Charles Mingus

Jazz bassist Charles Mingus reaches the most compelling phase of his career following a fruitful path that began in the 1940s within the world of swing big bands. After going through the historic be bop revolution, playing alongside Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson and Miles Davis, starting from the mid-'50s he shifts toward a hard bop with original contours, pleasantly unpredictable and anticipating the jazz avant-gardes that were about to emerge.

The recorded outcome of this jazz journey is immortalized, between 1956 and 1963, by a series of more-than-convincing LPs, distinguished by the adventurous nature of their arrangements and ideas. Among them, occupying a prominent position, is "Blues & Roots", recorded in February 1959. The album in which Mingus's inventive compositional flair emerges with particularly persuasive force takes shape at the confluence of three main creative currents.

On one hand, the leader's ability to boldly steer the sound and experimentation that flavor the hard bop on which the record remains grounded. On the other, the use of blues and early forms of gospel as a source of inspiration for the spirit animating the tracks. Finally, the reliance on the earliest manifestation of jazz, New Orleans jazz, as concrete material with which to build and develop the songs' arrangements.

This helps us better understand what the album's title refers to: not merely the announcement of blues as the paradigm guiding the sessions, but rather a return to the roots of modern American music that blossomed at the dawn of the 20th century in the southern United States (particularly Louisiana and Mississippi). As Mingus himself states in the liner notes, the recordings on "Blues & Roots" come as a response to those who accused him, in previous years, of devoting himself to work that was too intellectual and not engaging enough. A specious accusation, to which the musician chooses to respond by composing six pieces entirely on his own, whose thoroughly infectious rhythms exert a sure grip on the listener's senses.

The thrilling sonic impact thus generated is heightened and enriched by a vivid brushstroke of passionate atmospheres, painting the African-American musical tradition in bright colors onto the canvas of the present.

In this album, then, we observe the passionate spontaneity inherent in early-20th-century blues, spirituals and gospel flowing freely beneath the surface of a collective instrumental dialogue that is at times overwhelming, at times ironically brash, at times fascinatingly uneven. An informal, impassioned conversation, whose vivid phrasing is channeled toward modernity through the theme-improvisation-theme structure that characterizes the hard bop style.

Mingus takes charge of writing the themes and organizing the music for all six pieces that make up "Blues & Roots", assembling a relatively large lineup precisely in order to evoke the communal creative atmosphere typical of 1920s New Orleans jazz. The rhythm section (piano, bass and drums) thus provides the anchor for the interplay of no fewer than six horns, which express themselves effectively in the frenzied multi-voice interweaving, in the imaginative melodic figures that make up the compositions' opening and closing themes, and finally in the solos declaimed in turn within each track.

In addition to the session leader (bass), nine musicians in total appear on the LP: Jackie McLean and John Handy (alto saxophone), Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone), Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone), Jimmy Knepper and Willie Dennis (trombone), Horace Parlan (piano, except on "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too"), Mal Waldron (piano on "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too"), Dannie Richmond (drums). The listed artists belonged to the same generation as Mingus and had followed the same stylistic path before arriving at these sessions. They occupy a qualitatively significant place in the hard bop landscape, though two of them stand out for their importance and skill: Jackie McLean and Pepper Adams.

By 1959, McLean was already firmly established as one of the most capable alto saxophonists, able to give a new shape—rich in both soul and intellect—to Charlie Parker's revolutionary style. In '59, Adams was at the start of his stimulating musical collaboration with Donald Byrd, also lending his assertive, intelligently jagged saxophone to other renowned hard bop groups.

At the time of the recordings, the musicians called in—some of whom had already collaborated with Mingus in the past—received from him only rough indications regarding melodies and rhythms. A precise result was thus being sought: to favor the spontaneous approach explicitly showcased by the group performances that distinguish this record with their exuberant, contagious instinctiveness.

The starting point from which Mingus sketches the album's underlying feeling is "Haitian Fight Song", a piece he wrote and recorded in 1957, two years earlier, for the album "The Clown". The track is marked by a solo bass introduction, later joined by the other instruments, in a crescendo dotted with improvised solos capable of transporting the listener to early-20th-century New Orleans.

The same musical scheme is reproduced in four of the six compositions found on "Blues & Roots": "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", "Moanin'" (with the baritone saxophone replacing the bass in the introduction), "Tensions" and "E's Flat Ah's Flat Too".

