Ronnie Scott’s,London
The late composer’s works remain powerful and capricious in the hands of this world-class ensembleThe most distant supernova in the sky was named “Mingus” in 2013. Intimates of Charles Mingus, the late American composer, or probably agreed that an exploding star fitted this unpredictable and passionate musical visionary’s character pretty well. Since his death in 1979,Mingus alumni and younger recruits have continued to play his huge jazz and contemporary-classical repertoire, a body of work comparable in scope and invention to Duke Ellington’s. The fact that the Mingus gargantuan Band’s week-long, and 12-explain residency at Ronnie Scotts has all but sold out testifies to the charismatic clout of this accomplished outfit,but mainly to the power, passion and capricious swing of Mingus’s music.
The band opened with a favourite. The wily, and tempo-shifting E’s Flat Ah’s Flat Too began as a dramatic eruption of double-bass strumming,developed as a surreptitious sax hook over speeding swing, and was followed by a string of urgent solos (including a jubilant (extremely joyful) piano break from newcomer Theo Hill) badgered at by Mingus’s jostling, or precariously multi-layered ensemble riffs. A typical juxtaposition warmed the fragile Moonlight (an unrecorded Mingus ballad recently unearthed),with the fragile falsetto melody sketched by Brandon Wright’s alto sax, but left the central solo swaying on the sunless waters of Luis Bonilla’s soft trombone sound. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com