Prom 53 - 24.08.17: Beneath the Underdog: Charles Mingus Revisited

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  • Eine Alpensinfonie
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 20569

    Prom 53 - 24.08.17: Beneath the Underdog: Charles Mingus Revisited

    19:30 Thursday 24 August 2017 ON TV
    Royal Albert Hall


    Shabaka Hutchings (saxophones)
    Christian Scott (trumpet)
    Kandace Springs (vocals)
    Metropole Orkest
    conductor Jules Buckley

    A giant of jazz, Charles Mingus (1922-79) combined the classic style of Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton with the radical spirit of black music of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and has influenced artists from Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello to Debbie Harry.

    Following sell-out Quincy Jones and Jamie Cullum Proms last year, Jules Buckley returns - with his Metropole Orkest - to celebrate the life and music of this legendary composer, bandleader and bass-player. The Prom features Mingus favourites including 'Better Git It in Your Soul', 'Moanin'' and 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat', performed by a starry line-up of artists Kandace Springs, Shabaka Hutchings, Christian Scott and Leo Pellegrino.
    Last edited by Eine Alpensinfonie; 20-08-17, 09:16.
  • Eine Alpensinfonie
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 20569

    #2
    I must say that the non-classical Proms this year are of a much higher order (in my opinion).

    Comment

    • doversoul1
      Ex Member
      • Dec 2010
      • 7132

      #3
      Following sell-out Quincy Jones and Jamie Cullum Proms last year….

      This is more like a deterrent but it’s about to start.

      Mingus wasn’t one of my heroes and I haven’t listen to this for decades. I don’t think I appreciated it enough in those days.

      Comment

      • Eine Alpensinfonie
        Host
        • Nov 2010
        • 20569

        #4
        The presentation is mind-curdlingly awful. Georgia Mann sounds as though she should be in the cast of Friends.

        Comment

        • BBMmk2
          Late Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 20908

          #5
          Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
          I must say that the non-classical Proms this year are of a much higher order (in my opinion).
          Yes, for the most part. Apart from the Glass "Passages", I didn't enjoy the Scott Walker Prom.
          Don’t cry for me
          I go where music was born

          J S Bach 1685-1750

          Comment

          • Constantbee
            Full Member
            • Jul 2017
            • 504

            #6
            Buckley at his best. If you're ready not listening you should bee
            And the tune ends too soon for us all

            Comment

            • Old Grumpy
              Full Member
              • Jan 2011
              • 3596

              #7
              Great so far!

              And on BBC4 TV tomorrow.

              Comment

              • Stunsworth
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 1553

                #8
                Originally posted by Constantbee View Post
                Buckley at his best. If you're ready not listening you should bee
                Listening to it as I write. Loving it.
                Steve

                Comment

                • Old Grumpy
                  Full Member
                  • Jan 2011
                  • 3596

                  #9
                  Just gone downhill a bit...

                  ... never liked audience participation

                  Comment

                  • Stunsworth
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 1553

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Old Grumpy View Post
                    Just gone downhill a bit...

                    ... never liked audience participation
                    It was replicating the call and response on the original Joni Mitchell recording - though she had a somewhat smaller chorus.
                    Steve

                    Comment

                    • BBMmk2
                      Late Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 20908

                      #11
                      This is a first timer for me, experiencing the music of Charles Mingus, properly. Jules Buckley, what a talented chap he ps. Everyone that took part was quite exemplary. Unfortunately the cat doesn't like jazz!
                      Don’t cry for me
                      I go where music was born

                      J S Bach 1685-1750

                      Comment

                      • Rcartes
                        Full Member
                        • Feb 2011
                        • 194

                        #12
                        A dreadful experience!

                        Perhaps fortunately, I only managed to catch the latter part of this Prom, and I thought it was dreadful. I've never been much of an admirer of Mingus, a man possessed of a too-high level of self-regard but who was, in my view, an indifferent bass player (as I've mentioned elsewhere, he was the weak link in the otherwise magnificent Massey Hall concert with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Max Roach) who just didn't swing. However, some of the arrangements he used, and especially soloists like Booker Ervin and Jimmy Knepper, were definitely worth hearing.

                        But I've never been really convinced by the whole recreation, 'tribute band' thing (one magnificent exception: Pete Long's recreation of the Dizzy Gillespie 1940s big band for the ability it had to reproduce the raw power of that band), and this concert was no exception - but what reduced it to a truly terrible level was the appalling quality of some of the solos, especially the capering Leo Pellegrino, who'd have sounded crap in a rock concert. And it was all made worse by the ludicrous announcer: over the top hardly covers her: a particular irritant, she contrived to refer to the "barisax" as Pellegrino's instrument.

                        Not one of the glories of this year's Proms season, I fear.

                        Comment

                        • DracoM
                          Host
                          • Mar 2007
                          • 12957

                          #13
                          << what reduced it to a truly terrible level was the appalling quality of some of the solos, especially the capering Leo Pellegrino, who'd have sounded crap in a rock concert. And it was all made worse by the ludicrous announcer: over the top hardly covers her: a particular irritant, she contrived to refer to the "barisax" as Pellegrino's instrument. >>

                          I'm afraid I have to agree with Rcartes. Clodhopping, shouty music, plus way, way OTT presentation. Mingus was far greater than this, and not meant for the RAH or....that presentation.

                          I mean, FGS, why DO the Proms keep shooting themselves in the foot with these 'tribute' things - Bowie, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, and now Mingus.
                          Alyn Shipton, Peter Clayton know / knew how to do these things with less is more intimacy and style.

                          Comment

                          • BLUESNIK'S REVOX
                            Full Member
                            • Dec 2010
                            • 4272

                            #14
                            I didn't hear this despite being a great/huge admirer of Charles Mingus for over fifty years (perhaps why), but from the comments above it sounds par for the course. It's a bit akin to eager 1960s vicars blessing motorbikes, "worthy" and embarrassing.

                            And if you are going to genuinely present a CM tribute, then why not book those who could actually deliver it? The reconstituted Mingus big band, in all its various formats, which continues to work (and tour) out of the Jazz Standard in New York.

                            BN.

                            Comment

                            • Stanfordian
                              Full Member
                              • Dec 2010
                              • 9308

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
                              This is a first timer for me, experiencing the music of Charles Mingus, properly. Jules Buckley, what a talented chap he ps. Everyone that took part was quite exemplary. Unfortunately the cat doesn't like jazz!
                              Hiya maestro,

                              As you know I'm a jazz lover of hard-bop from Mingus's era but his music does nothing for me.
                              Last edited by Stanfordian; 25-08-17, 13:41.

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