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

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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

[doversoul1]

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB6GkA54n_Q

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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

[BBMmk2]

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.

[Constantbee]

Buckley at his best. If you're ready not listening you should bee

[Old Grumpy]

Great so far!

And on BBC4 TV tomorrow.

[Stunsworth]

Buckley at his best. If you're ready not listening you should bee

Listening to it as I write. Loving it.

[Old Grumpy]

Just gone downhill a bit...

... never liked audience participation

[Stunsworth]

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.

[BBMmk2]

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!

[Rcartes]

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.

[DracoM]

<< 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.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

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.

[Stanfordian]

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.