutes of Mingus from his 1960s/70s era with alto deity Charles McPherson, for goodness' sakes. Like I said yesterday, you will see rebroadcasts of material like this on American TV roughly when Fox News endorses Frantz Fanon for president.
The thing with these Norwegian TV archive things is that the HD files -- they come in either FLV or MP4 format -- are only on the NRK site for a night or two, then they disappear. So muchas gracias to the people yacking them down in the HQ format before they recede into the aether once again. Sure beats Full House reruns from 1993, that's for sure.
Look out for McPherson obviously and piano Maestro Jaki Byard manning the ivories in this footage... how stuff like this has never been officially released is equivalent to cultural suicide, if you ask me. Which you didn't. But still.
Charles Mingus Sextet
Newport Jazz Festival
Njårdhallen
Oslo, Norway
10.22.1970

pt.1
01 Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk (C. Mingus)
02 All Too Soon (D. Ellington)

pt.2
03 Mood Indigo (D. Ellington)
04 Take the "A" Train (B. Strayhorn)

Total time: 40:48

Charles Mingus - bass
Jaki Byard - piano
Eddie Preston - trumpet
Charles McPherson - alto saxophone
Bobby Jones - tenor saxophone
Dannie Richmond - drums

MP4 files of 2 consecutive Norwegian TV rebroadcasts from the NRK website
the screen credits say "Quintet" but there are six players onstage LOL
I might sneak another post in at the end of the month for Halloween, but until then this will be it, as I am not around for most of next week for my 50th b'day celebration down in SoCal. Has it been three years, really? When I began this thing I didn't think I'd have the stamina or discipline to make it last three months, but here we are. Many thanks to everyone who reads this page; please continue to pull down and enjoy what happens here, cuz I do it all for you! That and to illustrate what the pathetic music industry can't, anyway.--J.
4.22.1922 - 1.5.1979