Helena Babington’s Reviews > Mingus: A Critical Biography > Status Update

Last example: "Try a song like Dizzy's Woody'n You, for example, and make some changes; fit a church minor mode into the chord structure, and in fact a bluesy phrase in B flat minor is reiterated throughout the D flat circle of 4ths that constituted Gillespie's original A section…Mingus's B section, however, is in 6/4, but phrased in such a way that the 4/4 time-signature is still felt subliminally…”

Dig it?!

“Table Dance’s main sections are based on the paso-doble rhythm heard in the Novo trio's Time and Tide and on the alternation of E7 and Fmajor7 underpinning the archetypal 'Spanish' scale later used in part of Davis's Flamenco Sketches, Coltrane's Olé and Chick Corea's La Fiesta. These sections are balanced by out-of-tempo cadenzas and lighter, more boppish passages over alternating chords of C and Bflat7…”

A typical sentence, this one about a 1957 Mingus composition, “Revelations”:

“It is, however, similar to Mingus’s early, fully written works, namely “The Chill of Death” and “Half-Mast Inhibition”, with the exception that it incorporates a highly successful two-minute collective improvisation over alternating I minor and IV7 chords (as in “Pithecanthropus”).”

Book’s best audience: musicians!

Finally picking this bio back up with renewed resolve to persevere. It’s a challenging read for me for a few reasons but I’m motivated by the appeal of the subject. The first sentence I read is an example of both, but is likely too long to include here. Will post a PS progress note for the same page. Now.

Part 2 to earlier post for same page number. Listen here to the tune mentioned in post, “Revelations”:

https://youtu.be/vz2GSyovm6w?si=5Doap...

“Mingus takes greater risks than the other composers. The unity of his works depends not on their technical organization… but is largely of an emotional order… “Revelations” extends itself as a succession of moods, feelings, atmospheres, melting into and out of each other. This was something which had not been been widely attempted in jazz.”
– critic Max Harrison

Put aside to finish others first. Now with new year, started over to refresh my memory for the myriad of biographical and musical details. Priestley’s densely packed style will keep my pace and progress slow. Ideal with coffee. Not ideal for bedtime reading.

The first 6 pages were as great as the Intro. And as I did when reading a wonderful bio on Joni Mitchell, I’m listening to Mingus now even more than usual and hearing his early life influence of the Holiness movement mentioned so soon in this exciting bio.

Just received for birthday and juggling it in. In Publisher’s description reprinted as Goodreads’, this last line stands out and compels me to push through some initial density. Reportedly, it is “what can be called, again without exaggeration, the best biography of a jazz musician we have ever seen.” Wow. Sounds like a must read worth pushing into for sure!