2015: The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers or Where do we go from here?

Things have been awfully quiet 'round these parts recently, and I'm not completely sure thats going to change much in the immediate. I'm reserving the right to play it by ear.

In the meantime, the end of this calendar year is turning out to be quite the doozy with Lemmy leaving the building, and just a few minutes ago, John Bradbury of the Specials going as well. Life is hard, and then it gets harder.

If you're so inclined, please keep up with my current goings on at my much more active places:

Facebook

eBay

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube
Tumblr 

Otherwise, vote for Bernie Sanders.

Just Because: The Charles Mingus Octet on Debut Records (1954)

Movie of the Week: Mingus At the Movies

Here's an excellent little homemade compilation of examples of Charles Mingus' music used as a soundtrack. How many of these can you name?

Daily Travels: The Jazz Standard

The Mingus Big Band - Jazz Standard, NYC

How much Mingus? Two hours of Moanin' with the Mingus Big Band

Here's the soundtrack...Someone make a movie! From 1993, the Mingus Big Band absolutely tears it up on this megamix version of "Moanin'" featuring Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax.

Stupefied: The John Goodman Playlist - Mingus Speaks!

A couple of months back, I was lucky enough to come across a brand new book on Charles Mingus entitled Mingus Speaks! by John Goodman. Between 1972 and 1974 (only five years before the composer's death), Goodman (at the time the music writer for Playboy magazine) spent quite a bit of time with Mingus, and taped many extended discussions. If you've ever read any interviews with Mingus, you know he had a lot to say about many, many things. I've since read the book, and I'm very happy to report that it did not disappoint. This book is a rare one (especially for a jazz book, especially with an artist of Mingus' stature) in that, the artist gets to speak for himself. And much more than music is covered - politics, sex, race, spirituality. It makes for fascinating reading whether you're a Mingus expert, or just discovering his music, and is a rare, in-depth view into the mind of a musical genius.

I asked Mr. Goodman for a list of his favorite Mingus recordings for this week's edition of the Stupefied Playlist, and here are the wonderful results. I huge "thank you" goes out to him. Now, go and check this book out!  

Buy Mingus Speaks!

Mingus Speaks! official website

Mingus Speaks! on Facebook 

Mingus Speaks! on Twitter

01. Better Get It in Your Soul (Mingus Ah Um)

02. Goodbye Porkpie Hat (Mingus Ah Um)

03. Haitian Fight Song (The Clown)

04. Alice’s Wonderland (Mingus in Wonderland)

05. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting (Blues and Roots)

06. Gunslinging Bird (Mingus Dynasty)

07. Hog Callin’ Blues (Oh Yeah!)

08. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (full album)

09. Hora Decubitus (Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus)

10. Let My Children Hear Music (full album)

Friday Ephemera: "Go Away You Bomb" by Bob Dylan, 1963

Written by Bob Dylan, in 1963, upon the request of Izzy Young of the Greenwich Village Folklore Center, and unpublished until very recently. During the cold war, "the bomb" was always a great topic for writers & composers of all styles.

Just Because: Charles Mingus

Happy birthday Charles Mingus! (and a belated happy 66th to Iggy Pop)

Charles Mingus would have been 91 today! Catch any one of three Mingus bands at the Jazz Standard in NYC on any given Monday night. Info here.

A happy 66th to the one & only Iggy Pop!

Movie of the Week: Charles Mingus Sextet in Oslo (1964)

Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program

Thanks to the official Charles Mingus website for this one:  

In 1972 Charles put together the "Cat-alog"-- an instructional pamphlet for toilet training your cat. It took him about three or four weeks to train his cat, Nightlife. "You've got to get the cat thinking!"

Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program

1. First, you must train your cat to use a home-made cardboard litter box, if you have not already done so. (If your box does not have a one-piece bottom, add a cardboard that fits inside, so you have a false bottom that is smooth and strong. This way the box will not become soggy and fall out at the bottom. The grocery store will have extra flat cardboards which you can cut down to fit exactly inside your box.)

Be sure to use torn up newspaper, not kitty litter. Stop using kitty litter. (When the time comes you cannot put sand in a toilet.)

Once your cat is trained to use a cardboard box, start moving the box around the room, towards the bathroom. If the box is in a corner, move it a few feet from the corner, but not very noticeably. If you move it too far, he may go to the bathroom in the original corner. Do it gradually. You've got to get him thinking. Then he will gradually follow the box as you move it to the bathroom. (Important: if you already have it there, move it out of the bathroom, around, and then back. He has to learn to follow it. If it is too close to the toilet, to begin with, he will not follow it up onto the toilet seat when you move it there.) A cat will look for his box. He smells it. (Continued after the jump)

Just Because: Charles Mingus

This man didn't fuck around. (Source)

My Charles Mingus autograph from Tom Dowd

I've never been one those fans who puts too much stock in autographs...Or maybe I should say, I've never expended too much energy tracking them down. I have a few that I'm very happy I have, but I got them because I met the person involved or knew someone where it was just too easy not to ask. In this case, besides spending actual money on it, I'm particularly excited because: 

A) Mingus is one of my all time favorite musicians

B) He's been dead for over 30 years

C) This particular signed album came from the personal collection of Tom Dowd, legendary audio engineer - best known for his work with Atlantic Records on MANY of their classic jazz (including Mingus) and R&B recordings (see his absurdly long discography here). As they say in the biz, this album's provenance is sterling.

