Money Jungle

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Money Jungle is a jazz album by pianist Duke Ellington with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, recorded on September 17, 1962 the album is based on the eponymous title song, a composition Ellington, named. The album was released in February 1963, first at United Artists Records. When CD was re-released in expanded form in 1998 and 2005 by Blue Note.

History of Money Jungle session

In 1962, Duke Ellington made ​​several solo projects without his orchestra; first octet album with Coleman Hawkins in August and a joint album with John Coltrane on September 26, both for the young label Impulse!. A week before he met also two musicians of the then avant-garde jazz, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, who had both worked closely together since the early 1950s, including for their joint label debut. While Ellington at the Coleman Hawkins - project " the common ground of musical ideas as far outweighed that problem- cooperation was ensured clashed with Coltrane and Ellington whole worlds collide ," the Ellington biographer Hans Ruland. " The figure of integration between these worlds " was for him, " Mingus, who was the tradition of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington (...) just as devoted as the contemporary jazz of the fifties and sixties, the Mingus finally significantly helped to shape. "

Already years earlier to Ellington and Alan Douglas had in Paris, talk about the opportunity to record an album. When Douglas was responsible for United Artists for jazz productions, Ellington called him and suggested to combine it with the next generation of musicians. Ellington agreed with with the producers that the 63 -year-old pianist in the context of two " modernists of the next generation " should be presented to the " to prove compatibility of disparate musicians. ". It was the first trio session bassist since his recordings for Jubilee with Hampton Hawes and Dannie Richmond. In 1974, Mingus reminded in a Downbeat interview, "I got a call from the record company; then we met Duke in his office and discuss it what he wanted to do exactly. "

Despite the adverse circumstances of the session - Mingus had a falling out with Max Roach, refused to continue playing and was persuaded only by Ellington's blandishments to continue playing; Moreover, the meeting had been amberaumt relatively short, Charles Mingus was the one who the nominal chairman of the meeting " stole the show. " "He played intricate counter- melodies and dizzying runs outside of the tempo in each register. " Weber and Filtgen lead the dissensions between Mingus and Roach on back that " they developed a different timekeeping. "

Mingus said to have been extremely irritated throughout the Ellington session, either because of working with his idol or due to current professional issues. In a moment he touched the sleeve over his bass and was about to leave the studio to Ellington recalled later.

Duke Ellington was able to lure him to the fact that United Artists had turned a full page ad for the upcoming Christmas issue of Billboard for Mingus. That this was more than convinced of his qualities as a bassist as a composer, he answered a few years later to the question of whether Mingus " Ellington School " should be attributed to: " Well, that's what he says. "

The album

Ellington himself expressed his total for the recording of the album:

The music of the original album

Ellington had specifically written some new songs for this session; " None of the four titles: Money Jungle, however, Les fleurs Africa Ines, Very Special and Wig Wise is typical Ellington. " Such was the latter 's composition " a bow Dukes before the musical genius of Thelonious Monk. Tellingly Monks can be thought and not tracing world of emotions with their staccato melody and its chromatic harmonies. " There were two Ellington classic, " Solitude " and " Caravan ".

" Thundering opening the album" is the title track "Money Jungle ", " a blues that could be classified somewhere between post-bop and avant-garde " and " experimental passages " contains. The ballad " Fleurette Africaine ", is an " impressionistic sound picture ( ..) in honor of those flowers that bloom all their beauty only in secret of the African jungle ." It is a sign for Ruland. " From the almost spiritual correspondence of three musicians, as it is rarely captured in a studio ," Ellington recalled the game of bassist: " Mingus, with closed eyes, fell into a harmonious groove and added counter- melodies in a way one, as if he had already played the number his whole life "

According to the " lively, upbeat Blues" " Very Special ", the theme of which is alluded to only briefly to open the same in the improvisations Ellington, followed by the more " conventionally played " "Warm Valley ," a " lovely ballad indelibly marked with Johnny Hodges is connected. "

After the quick " Wig Wise " in which the "angular peaks, descending lines " the Monk covers are visible, follow the Ellington classic " Caravan", " thundering percussion and wild basslines give a game attitude, boisterous as usual fails " The LP sounds with a solo on Ellington's " Solitude " from; the pianist introduces the topic and after three choruses with insertion of the companions of the improvisation part begins.

Other recordings of the session

Jim Santella went in his review of the new edition of the session on the other, some previously unpublished pieces one. " Switchblade " begins Charles Mingus with a longer solo contribution, the " mood prepared for a slow, Nightingale same piano Swinger " the; however, is " A Little Max ( Parfait ) " a feature for the drummer with a " range of textures ." How many other pieces of the session is the "REM Blues" a simple blues over which the trio spreading its interpretations; the acronym REM stand here probably for the present Roach Ellington Mingus. The even slower Alternate Take begin the good mood of the three musicians still more.