The sharp, energetic inventiveness shown in the arrangements of these tracks seems to overwhelm the neat, symmetrical nature of hard bop jazz, in favor of a battle evocatively fought out by the horns over the driving, direct beat of the drums. The result is a fusion of rhythmic-melodic lines with bright, incisive colors, layered on top of one another like voices vehemently expressing the different sonic flavors heard in New Orleans half a century earlier. They reveal explicitly how the path of jazz is an unbroken continuum, advancing by adding new floors to an already existing structure, following a blueprint whose basic outlines were already laid down by earlier architects.

The other two tracks that round out the album, “Cryin' Blues” and “My Jelly Roll Soul”, revisit respectively the blues and vaudeville inlays that in the 1920s were ornamental elements of countless jazz compositions.

This impetuous tribute to the jazz tradition is interrupted whenever individual musicians speak up, briefly overriding the ensemble, to deliver short solos that bring the listening experience back into the context of the late-1950s present. These are relatively brief solos, which pick up on the gospel, blues and New Orleans jazz suggestions launched during each track's introductory section, while updating their profile. This is how the aforementioned blend of roots and modernity that characterizes this record is generated.

Among the most significant solos contributed by the jazzmen present at the sessions, we should mention Booker Ervin's on tenor saxophone in “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” (from 2:34 to 3:58). Here the sensual, fervent religiosity conveyed by the saxophonist's dark, robust tone is palpable, so gripping that it makes visible the bodies of the faithful dancing convulsively through the exhilarating sequence of notes. Improvisation takes over completely as Ervin is left alone in his torrid declaration of faith in jazz by the other musicians, who back him for thirty exhilarating seconds with nothing but ecstatic shouts of encouragement and handclaps.

John Handy, on the other hand, stands out for his dynamic solo in “E's Flat Ah's Flat Too” (from 3:28 to 4:07). An exercise in agility in the unmistakable style of Charlie Parker, flavored with the sultry shades of the blues.

It must be said that the various solo passages played across the grooves of this record by Mingus's many collaborators, while generally of a good standard, remain in the background compared to the evocative atmosphere created by the tracks as a whole. It is the latter that is given priority, placing the overall effect above the performances of individual members and erecting a musical edifice as thrilling as it is unusual for late-1950s hard bop.

In “Cryin' Blues”, “Tensions” and “My Jelly Roll Soul”, Mingus himself takes on three fascinating solos of exquisite craft and remarkable immediacy. In the first case, the repeated percussive notes and pleasantly articulated phrasing turn their sustained cadence into a vessel that carries the sound of the double bass from the shore of technique to that of cultivated entertainment. As for “Tensions”, the tireless broken lines followed by his instrument gradually shift into a brief series of pronounced glissandos (at 1:25, at 1:48, and from 2:17 to 2:24), dense arcs suspended between sarcasm and expressiveness. Finally, “My Jelly Roll Soul”, dedicated to the great ragtime and Dixieland jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, features a more relaxed solo, which sends out imaginative sparks as it moves calmly around the main theme.

The accompaniment Mingus provides to the soloists and arrangements clearly displays the versatility typical of this superb musician. He navigates the six tracks' measures with steady vitality and ever-fresh rhythmic and sonic solutions, capturing the listener's attention well beyond the rhythmic role usually assigned to the double bass.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this LP can be found in the entry and exit themes of the compositions, often traversed with joyful impertinence by collective improvisations in the background. Among these, we should mention the one in “Moanin'”, where Pepper Adams's baritone saxophone traces a long, deep, witty low-toned glissando, promptly answered by the other horns, shaping a composite figure with an irresistible groove.

The theme of “Tensions”, on the other hand, touches our imagination with the feeling of apprehension, wonder and anticipation one feels watching a tightrope walker slowly crossing a wire suspended in midair. Painting this sonic backdrop is the mutual chase between the horns, which progressively speed up the tempo of their staccato, tight, wary notes.

The last theme worth mentioning is the one that opens the album: “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting”. Here the gospel fervor poured out by the horns takes the visible shape of a preacher burning with faith, surrounded by the excited faces of the congregation gathered for his fiery sermon.

Three months after making “Blues & Roots”, Mingus would partially repeat the same musical formula on another superb record (“Ah Um”, recorded in May 1959). Nevertheless, this first experiment in reconnecting the origins of modern African-American music with late-1950s jazz stands as a unique, masterful and electrifying example of evoking the best of the past that music has to offer. “Blues & Roots” is a time machine built by the genius of Mingus, thrilling double bassist, brilliant composer and ingenious arranger, captured here at the peak of his career.

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23/03/2026