Meditations on Mingus: A Centennial Celebration
This concert marks 100 years since the birth of seminal American composer/bassist/bandleader/record label founder/activist/poet Charles Mingus. Performers include Ran Blake, Jason Moran, Jason Palmer, Ted Reichman, NEC Black Student Union Ensemble, NEC Wind Ensemble, NEC Jazz Orchestra and students from the Jazz Department. Compositions from all periods of Mingus' career are presented in a wide range of approaches ranging from faithful versions to radical re-compositions of the originals. Pieces to be performed include Meditations On Integration, Fables of Faubus, Weird Nightmare, Reincarnation Of A Lovebird, Half-Mast Inhibition, and other. There will also be a panel discussion earlier in the day.
All compositions are by Charles Mingus, unless otherwise noted.
Half-Mast Inhibition
Program note
Written when Mingus was only seventeen, Half-Mast Inhibition for chamber orchestra sans strings,is a concert piece by an adolescent coming into his genius. Half-Mast is evidence of Mingus’ remarkable precociousness, first by his cheeky sexual reference in the title, but more substantively the work synthesizes two compositional techniques which one wonders whether Mingus could have been aware: moment form (seeming unrelated sections of music abutting one another) and collage technique (wherein musics recognizable to the listener are juxtaposed in a more random fashion). Half-Mast is a promenade through the adolescent Mingus’ inner gallery of musical miniatures: his high school cello playing is front and center, a recitative of a bass instrument (tuba) leads to a New Orleans funeral march, a tip of the hat to his mentor Louis Armstrong in solo trumpet, then carnival/Broadway waltz, then a taste of hard swing, finally culminating in measures Gershwin might have written. We have been privy to the diary of a budding genius – Mingus has written down what he loves, and that love compels him to transcend the musical world.
Members of NEC Wind Ensemble
Aimee Toner, flute
Izumi Amemiya, oboe
Erica Smith, clarinet
Alexis Aguilar, Guancong Chen, alto saxophone
Ryan Devlin, Rayna DeYoung, tenor saxophone
Jinghao Li, baritone saxophone
Mark Tipton, Jake Baldwin, Dimitri Raimonde, David O’Neill, trumpet
Zachary Johnson, Katherine Franke, Matthew Vezey, trombone
Changwon Park, bass trombone
Jim Gifford, tuba
Pei-Hsien Lu, timpani
Parker Olson, drums
Keegan Marshall-House, piano
Misha Bjerken, double bassArtists- Francesca Ter-Berg, cello soloist
(INTERLUDE) Weird Nightmare I
One of his early songs, a haunting lament. We use it as kind of a leitmotive in this concert.
Artists- Astghik Martirosyan, voice
- Ted Reichman, accordion, electronics
"Mingus Overture"
This piece contains fragments from East Coasting, Devil Woman, Better Git It In Your Soul, I X Love, Remember Rockefeller At Attica, Eclipse, Ecclusiastics, and others
Houseband
Mary Huntley McSwain, voice
Christopher Ferrari, tenor saxophone
Zoe Murphy, trumpet
Joseph Dies, trombone
Eleanor Pruneau, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drumsMyself When I Am Real
Artists- Jonathan Paik, piano
(INTERLUDE) Weird Nightmare II
Artists- Astghik Martirosyan, voice
- Ted Reichman, accordion, electronics
Portrait
Artists- Ran Blake, piano
Ran Blake | Mingus Noir
Artists- Ran Blake, piano
Fables of Faubus
Program note
Fables of Faubus was written as a protest against Arkansas governor Orville Faubus who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent the racial integration at Little Rock Central High School. While Mingus was contracted to Columbia Records, the label bosses prevented him from using the lyrics on his celebrated Ah Um album. He re-recorded the piece later as the Original Fables of Faubus with a quartet on the Candid label.
Houseband
Mary Huntley McSwain, voice
Christopher Ferrari, tenor saxophone
Zoe Murphy, trumpet
Joseph Dies, trombone
Eleanor Pruneau, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drums
Free Cell Block F, ‘Tis Nazi USA
Program note
Free Cell Block F, ‘Tis Nazi USA refers to a particular cell block in the deep south in the 70s and to electrocutions that Mingus read about in Ebony Magazine.