Reception Album

Ken Dryden wrote about Money Jungle in Allmusic, the album gave the second highest rating, Duke Ellington would have been 1962, the jazz world by surprise with "his historic trio session " with Mingus and Max Roach: "Not in a way, by simply older compositions revised; the bulk of the LP focused on music that he had written specifically for this session. " A " jewel of this session " is for the critic the " fragile, haunting a certain kind of " ballad" Fleurette Africaine, "where Mingus ' bass lines flow and Roach's understated drums combine to create the mystery of Ellington 's Work. "

Richard Cook and Brian Morton recorded the album also has the second highest rating, and noted caveat that the frequent use of the 12-bar Blue scheme - such as in "Money Jungle" or "Very early" - is probably explained by the haste with of this meeting had come into existence; " These ( pieces ) improvised sound ". In contrast, " La Fleurette Africaine " was developing recognizable out of a simple melodic conception. Less productive are the interpretations of the older Ellington numbers "Warm Valley " and " Caravan"; " In the latter case it is not clear if it's unfamiliarity Mingus ' with the Changes [ of composition ] or it was due to the detuning of the bass player, of which Ellington reported later. "

Hans Ruland manifests itself in his assessment, however, critical of " this [r ] panel [that] over long distances Ellington's miss charm " can, and expressed particular for the title track "Money Jungle " to be " ambivalent ": " Even if in the meantime the first impression of not anarchist, yet largely meaningless chaos ' has given way to the feeling that a new way of making music together has been shown, I do not know any second recording Dukes, which puts me in such a restless, destructive mood as this amelodiös constructed Blues in C. Ellington lovers will certainly agree here. "

For Mingus biographer Horst Weber and Gert Filtgen other hand Money Jungle is "one of the most interesting piano records in the field of jazz. It is simply everything: the atmosphere, the selection of compositions, which consist of three equivalent musicians, as well as for interaction of the musicians "It came here not to the " usual cliché. Here the pianist as a leader, where the rhythm servants ". Rather, Money Jungle is "a real community work, composed in the team spirit. " The amazing thing about the recordings be it that the mentioned disputes in Time Feeling between Mingus and Roach " not a real handicap was [ s ], as both musicians Ellington imaginative play and still a ingenious session arose because both total einlinkten to Ellington. "

Brian Priestley emphasizes the trio album in the comprehensive Ellington discography; " The pianist goes with his two respectful but demanding companions out of itself. " Most of the material is improvised, with the exception of " Fleurette Africaine ". A number of Ellington hits, particularly "Caravan" will, renewed powerful. In his biography of the author Mingus Mingus ' bass playing denoted as " excellent summary of his previous work " and gave an outlook for the freer play of string instruments in jazz.

Similarly, Ralf Dombrowski expresses: Although attempts "in the sum of prominent persons idiosyncratic " originated, but presenting " Ellington as a surprisingly versatile pianist ", the album with this " could emphasize its importance as a soloist for the modern jazz. "

For Wolfgang Knauer it was " a spontaneous session in which the freedom of the three musicians stood in the foreground, one in the face of the big names ( and egos ) of the three parties amazing musical equality. On the original album you can hear it clearly: Here plays no ordinary piano trio; too strong to give the voices of Mingus and Roach equal comments from and determine the atmosphere of the whole with. "

The critics list at All About Jazz chose the album in the list of the 100 best jazz albums ranked 85th

More effect

2010 album Money Jungle appeared - Ellington Orchestrated the hr -Bigband. In the same year, the pianist Vijay Iyer " Fleurette Africaine " took with respect to the trio session from 1963.

Edition history

The half an hour time typically short United Artists album was for the re-release by Blue Note Records to re-discovered unpublished and Michael Cuscuna pieces " A Little Max ( Parfait )" ( 2 takes), " Switchblade ", " REM Blues "and" Backward Country Boy Blues " and an Alternate Take of " Solitude " extended. The three-track analog tapes were transferred to digital tape. Publish 1987 ( Blue Note CDP 7 46398 2) the order of the original LP, however, was canceled. Only for the expanded new edition in 2002 ( Blue Note 38227 ) you edited the pieces new ( 24-bit mastering ) and set the order of the original album, restore, supplemented by a further four alternate takes ( Money Jungle, REM Blues, Switchblade and Solitude ) at the end of the CD.

Title of the LP ( 1963)

  • United Artists Records UAS 56632 or 14017 UAJ, Solid State SS 18022nd
Record label Solid State Records (Jazzlabel) Genre Alan Douglas (record producer) Impulse! Records Jubilee Records Downtempo Register (music) (In My) Solitude Caravan (1937 song) Johnny Hodges Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) Bowed string instrument hr-Bigband Juan Tizol Irving Mills Eddie DeLange Digby Fairweather Ian Carr
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