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Dannie Richmond

Dannie Richmond was a drummer whose long association with Charles Mingus made him one of the leading percussionists in modern jazz. Richmond was one of jazz's most flexible and responsive drummers, able to supply anything from a gospel stomp to be-bop syncopation to articulate, propulsive free time.

Charles Daniel Richmond was born Dec. 15, 1931, in New York City and grew up in Greensboro, N.C. He began playing tenor saxophone in his teens and returned to New York to study at the Music Center Conservatory. He then began working with rhythm-and-blues groups, including the Clovers, but by 1956 he had quit rhythm-and-blues and begun teaching himself to play drums. At a jam session in the summer of 1956, he sat in with Mingus, and the bassist- composer soon began working with him steadily.

Mr. Richmond's drumming matured alongside Mingus's music, with its far-reaching fusion of modern jazz with blues and gospel roots. Although he performed and recorded with other musicians, among them Chet Baker, Jimmy Knepper and the Mark-Almond Band, he worked with Mingus groups until the bandleader's death in 1979.

Richmond played on the first album by Mingus Dynasty, a repertory group that plays Mingus compositions, then in ‘79 helped found the Adams-Pullen quartet. This latter group was led by two fellow Mingus alumni, George Adams on saxophone and Don Pullen on piano.

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited

Read "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


In his liner notes for Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited, Bill Shoemaker sets out the context in which the two featured albums should be considered. He observes that so enormous was Charles Mingus' artistic vision that no two (or perhaps three) albums can encompass its totality. How true that is, even of the pairing of two Mingus albums that are as different as could be: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960) and Pre Bird (Mercury, ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


At Antibes could easily be an all-time favorite Charles Mingus recording if he had not produced such extraordinary sessions as Mingus Ah Um (Columbia, 1959), Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963) and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964). Listeners can make their own picks, but this live recording from 1960 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, has a power unique unto itself. One can almost feel the ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do. Mingus leads a pianoless quintet completed by Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums. Bud Powell ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)

Read "Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)" reviewed by Chris May


The 100th anniversary of the birth of the Promethean genius Charles Mingus falls on April 22, 2022--and Rhino/Parlophone are releasing a 2 x CD edition of Mingus Three (aka Trio, Jubilee, 1957) to coincide. Disc one contains the original LP, vibrantly remastered by Dominique Brethes at Flow Mastering in London. Disc two consists of six previously unreleased outtakes, recently discovered in the Parlophone tape library and mastered by Brethers; also included are two untitled blues from the same session.

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Deluxe Edition)

Read "Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Deluxe Edition)" reviewed by Chris May


This 2-CD set takes the 1974 album Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Atlantic) and adds seventy minutes of previously unissued material recorded at the same concert. It is as worthwhile an addition to Charles Mingus' recorded legacy as 2020's previously unissued 2-CD set Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 (Sunnyside). Why it has taken so long for either set to be released is anybody's guess. But at least we have them now. Mingus led many great bands ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Read "@ Bremen 1964 & 1975" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


"In questo paese--sentenziò Charles Mingus--percepisco ancora intatto il puzzo delle camere a gas e dei campi di concentramento. Ma non fatevi troppi problemi: gli Stati Uniti d'America sono anch'essi un grande campo di concentramento." Il paese era la Germania Ovest, la città era Brema, l'anno il 1964. La dichiarazione è riportata da Joachim Ernst Berendt in un articolo del 1979 e ripresa come incipit dell'indimenticabile Charlie Mingus di Mario Luzzi (Lato Side, 1983) Dichiarazione ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Read "@ Bremen 1964 & 1975" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It is 1964 and the big bass emperor rules the old continent as he commanded every stage he set foot on. So @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 just does not sound right. Charles Mingus Swings Bad Ass and Liberates Your Body and Your Mind @ Bremen sounds way more like it. For—as much as anything in his grand, sweeping arc serves to highlight how mercurial and spot-on his real time genius was—this previously unreleased four-disc joy bomb will certainly be ...

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