Money Jungle

Artist: Duke Ellington , Charlie Mingus , and Max Roach
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 724353822729
EAN: 0724353822729
ASIN: B0000691U1

Release Date: 2002-07-16

Related Categories:

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Blue Note Records

| Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

General

| Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Contemporary Big Band

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Pop

| Styles | Blowout Music | Stores | Music

Jazz

| Styles | Blowout Music | Stores | Music

All Blowout Music

| Blowout Music | Stores | Music

More Titles at Least 25% Off

| Blowout Music | Stores | Music

Listmania:

Best Albums of 1962
15 Ellington CD's (or sets) that you NEED
Jazz Piano: Essential and Overlooked
Inspiring Jazz Albums
Beyond "Kind of Blue" : great jazz of late 50's & early 60's
The All Time Top Albums (926-950)
Rock.
Best Albums Bar None
The Pianistic Ellington: Trio, Duet and Solo Recordings
Listen to Mingus

Tracks:

Money Jungle
Fleurette Africaine
Very Special
Warm Valley
Wig Wise
Caravan
Solitude
Switch Blade
A Little Max (Parfait)
REM Blues
Backward Country Boy Blues
Solitude (alternate take)
Switch Blade (alternate take)
A Little Max (Parfait) (alternate take)
REM Blues (alternate take)

Similar Items:

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
Piano Reflections
The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady
Ellington At Newport 1956
Speak No Evil

Customer Reviews:

3 Giants = Masterpiece.......2007-03-07

This album was bought for me many years ago by a friend, and I have been listening to it ever since. The sessions were recorded in 1962 and feature Max Roach on Drums, Charlie Mingus on Bass and Duke Ellngton on the Piano.

Most of the material was written especially for the session and there are some wonderful compositions here. Like a lot of Ellingtons material they all sound deceptively simple. However my favourite track is their version of 'Caravan'. This is a thunderous version with Ellington playing the melody lower down the Piano than you would normally expect. Perhaps he did this just wind Mingus up - who knows. Anyway its a stunning performance by all 3 of them.

This is a must-have Jazz Trio album by Ellington, who is frequently forgotten when great Jazz Pianists are mentioned, because of his superb writing and arranging skills. This shows off his playing skills better than any other album I know.

Three geniuses distill jazz to 100 proof perfection.......2007-02-01

This is one of those albums that transcends the word "jazz" and reminds me of how useless a term it can be when trying to talk about art music of this quality. Ellington, Mingus and Roach drove the tap deep into the well of the universal with this one. Ellington's ability to approach the music with a compositional freshness rather than becoming mired in the formulaic makes Money Jungle a true joy; alive with spontaneity but steeped in jazz tradition. The instrumental virtuosity of all three working on the scaffold of Ellington's compositional leadership yields a priceless result. African Flower alone would justify owning this album.

Charlie Mingus is an idiot.......2006-12-23

Duke Ellington in trio form is where I like him best. "The Pianist" and "Piano In The Foreground" are my favorite jazz albums and I highly recommend buying them before "Money Jungle" if you don't own them already.I think the reason why people rate this album so high is because of the line up of big name musicans. "It has to be good it's Ellington. Roach, and Mingus, there brilliant". Yes Ellington and Roach are brilliant but on the other hand Mingus almost single handedly ruins this album. I can't even sit through track one, it is awful. I don't care if your an angry bass player, get a hold of yourself and play the damn instrument like your not having a seizure. People say his playing is "outside the box and different". I say I don't care how technicly difficult your playing is or how outside the box it is, if it sounds like crap than it is crap. If you can honestly tell me that you like the sound of Mingus playing a fury of the same note over and over under Ellington's melody than your lacking in taste. He is not bad on every track but I would have been much more satisfied with a diffent bass player. Ellington is great and the melodies are good but I highly recommend the other trio albums first.

Essential........2005-08-17

You know, there are some albums that you pretty much think have to be good, and you have these enormously high expectations for them. And more often than not, they don't quite live up to them.

"Money Jungle" is one of the exceptions to that rule. A dream meeting-- bandleader Duke Ellington sits at the piano, generously supported by his compositional heir in bassist Charles Mingus and sublime bop drummer Max Roach. With this backing, Ellington is inspired in a far more assertive light than he is usually found as Mingus and Roach push him along. Mingus is downright aggressive and perhaps even angry throughout the proceedings-- check his playing "Money Jungle", where he occasioanlly switches from his swing to an aggressive repetitive figure, as if daring his collaborators to drift outside of the swing (they don't), or his fierceness on "Wig Wise" in sharp contrast to Ellington's light and bouncey touch. Somehow, Roach, often considered the most lyrical of drummers, finds a way to negotiate through this and keep the tension between Ellington and Mingus to a boil.

The entire record is pretty much a highlight-- from the fluttering bass of "Fleurette Africaine" (echoed by Ellington and Roach) to Ellington's beautiful revisitation of "Solitude" (in my favorite reading of the piece) to the straight blues of "REM Blues", there's not a bad cut on here, although I suspect anybody deeply rooted in the swing tradition will find the playing a bit out of character, and certainly Ellington is inspired into a different light by his younger protegees.

Nonetheless, as far as jazz records go, this one is pretty much indispensible. Highly recommended.

This is a no brainer..........2004-12-07

Come on, really, how can this get any less than 5 out of 5 stars? If you listen to it, you'll agree, and if you don't, then you are a terrorist.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Dirty Luv ~ G-Wiz

The Definitive Collection ~ Alan Parsons Project

You Are Here ~ Dropline

Relayer ~ Youngsbower

I Got a Line on You ~ Spirit

Izzy Stradlin & the Ju Ju Hounds ~ Izzy Stradlin & The Ju Ju Hounds

The Lost Frontier

Let Me Down Easy / Best I Ever Had / It Wouldn't ~ Chris Isaak

Band Played the Boogie - Can We Start Over ~ Born 2 B

Rock Solid/4:20 ~ T-Rock