Let My Children Hear Music

Artist: Charles Mingus
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074644891027
EAN: 0074644891027
ASIN: B00000287S

Release Date: 1992-04-21

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Listmania:

Listen to Mingus
Avant-Garde Jazz
The Great Mingus
the epitome of Jazz
CDs I couldn't do without
Mingusssss!!!!!!
Various Incredible Jazz Albums
Mingus Amongus (Excellent Mingus Albums)
The best albums by Charlie Mingus
10 Charles Mingus Albums

Tracks:

The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers
Adagio Ma Non Troppo
Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too
Taurus In The Arena Of Life
Hobo Ho
The Chill Of Death
The I Of Hurricane Sue

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Customer Reviews:

Wasted on the way!.......2007-02-21

In 1971, if you'd asked me, "Who is the greatest jazz musician?", I would have said, "John McLaughlin hands down"! At the time I was listening to the unrelenting sounds of Mahavishnu Orchestra ("Inner Mounting Flame", "Birds of Fire", etc.) Well, now I can say, like many of my peers, that I wasted a whole lot of time on MO. I could have been listening to "real music", Mingus' "Let my Children Hear Music"(1971). Wow! This is in a league of its own, as the previous reviewers, who are much more knowledgable than I, can attest. Mingus was at the forefront of "modern music". In my opinion, only the GREAT Duke Ellington, Mingus' mentor, compares. Although the music on "Let My Chidren Hear Music" is as intense and unrelenting as Mahavishu's "Inner Mounting Flame", the execution and instrumental palette are worlds apart. This is a masterpiece by a very obsessive compulsive perfectionist. True to his nature, Mingus DEMANDS that we listen to his inner "voice".
Each instrument INSISTS we hear its timbre. The deep, rich tones reflect the majestic status Mingus sought for himself. This music is not for the faint of heart and I suggest one listen to each piece individually before listening to the CD as a whole. Each cut is long and complex. As with all of Mingus work, this music REQUIRES active, not passive, listening. But, if the listener invests the energy, he or she is rewarded tenfold in the end!

Excellent late Mingus.......2006-10-08

"Let My Children" is late-model Mingus playing with a big band. The details of exactly who he was playing with is a little sketchy, but included Dannie Richmond (of course), Jimmy Knepper, Snooky Young, Richard Williams, and four other bassists, including Ron Carter and Milt Hinton. This album was apparently one of Mingus's favorites, and it's very good. I'm not especially a big-band fan, but the songs are all Mingus songs, and I'm a fan of Mingus's writing. "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife", "Hobo Ho", and the "Eye of Hurricane Sue" are the best songs. "Taurus", added for the CD, and "The Chill of Death" are weaker. Mingus tried to incorporate speech with jazz a few times, and unfortunately "Chill" isn't much better than his other experiments. Some people have explained away any of the album's weakness as the fault of the arrangers - Mingus left it to Sy Johnson, Alan Raph, and Teo Macero. I think the arranging is just fine, and Mingus let the other guys do it because that's what he wanted. Mingus wasn't deathly ill or anything when this album was made. So, a very good album, moreso if you like big band jazz.

LEGENDARY MINGUS MASTERWORK!! (ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL RECORDING!).......2006-04-12

Five LEGENDARY Stars but deserves Six!! Near death from Lou Gerhig's disease in Cuernavaca Mexico, Charles Mingus sent a message to arranger Sy Johnson saying, all things considered, this was his favorite recording out of a huge Mingus discography. This is also one of Mingus' greatest bands playing like musical dervishes, performing some of his greatest music. On one section, he has Ron Carter, Richard Davis and Milt Hinton simultaneously on bass. I was fortunate enough to see the "Mingus Jazz Workshow"-version of this band, live at the Village Vanguard in NYC's Greenwich Village, performing this material and the impact of the studio and live performances are the same: SPECTACULAR! And Mingus WAS on bass and played superbly at the Vanguard. Mingus had not recorded in a while, so the influence of this recording on the jazz world was stunning!! And, trust me, besides Mingus himself on bass and Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet, Bobby Jones on tenor sax (hair pulled into a ponytail), was a star of this band, soloing with pure abandon (but never became the solo artist this performance indicated he could have been). Charles McPherson, who did become a star, was likewise excellent, blowing hot liquid notes all the way through. The ghost of Duke Ellington is everywhere, more so than on most Mingus recordings. And Sy Johnson's arrangements are engrossing and fascinating.

The orchestra's performance, even in Mingusian terms was huge, thrashing about like a beautiful huge living organism, grabbing us and taking us along for this wonderful ride. The three 'Pieces De Resistance' begin with "The Shoes of the Fisherman Wife....", a lengthy beautiful symphonic head gives way to a hard-swinging second part, with some awesome 'free' play, and a great symphonic coda ending on a hopeful note. "Adagio Ma Non Troppo" (aka "Myself When I Am Real", an orchestration of the piece from the "Mingus Plays (Solo) Piano" CD) is another wonderful symphonic, but swinging performance that has to be heard to be believed. Mingus' arco (bowed) passages are multitracked and breath-taking. "The Eye of Hurrican Sue" (dedicated to his wife) was a wonderful orchestral romp starting with actual hurricane sounds, then it morphs into a great straight-ahead swinger with a really great bridge. McPherson and Jones are stunning in their solos.

Elsewhere, "Taurus in the Arena of Life "is a great bonus track, not on the original LP. "Hobo Ho" (with great James Moody) and the whimsical "Don't Be Afraid....." are equally exciting pieces with some unusual editing. "The Chil of Death" is a curiousity with Mingus' spoken words illuminating a personal phase of his life, with some wonderful orchestral flourishes going on in the background, but that's what he was about: surprise and wonder!! Five Stars are not enough, make it a SIX!!

(Notes:
*I know we keep using the term "Masterpiece", "Legendary", etc with respect to 'this Mingus CD or that CD', but it's true. Mingus was simply one of the greatest musicians in jazz, whether it was playing his bass violin (his pizzacato work is stunning, but his arco work it's almost other-wordly in it's virtuosity), his small groups (from "The Clown" to "Tijuana Moods", to "Mingus Changes" and beyond) to this large orchestras ("Town Hall Concert", "Let My Children Hear Music", "Mingus at Monterey", and of course, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady").
*Even death itself couldn't silence him for long as Gunther Schuller and Sue Mingus opened an old trunk and discovered another lost Masterwork in "Epitaph", which spawned a huge studio recording and a band tour, and the Mingus Dynasty band and Mingus Big Band rage on to this very day in varying combinations of ex-Mingus sidemen playing his classics.

Astonishing..........2005-06-07

I was totally blown away by this disk. I bought it the same day I bought BLACK SAINT AND THE SINNER LADY. While the consensus seems to be that that disc is superior, I would disagree. This is the most astonishing, musically interesting jazz band disc I have ever heard. Every track is great. If you're looking for pretty melodies and not much else, look elsewhere. If you really love jazz, you'll love this disc.

For the record.......2004-08-24

The beautiful alto solos on this record are played by Charles McPherson and the tenor solos by Bobby Jones who (with Eddie Preston, Jaki Byard, and Dannie Richmond) were in his road band at the time. Lot's of cutting and pasting, but the record still has some magnificent moments. ALS -Lou Gehrig's disease- was beginning to take it's toll on the great man. IMHO the last real Mingus record.

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