Charles Mingus – Bass

These older tunes sometimes present a problem for me in so far as they are often recorded in mono and, consequently, Moises has trouble isolating this bass. This is not a problem generally but there are sometimes passages where the bass in hard to pick out in the mix and you are left making educated guesses based on the harmony and conventions. Accordingly, the transcription is not as accurate as I would probably like and occasionally amounts to a ‘best guess’.

This is the complete bass performance of the tune ‘Goodbye Pork Pie hat’ from the 1959 Mingus classic ‘Mingus Ah Um’. A must hear recording for anyone interested in Jazz. For me, Mingus was all about the composing rather than the playing but there are always some interesting ideas in his parts. The tremolo effects on the second chorus of John Handy’s profoundly moving saxophone solo (bars 25-27 of the transcription) are a a case in point. I have never heard anyone do that before or since. Joni Mitchell fans will recognise the solo melody as she put lyrics to it for the version of the track that appears on her 1979 album, ‘Mingus’.