Tonight at Noon... Three or Four Shades of Love

Charles Mingus died in 1979, three months before his 57th birthday, and since that time his widow, Sue Mingus, has been running the posthumous Mingus Big Band in order to keep his music alive. Mingus ranks with the most important jazz composers and was an incurable romantic.

 

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:19 pm

COMPOSERS: Charles Mingus
LABELS: Dreyfus
PERFORMER: Charles Mingus
CATALOGUE NO: FDM 36633-2

Charles Mingus died in 1979, three months before his 57th birthday, and since that time his widow, Sue Mingus, has been running the posthumous Mingus Big Band in order to keep his music alive. Mingus ranks with the most important jazz composers and was an incurable romantic.

In some ways he was like a force of nature because his powerful emotions sometimes swamped his considerable intelligence. He was a man of great passion and much preoccupied by love. The musicianship of the Mingus Big Band and Orchestra is impeccable and ten of his love songs, four for the orchestra and six for the big band, have been arranged and recorded for the album.

From the opening 'Love is a Dangerous Necessity' to the closing 16-minute version of the first half of Mingus's famous work 'Black Saint & Sinner Lady', the music touches on most aspects of love, from tenderness to recrimination. Other high spots are 'Passions of a Woman Loved' and 'Sweet Sucker Dance'.

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