Houseband
Mary Huntley McSwain, voice
Christopher Ferrari, tenor saxophone
Zoe Murphy, trumpet
Joseph Dies, trombone
Eleanor Pruneau, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drumsRevelations
This piece was originally commissioned for the Brandeis concert in 1957.
Black Student Union Ensemble and Friends
Nnamdi Odita-Honnah, Subee Kim, flute
Zoe Cagan, piccolo
Jahnvi Madan, clarinet
Delano Bell, bassoon
Shota Renwick, soprano saxophone
Lemuel Marc, trumpet
Jordan Jenifor, tuba
Emma Boyd, Sydney Scarlett, Caroline Jesalva, Tsubasa Muramatsu, Hyun Ji Lee, Bella Jeong, violin
Katherine Purcell, Anna Mann, viola
Lexine Feng, Su Yim, Yi-Mei Templeman, Heechan Ku, cello
William Mabuza, Solomon Caldwell, double bass
Kabir Adhiya-Kumar, drums
Nga Ieng Lai, percussion
Minoo Dixon, conductor(INTERLUDE) Weird Nightmare III
Artists- Astghik Martirosyan, voice
- Ted Reichman, accordion, electronics
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Artists- Jason Moran, piano
Waterpick
The text for this comes from a conversation that Mingus had with John F Goodman in which he describes an invention and his business idea for it.
Houseband
Mary Huntley McSwain, voice
Christopher Ferrari, tenor saxophone
Zoe Murphy, trumpet
Joseph Dies, trombone
Eleanor Pruneau, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drumsWork Song/Reincarnation of a Lovebird
This is a mash-up of two classic Mingus compositions. He occasionally used this kind of an approach in his own work too, as in combining Take The A Train and Exactly Like You.
Houseband
Mary Huntley McSwain, voice
Christopher Ferrari, tenor saxophone
Zoe Murphy, trumpet
Joseph Dies, trombone
Eleanor Pruneau, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drums
Self Portrait in Three Colors
Artists- Sahana Narayanan, Ariel Vera, Astghik Martirosyan, voice
- Jason Palmer, trumpet
- Anna Abondolo, double bass
Orange Was the Color Of Her Dress Then Blue Silk
Program note
This version is done as a mix of the early 60s Jazz Workshopversions of the Mingus band—in which the players learned the music by ear and performed it differently each time, and the 70s version known from the Changes Two recording that incorporates free jazz influences.
Following Mingus’ published score, we perform it with a loose collective interaction. After a solo piano introduction, the group plays the score one time through, then two choruses of the A and B sections with collective soloing, then to the C and to the end.
Our goal is to highlight the beauty of the composition, and to enable each player to express themselves within the searing soulful setting it creates.Joe Morris Ensemble
Ariel Vera, voice
Ben Aidson, alto saxophone
Sam Childs, tenor saxophone
Isaac Dubow, trumpet
Rahul Carlberg, piano
Rotem Eylam, guitar
Sam Reiss, double bass
Alex Yoo, drums
Pledge of Allegiance
Mingus reciting his version of the Pledge of Allegiance, while waiting to get evicted from his apartment in 1968.
Artists- Ted Reichman, electronics
(arr. Ken Schaphorst) | Meditations on Integration
Members of NEC Jazz Orchestra
Guests: Jason Palmer, trumpet
Earl McIntyre, tuba
Mike Cameron, Ben Mizrach, Nick Ryder, Shota Renwick, Nick Biagini, saxophone
Miles Keingstein, Michael Brehm, Zoe Murphy, Isaac Dubow, trumpet
Joseph Dies, Cooper Malanowski, Aiden Coleman, Weza Jamison-Neto, trombone
Rowan Barcham, piano
Talia Rubenstein, guitar
Benjamin Friedland, double bass
Nadav Friedman, drums(POSTLUDE) Weird Nightmare IV
Artists- Astghik Martirosyan, voice