I came upon this thanks to my friend, Bob Perry, one of the nicest guys & best record dealers in the country. Bob is located in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and I visit him once a year, usually in January. Besides selling all sorts of incredible soul, jazz, reggae, rock, and you name it, he KNOWS about the stuff he's selling, and he has stories to burn. He also charges extremely buyer friendly prices. I highly recommend checking him if you happen to be in south FLA, or on eBay where he regularly lists great stuff (see link below). This includes many other items from the Tom Dowd collection.

Charles Mingus - official website

Tom Dowd - official website

Bob Perry Records (bluenote5 on eBay) - on eBay

A New York state of pen

Here's an excellent time lapse video of artist Patrick Vale drawing the view of the Manhattan skyline from the Empire State Building. Big bonus points for use of "Moanin'" by Charles Mingus.

Movie of the Week: 1959, The Year That Changed Jazz

Ornette Coleman shot by Lee Friedlander for Atlantic Records

New Velvet Underground boxset coming soon from Sundazed

It appears Sundazed Records has been busy busy busy putting together what looks like to be a beautiful new vinyl box for the Velvet Underground. According to the text above it will include the first three albums, a definitive collection of recordings made for the band's fourth & unfinished LP for MGM, and the first solo album by Nico. More to come...it seems the label hasn't formally announced this yet other than on their Facebook page.

Between this and the upcoming new Mingus box from Mosaic, it's going to be an expensive autumn...good thing my birthday is coming up!

Shot by: Roberto Polillo

Bill Evans

Roberto Polillo - official flickr page

Dizzy Gillespie

Sam Woodyard

More after the jump

Friday Ephemera: 1965

Courtesy of Its All the Streets, Village Voice ads, 1965 part 4

The Clown

Contemplate the image above while listening to "The Clown" by Charles Mingus. Wow! 

Thanks Gurney Journey!

Movie of the Week - Mingus (1968)

What did Vincent Canby of the NY Times think at the time?: "MINGUS," the 60-minute documentary that opened here yesterday at the New Cinema Playhouse, is a very personal, very moving portrait of a man dispossessed—a freely photographed, large-pore close-up of Charlie Mingus, the jazz composer and bass fiddle virtuoso.

Most of this cinéma vérité feature, which was produced and directed by 23-year-old Thomas Reichman, was shot on a night in November 1966, when Mingus awaited the arrival of police and eviction from his Bowery loft for nonpayment of rent. As Mingus, a hulking but gentle man, moves back and forth through the clutter of crates, playing with his small daughter and talking to Mr. Reichman, who remains off-screen, it becomes obvious that his dispossession is more than just physical.

He talks tenderly to his 5-year-old Carolyn and asks her if she remembers the good old days when they lived on Fifth Avenue. He then observes that he'd like to live on Sutton Place, adding: "I'll kill—if I have to—to get there. I mean—people go to war and kill for locations."

At another point, at Mr. Reichman's suggestion, he pledges his allegiance "to the white flag of America" and almost moans: "How I suffered in this goddam society!"

Mingus also manages to touch on the sex life of his parents, describe a television commercial for a "zap" dress he has invented ("Zap! And it comes off!") and blow a hole in the ceiling with a shotgun. ("Hey, Tom, you dig that, man? That's not bad for not aiming!")

As this consciously choreographed, real-life performance progresses, the put-ons overtake one another and the real meaning of Mingus's dispossession is made sorrowfully apparent.

It is that of a black artist in a white world with which he can communicate only through a kind of supertalent.

Mr. Reichmnan's 16-mm. sound system is not, perhaps, the best medium for capturing the essence of the Mingus supertalent.

The director cuts away from the loft at intervals to show the star in action on the bandstand—where the emotion is clear but the sound is fuzzy, so fuzzy, that much of what is essentially a monologue also is difficult to catch. The camera, however, is mobile and unerring in capturing the performed truth.

"Mingus," like Shirley Clarke's "Portrait of Jason," makes no pretense to being the work of a hidden camera. Mingus knows—as we know—that he is being filmed. This frontal approach is, of course, as interpretive as staged, fictional cinema. Although it is one step removed from reality, it is no less true.