Mingus Big Band at the Newman Center

Mingus Big Band
Newman Center
Denver, Colorado
April 6, 2023

The Mingus Big Band is serious business. Charles Mingus was a serious composer and musician. The band itself is serious about presenting Mingus' music. And the lineup of musicians is just as serious as all of the above. (See line up, below.)

Thursday night at the Newman Center, the 14-piece Mingus Big Band arrived packed with all-stars. In fact, many, if not most (maybe all) of the band members are band leaders themselves. It's obvious that being in the Mingus Big Band requires throwing the ego in the back seat. Which means that it's a big deal to play in this band. During its history, the band has had a rotating cast of the top jazz players on the scene, but the crew that traveled to Denver was hardly the B team.

The band was like a 14 beer bottle micro-brew taster pack, and every flavor was delectable, not to mention highly anticipated. At least half the band members were well-known to jazz fans. They have been veterans of the jazz scene with many recordings as leaders and sidemen. Interspersed among the war horses was a smattering of newer players, earlier in their careers. The big band format, of course, emphasizes not only ensemble playing but, being jazz, also leaves plenty of room for solos. So it was fun to anticipate and then enjoy the solos laid down by the big names. Given the star power throughout the band, it was a pretty good bet that the younger members had the chops to go toe to toe with those of more experience. And that proved to be the case.

Of course, with that much fire power under one roof, the solos got competitive, not unlike an old-fashioned cutting contest. And with that many leaders, who's in charge? As with everything concerning a big band, it takes cooperation and planning. Tenor man Wayne Escoffery helped direct some of the endings, either with his arm or with his horn while standing. Sometimes trombonist Conrad Herwig did a little directing to create a unified and punchy ending to a few songs.

Everyone got a chance to solo, most players got at least two turns in the spotlight. That's a small fraction of what many of these players are used to when playing with or leading smaller bands. For the audience, it was fun to hear a continual stream of new ideas from so many different perspectives. One downside was that if you had a favorite soloist, you only got to hear him or her relatively briefly. But, like the beer sampler pack, indulging in too many samples would inevitably lead to nothing but trouble (or a concert that would last for many hours).

Speaking of long-lasting concerts, one of the Mingus compositions on the program was "Please Don't Come Back From The Moon," which was a small piece of the epic "Epitaph," a sprawling composition that takes three hours to play. The full score was only discovered after Mingus' death.

During the second set it transpired that 14 musicians wasn't enough. Despite all the musical virtuosity on the stage, there wasn't a singer among the assemblage. Solution? Bring on Renee Manning.

Manning appeared for the second song of the second set, "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love." Ellington's name in the title was meant as a tribute rather than a writing credit. This one, like the rest on Thursday night was written by Mingus. Manning also added her vocals to the next tune, "Got Me a Devil Man," a down-and-dirty blues song. The band then went into "hit" mode and played a couple of Mingus' more well-known tunes. Any band, Mingus tribute band or not, that takes on the Mingus classic, "Moanin'" better have a baaaaad baritone saxophonist. That's because that tune has one of the baaaadest bari sax riffs known to jazz. Blowing the honors Thursday night was the somewhat diminutive Lauren Sevian. Although it was a close question about whether the sax out-weighed Sevian, after a lengthy solo intro, she nevertheless harnessed a bounteous quantity of mile-high air and matched the original recording featuring Pepper Adams playing that critical part.

Charles Mingus passed away in 1979, nearly 45 years ago. Despite that time gap, the Mingus Big Band included a musician who had played with Mingus, Earl McIntyre who played bass trombone and tuba. He came out to the front of the stage to introduce Manning who happens to be his wife. He also talked about his former boss. He said Mingus was a person who felt his emotions intensely, more so than your average human; grief, joy, anger. McIntyre attributed Mingus' dramatic compositional style to that personality trait.

Mingus was never shy about expressing his opinion that civil rights was an important issue. Much of his music reflected those views. The Mingus Big Band carries on that tradition of advocating for social justice and it came out in the song selections. One of those was "Fables of Faubus" about the governor of Arkansas in the 1950s and 60s who, in 1957, sent the National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School in direct contravention of the US Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The tune was not a tribute to the man. Another call for freedom came through "Don't Let It Happen Here," the famous description of silent complicity in the face of genocidal political regimes articulated by Martin Niemoller. "First they came and they took the Communists. But I said nothing because I was not a Communist..." Thursday night, those words were spoken by Escoffery.

Mingus' widow, Sue Mingus, formed tribute bands to perform her husband's music after his death. These included not only the Mingus Big Band, but also the Mingus Dynasty, a smaller outfit. She produced the album Mingus Big Band Live at the Jazz Standard (Jazz Workshop, 2010) which won a Grammy in 2011 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Shortly before her death in September 2022, she was named an NEA Jazz Master.

Certainly, Sue Mingus was a great promoter of her husband's music, but her passing will not extinguish the flame. Too many people enjoy his music and it's obvious that too many of jazz's greatest living musicians enjoy playing it for the Mingus legacy to fade away.

Set List

First Set: Epitaph Part 2; Fables of Faubus; Please Don't Come Back from the Moon From 3 hour Epitaph; Peggy's Blue Skylight

Second Set: Don't Let It Happen Here, Martin Niemoller; Duke Ellington's Sound of Love. Vocalist Renee Manning; Got Me a Devil Man. Blues; Moanin'; Better Get Hit in Your Soul

The Band

Walter White, trumpet; Alex Norris, trumpet; Philip Harper, trumpet; Robin Eubanks, trombone; Conrad Herwig, trombone; Earl McIntyre, bass trombone, tuba; Wayne Escoffery, tenor; Sarah Hanahan, alto; Brandon Wright, alto; Abraham Burton, tenor; Lauren Sevian, baritone sax; David Kikoski, piano; Boris Koslov, bass; Donald Edwards, drums; Renee Manning, vocals

Comments