Recording made on January 20, 1963 in New York with personal and socially relevant content entitled "The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady".
All the songs on the session, from the initial "Solo Dancer" to the "Group and Solo Dance" which closes the album, express Mingus's philosophy of life and his opinions on love and the world.
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady - born in 1963 as music for a ballet - is considered Charles Mingus's masterpiece. The great bassist and composer (here also occasionally on the piano) directs a work that is more than autobiographical: it's psychoanalytic. In the incredible suite, memories emerge ranging from the painful (the evocation of his brother - a flamenco guitarist - who disappeared years earlier) to the dreamlike (and sometimes nightmares surface), all with an explicit reference to his beloved role model: Duke Ellington. The music unfolds with explicit references, such as Charlie Mariano's alto sax quoting Johnny Hodges, Quentin Jackson's trombone echoing Joe Nanton, Rolf Ericson's trumpet to Arthur Whetsel and Bubber Miley, while Jerome Richardson's soprano sax (who also plays the baritone here) dances to a waltz worthy of Coltrane, supported by an orchestra driven by the drummer - and Mingus's great friend - Dannie Richmond. In short, without exaggeration: one of the greatest musical masterpieces of the 20th century, whether talking about jazz or not.
This release is part of the New Ermitage Yellow Coloured Vinyl Collection: 18 jazz and soul titles reissued with new codes and renewed graphics.
Ermitage Distribution are made using as a source exclusively Production Master Tape Archives. Launched in the mid-1980s, Ermitage is an Italy-based independent classical music label, and is also a distributor and re-issue label of music.
The label’s first classical music releases were several vinyl records by the legendary Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, which were then followed by many and varied releases on CD with a focus on opera, symphonic and chamber music. But the part that interests us here is Ermitage/Opera Leader Ltd, which is the company’s music distribution and re-issue department. Somehow or other (I’ve yet to find out exactly how – watch this space!), Ermitage’s owner, Gianni Salvioni, managed to negotiate with the relevant labels to acquire the rights to re-release, on 180g vinyl, a raft of seminal jazz albums. This process began in the late 1990s /early 2000s, and resulted in Salvioni amassing an enviable archive of production copies and production masters. Apparently, most of these tapes are ‘flat’, in other words unequalised and uncompressed production copies. From these, he produced Ermitage’s various vinyl releases that are already on the market. The tapes were then subsequently placed in his very well maintained tape archive.
Ermitage’s catalogue includes titles from luminaries such as the aforementioned Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, plus Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Ornette Colman, Sonny Rollins, Billie Holiday, etc.
Copyright © Opera Leader UK
Manufactured By Ermitage Distribution
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