Word: mingus
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...Charles Mingus: Epitaph (Columbia). Composer-musicologist Gunther Schuller leads an all-star big band in a definitive live performance of the monumental suite -- raw, raucous and richly textured -- by a pioneer figure of modern jazz...
Schuller calls Epitaph "a musical summary of one of the great jazz composers of the century, from the sweet and gentle Mingus to the angry Mingus." In style, Epitaph is characteristic of his orchestral compositions: echoes of gospel songs and his acknowledged master, Duke Ellington; abrupt rhythmic shifts; fleeting lyrical passages (often scored for piano or vibes) that unexpectedly explode into dissonant choruses of yawps and growls; high- register solos underscored by ostinato refrains on basses and trombones. Some of the sections allow for considerable improvisation: a full-throttle version of Better Get It in Your Soul -- one of Mingus...
...Mingus specified most of the musicians he wanted to play Epitaph. Two were at Lincoln Center last week: Eddie Bert on trombone and Don Butterfield on tuba. For the performers, keeping Epitaph alive has been a labor of love, although not without its complications. Five or six sections of the work, Schuller contends, are as difficult as anything in the classical repertory, comparable in density to Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. "These parts are so complex contrapuntally," says Schuller, "that musicians used to conventional jazz expression are just overwhelmed. It leaves them huffing and puffing...
...Mingus took meticulous care with the orchestrations, and Epitaph, as Schuller measures it, was "98% complete." Nonetheless, reconstructing the score involved some musical cryptoanalysis by Schuller and his associate, Andrew Homzy. Phrasing and tempi had to be established, and the endings of several sections were fragmentary, reflecting Mingus' common practice of working out finales with his musicians at rehearsals. One section called Interlude (The Underdog Rising) was in such chaotic shape that Schuller spent days cutting the unplayable score into 40 separate parts and then piecing it back together like a picture puzzle...
More than two hours long, the late Charles Mingus' Epitaph blends atonal passages and improvised solos in a style as challenging as Stravinsky's Rite of Spring...