Editor's Info:
What a privilege it also is to present this still underrated music to audiences in Quebec and abroad, year in year out, with my friends and colleagues Jean Derome, Ivanhoe Jolicour, Mathieu Bélanger, Claude Lavergne and, in the past, the late Michel Ouellet.
Right from this band's inception, I had decided to include a few Mingus tunes in a repertoire of original compositions. In fact, my first two albums testify to this infatuation, as each one contains at least one piece by the famous bassist.
The feeling I had for this music could only drive me deeper into a project that would be solely devoted to this prolific composer. The idea of devoting ourselves to Mingus exclusively came to life in 1995 and a year later we recorded a first album, "Hommage a Mingus," for the label Justin Time.
Despite the fact that "Hommage a Mingus" was moved to the back burner (between 1997 and 2003) in favor of other important musical endeavors, we kept playing our 3-4 concerts a year, which allowed us to keep the project alive by adding new Mingus tunes each time we performed.
"Dense, complex, unpredictable compositions full of sudden changes in rhythm and tempo, and even though they occasionally feature pretty harmonies similar to the ones his mentor Ellington could have thought of, these harmonies are often subjected to savage destructuring or surprise accelerations, and can even resolve into dissonances that were absolutely avant-garde at the time. (...) Through his words, actions and writings, Charles Mingus has left the image of a boisterous, short-tempered, even violent character, but his recorded works highlight different qualities, such as the intensity, spontaneity, and power of his music, along with an unconventional conception of jazz as it was performed during the '50s and '60s." *
All in all, Charles Mingus has released over 60 records credited to his name and has left to posterity over 300 original compositions. ....... more
Editor's Info:
What a privilege it also is to present this still underrated music to audiences in Quebec and abroad, year in year out, with my friends and colleagues Jean Derome, Ivanhoe Jolicour, Mathieu Bélanger, Claude Lavergne and, in the past, the late Michel Ouellet.
Right from this band's inception, I had decided to include a few Mingus tunes in a repertoire of original compositions. In fact, my first two albums testify to this infatuation, as each one contains at least one piece by the famous bassist.
The feeling I had for this music could only drive me deeper into a project that would be solely devoted to this prolific composer. The idea of devoting ourselves to Mingus exclusively came to life in 1995 and a year later we recorded a first album, "Hommage a Mingus," for the label Justin Time.
Despite the fact that "Hommage a Mingus" was moved to the back burner (between 1997 and 2003) in favor of other important musical endeavors, we kept playing our 3-4 concerts a year, which allowed us to keep the project alive by adding new Mingus tunes each time we performed.
"Dense, complex, unpredictable compositions full of sudden changes in rhythm and tempo, and even though they occasionally feature pretty harmonies similar to the ones his mentor Ellington could have thought of, these harmonies are often subjected to savage destructuring or surprise accelerations, and can even resolve into dissonances that were absolutely avant-garde at the time. (...) Through his words, actions and writings, Charles Mingus has left the image of a boisterous, short-tempered, even violent character, but his recorded works highlight different qualities, such as the intensity, spontaneity, and power of his music, along with an unconventional conception of jazz as it was performed during the '50s and '60s." *
All in all, Charles Mingus has released over 60 records credited to his name and has left to posterity over 300 original compositions. ....... more
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