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Charles Mingus in Europe, 1964

Marchbanks

Marchbanks

Hat and Beard member
Exactly 60 years ago the Charles Mingus (nominally) Sextet were on tour in Europe.

However, young Marchbanks - aged nearly eight at the time - had almost certainly never heard of Charles Mingus, and was probably only dimly aware of what jazz was. The closest he had got was a thorough grounding in Sinatra’s Capitol-era records received from his mother. Instead, he had of course been swept up by Beatlemania. His copy of Can’t Buy Me Love, the current UK number one, was probably on his Dansette, and he had been given his first LP - With The Beatles - the previous Christmas.

Old Marchbanks has slightly different musical priorities, and has accumulated a number of 1964 Mingus live recordings over the years. I decided to celebrate this by listening to as many of the performances as I could, on the correct dates, via my period-perfect 1964 Radford.

Mingus’ tour started in Amsterdam on April 10, followed by Hilversum, Oslo and Stockholm on consecutive nights. I hadn’t been aware that recordings of all bar Hilversum are now available - and when I realised, it was too late to include them in this project. Instead, I made do with listening to my copies of the pre-tour dates at Cornell University (March 18) and NYC Town Hall (April 4).

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So we join Charles and band in Copenhagen, 60 years ago tonight. (Or rather last night, when I started writing this ramble.) Charles is in a bad, bad, bad temper. There’s been a disagreement over payment for a purchase in a shirt shop and he ended up in custody. Many barbed comments about the police follow (‘…they sometimes get Gestapo-like…’). There’s no Jaki Byard - ‘perhaps he’s been arrested too’ mutters Charles… and So Long Eric (‘he’s leaving America for more freedom over here…’) is performed without him. He’s arrived by the end so he plays his solo piece next, announced by Mingus as A.T. F.W. Y.O.U. POLICE. There’s no Sophisticated Lady - Mingus says his arm has been too badly hurt for him to play a solo piece. Meditations is suitably moody and ends with an ominous loud snare crack.

Things are less intense in the second set. Maybe the day’s events are starting to tell. Or maybe it’s because they are playing a fifth night on the trot in four different countries. Fables of Faubus seems a little more diffuse than usual over its half-hour plus. Charles thanks the ‘wonderful audience’ at the end, and off they go to the next date in Bremen.

See you there on the 16th!
 
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Excellent!

Looking at my Mingus shelf it appears I'll be able to join you for a glass of vino in Paris on Thursday then later in the month for a few steins in Germany on the 26th and 28th.
 
outrageously good post.......the idea of revisiting any live performance especially mingus, on their anniversary, is genius.

I am working abroad this week, so cannot join the festivities, but wish everyone an enjoyable and challenging listen :)

the idea reminds me of constable gardiner's bach concertos, recorded in a contemporaneous german church and performed on the specific sunday, so for example, the cantatas he wrote for the 3rd sunday after lent were all performed on that sunday, so by year end all of them were recorded -the sheer logistical challenge of practising and recording some cantatas on one week, then moving to a different church and doing it again the next week, and doing it for 52 weeks,, is seriously impressive....

...but i digress..... -:)
 
In case you feel like cheating (like me) and filling in some of the earlier gaps on the tour while the band have a day off, here’s audio of Amsterdam (last Wednesday)


A bit of Oslo (Friday)


And a substitute performance from Stockholm (Saturday)


…a brief set added after the concert, for TV. It seems Charles hadn’t been made aware this had been set up and did Charles-type things before agreeing to play (throwing a fit, threatening the tour manager with a knife etc, etc.)

It’s so great to see the musicians - Jaki looking bemused, Clifford contented, Eric cool, Charles surprisingly enjoying himself, Dannie looking rather dangerous (although he is wearing a trilby in Stockholm, so I forgive him.) And that Johnny Coles… between you and me, he doesn’t look at all well…

les24preludes said:
Brings back memories.... I saw Mingus in Ronnie Scotts in the 70s. Can't remember the year, though.
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August 1972, maybe? I don’t think he played Ronnie Scott’s after that. There’s an album available now recorded at a couple of the later dates of his fortnight-long residency.

paulfromcamden said:
Looking at my Mingus shelf it appears I'll be able to join you for a glass of vino in Paris on Thursday then later in the month for a few steins in Germany on the 26th and 28th.
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…and a Rochefort in Belgium courtesy of YouTube on Friday! I hope I’ll be able to join you in Stuttgart - I’ve been holding out for a vinyl double-album copy and only took the plunge today. Here’s hoping it gets to me from Lille in time.
 
