#2
John Coltrane
Complete 1961 Village Vanguard

#3
Miles Davis
Live at The Plugged Nickel

#4
Charles Mingus
Live At Antibes

#5
Duke Ellington
Live at Newport

#6
Sonny Rollins
At The Village Vanguard

#7
John Coltrane
Live at Birdland

#8
Wes Montgomery & Wynton Kelly
Smokin' at the Half Note

#9
Erroll Garner
Concert By The Sea

#10
Gillespie, Parker, Powell, Mingus and Roach
The Quintet-Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume 1

Recorded Wednesday, July 13, 1960, at the Antibes Jazz Festival, Juan-les-Pins, France, this recording is considered by many as Mingus's most popular. Mingus at Antibes would reach mythic levels well before this humble writer were to pen an epistle about it. Held on France's Cote J'Azur, Mingus biographer Brian Priestly noted, "The fact that Mingus was invited at all to an event that was principlly for European Bands [was] a little surprising, but it may not be connected with the role of the French record company Barclay, who not only issued an album of some European participants such as Dusko Goykovic and Albert Mangelsdorff but, as the local liscensee of Atlantic recorded on their behalf both of the American bands involved, [the] Wilbur DeParis 'New' New Orleans Jazz [whoever the hell that is] and Mingus."

A queer little setup, one might think. But, the music is of another dimension. Sure it is easy to conjure up the obvious-- this music is based in the most basic of African-Americ tradtions-- African polyrhythm, Americal Black Gospel, The Blues, Big Band. Mingus no more gave a shit about those titles than the man in the moon. He was out to make music. Perhaps a synthesis of all of the above, but his unique voice nevertheless.

Live At Antibes is an interesting statement in the respect that it has the feel of many other '50s and '60s live jazz recordings-- i.e. that it was assembled from several pieces spliced together with no particular theme evident. But this is not the truth. This is the actual program Mingus performed. It was made up of material from basically the same period as the festival appearance. Where this material diverges from the studio versions is in its earthy soul. "Better Get Hit In Your Soul" and "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" are charismatic Pentacostal in the extreme. The listener can hear the band shout, "Amen!" at the end of every free-form chorus Mingus plays.

"Folk Forms I" is a blues in F and "What Love?" is Mingus's take-off on "What Is This Thing Called Love." The final track is "I'll Remember April" with a fraile but assured Bud Powell on piano. It is heartbreaking in an upbeat sort of way, much like Lady Day's Lady in Satin and Songs for Distingue Lovers. For Bud Powell's part it is genius at twilight (or burn out). This is music as rich as the Red Mississippi Delta dirt and as refined as a Martini served in Greenwich Village's Village Vanguard. That it was performed in France is only a testament to the universality of the music. Mingus did not speak for only himself, but for everyone.

Writer's Note: Having recently completed a survey of the Top Ten Best Live Rock Albums, I have learned a couple of valuable things. One is a list of this sort should be presented in descending order starting with number 10 and descending to number 1. Second, it is better to poll a group for their opinions and develop the list from an analytical (or pseudoanalytical) evaluation of the results. This is how the Top Ten Best Live Jazz Recordings were selected. I polled the writership of All About Jazz, combined the results and ranked the recordings. For recordings that tied in number of votes, I arbitrarily selected the order (I had to exert editorial control somewhere!).

Live Jazz is perhaps the most natural creative state in music. Performing jazz means a musician must create a work of art on the spot, composition in real time. In this series, I hope to highlight historic events where this invention has not been merely successful, but transcendent.