Charles Mingus: In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts

So many live jazz dates have been taped over the years. Then the tapes have been shelved. With that in mind, there may be no end to the ongoing supply of uncovered jazz gems begging to be discovered. But Zev Feldman, the Jazz Detective, is doing his best to dig out as many as possible. His discoveries have included formerly unreleased sets by pianists Bill Evans and Art Tatum, saxophonist Sonny Rollins, bandleader Sun Ra, guitarist Wes Montgomery and many more, including bassist-composer-bandleader Charles Mingus, with the 2022 release of the two CD set The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott's.

2025 brings us In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts, catching late-period Mingus in 1977 with his under-documented quintet of the time. Its members included trumpeter Jack Walrath, saxophonist Ricky Ford, pianist Robert Neloms and drummer Dannie Richmond. Like every band Mingus ever led, the group is a collective freewheeling dynamo. Mingus did not hire cookie-cutter instrumentalists. He wanted spontaneity, the ability to take the music where it wanted to go in each situation. He shouted and exhorted them like a hollerin' street corner preacher (low in the mix here, except for when he shouts it out on the twenty-two-minute "Cumbia & Jazz Fusion"), and they respond with fervor, wailing to the skies.

The two CDs are packed with familiar Mingus fare: "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love," "Cumbia And Jazz Fusion," "Sues Changes," "Fables Of Faubus" and more. Also included are a pair of brief solo piano improvisations by the leader to end each set. Mingus was more than proficient on the piano; recall his Mingus Plays Piano (Impulse!, 1963).

The energy level was consistently high, the musicians and the leader were consistently inspired. Amazing since Mingus was surely suffering from the slow and painful creep of the motor neuron disease that took his life in 1979. After the June 2 concert, he took a wee-hours ambulance ride to the hospital when he suffered a cardiac incident after the show. And still the show went on, on June 3. Charles Mingus was a tough guy, And now his artistry is showcased nicely, in top form, on In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts.