Charles Mingus Pithecanthropus Erectus

Pithecanthropus Erectus was Charles Mingus' breakthrough as a leader, the album where he established himself as a composer of boundless imagination and a fresh new voice that, despite his ambitiously modern concepts, was firmly grounded in jazz tradition. Mingus truly discovered himself after mastering the vocabularies of bop and swing, and with Pithecanthropus Erectus he began seeking new ways to increase the evocative power of the art form and challenge his musicians (who here include altoist Jackie McLean and pianist Mal Waldron) to work outside of convention. The title cut is one of his greatest masterpieces: a four-movement tone poem depicting man's evolution from pride and accomplishment to hubris and slavery and finally to ultimate destruction…

Charles Mingus - 7 Atlantic Album Collection (1957-61) [7CD] {2007 Japan Mini LP Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC(tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.29 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 886 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 144 Mb
© 2007 Atlantic / Warner Music Japan | WPCR-25143~49 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Post Bop / Bass

Pithecanthropus Erectus was Charles Mingus' breakthrough as a leader, the album where he established himself as a composer of boundless imagination and a fresh new voice that, despite his ambitiously modern concepts, was firmly grounded in jazz tradition. Mingus truly discovered himself after mastering the vocabularies of bop and swing, and with Pithecanthropus Erectus he began seeking new ways to increase the evocative power of the art form and challenge his musicians (who here include altoist Jackie McLean and pianist Mal Waldron) to work outside of convention.

Thankfully, the brains behind this double-disc reissue of two almost forgotten 1970 sessions determined that the first CD should be simply the six tracks originally released on the America label. The false starts and incomplete and alternate takes are left for the second disc. This way, the album closes properly – in a fit of passion, with Mingus's sextet spinning intense yarns out of "Pithecanthropus Erectus," a tune un-recorded in the studio since 1956. Here, Jaki Byard gets a midnight solo, wobbling on the rails between his well-known clustering talent and his deeply lyrical bent. Bobby Jones on tenor, Charles McPherson on alto, and Eddie Preston on trumpet offer a variety of predispositions, mostly post-bop but certainly aware of the tonal advances Eric Dolphy made with Mingus. "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" is lovely, slightly tense – which helps with the drama, and "Peggy's Blue Skylight" is dynamic and lazily vigorous. As for the second disc, it's instructional in how Mingus the bandleader thought and led: beyond that, it's for the initiates only. Keep in mind that these tunes comprise the first studio album Mingus made after Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus and show the bassist returning to the forge, readying himself for the great stuff yet to come with George Adams and Don Pullen. –Andrew Bartlett