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Here we are, in the company of a couple of hundred others, in Radio Bremen’s Studio F. Charles, sitting on a stool and wearing a pair of rather natty calf-length boots, has led the band into So Long Eric. It’s a fabulous version, full of rhythmic stops and starts, twists and turns. You can really hear how Mingus controls - the split-second he changes the tempo or pattern the others are onto it. ‘Almost telepathic’ is a cliché, but you can see how it works here. A great solo from Johnny, Clifford goes into warp speed when instructed by the bass and Eric gives us a mindbending sheets-of-sound moment.

Fables of Faubus is almost as good. Eric is on bass clarinet and helps the rhythm section out on a marvellous pointilliste backing during Johnny’s solo. Then he and Charles attempt to turn the song into Boogie Stop Shuffle behind Jaki. Eric’s own solo is literally that, and wonderful.

That’s half-time. I’m exhausted already. I’m off to find the bar. This is a broadcasting studio, and I know from experience that means there must be several somewhere down the corridors.

….

After the solo pieces we hear Parkeriana. Possibly my least favourite of the 1964 program, maybe because I don’t know enough Parker to get all the references. But - as at Copenhagen - I found myself fascinated by the arrangement, and how the non-soloing front-liners played a distant, wailing glissando backing. At times they sounded like a demented, off-key string section. (Coming from a Mellotron lover, that’s a compliment.) Eric goes into sample-and-hold mode for his solo, not my favourite Dolphy style.

Speaking of off-key, Jaki’s piano sounds as if at least some of it needs tuning - but we finish with Meditations. For me the definitive version thus far is from the Cornell performance, and although this is fine and passionate it doesn’t have the electric air of that one. The recording finishes with the snare crack - dramatically cutting out any applause.

I found myself wondering what nearly-eight Young Marchbanks would have made of it. He would definitely have been sulky about the lack of guitars, but I think he would have appreciated the Paul and Ringo substitutes. And I think he would have been intrigued by Eric, particularly when he picked up the bass clarinet.

Waiting outside we see the band exit the stage door and climb onto their coach. We’ll see them again tomorrow night in Paris.

Hang on, that’s 500 miles away! And these are 1964 roads..!

(I haven’t proof-read this, so apologies for any errors. I’ll tidy it up tomorrow morning over a croissant by the Seine.)
 
Well I've made it to the gig in Paris this evening but I think I might be a bit early. When I enquired to the gentleman behind the bar "ou est le Marchbanks?" all I got was a shrug....

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paulfromcamden said:
Well I've made it to the gig in Paris this evening but I think I might be a bit early. When I enquired to the gentleman behind the bar "ou est le Marchbanks?" all I got was a shrug....

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I saw your scooter outside - at least I assume it was yours, with the ‘my other car is a Vespa’ sticker on it? If you had asked the barman about ‘le vieux barbu confus’ I’m sure he would have twigged.

A shortened setlist tonight, for reasons that will become apparent. This is the Salle Wagram, a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe. ‘Paris, France - April 17, 1964’ if you want to imagine the caption on the establishing shot. It’s in black and white, of course. Everyone is wearing a beret and smoking a Gauloise. Oh look, there goes Brigitte Bardot…

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I’ve included my copy of Brian Priestley’s biography in my photo for two reasons. It has been invaluable in tracking down some of these live recordings and it shows what what care and attention to detail is taken by the good folk at Charly Records when presenting their product - reversing the photo to give us a left-handed Mingus playing a backwards-strung bass. It is, however, a terrific recording (although that’s not thanks to them of course.)

We’ve got here late, at least if we go by my CD track listing. We’ve missed So Long Eric, and rather sadly we’ve missed Johnny Coles too. He collapsed while the band were playing it and has been hospitalised. It will transpire that he has a perforated ulcer. Fortunately he recovers fully - but for you, Johnny, the tour is over.

The first number we hear is Peggy’s Blue Skylight - a treat to hear its slithering melody. Immediately the change in sound is obvious. The arrangement is less dense and lush without the trumpet - a shame - but at the same time it is more transparent and it’s easier to separate the individual components - interesting.

Orange Was The Colour Of Her Dress has Jaki Byard covering the trumpet line, and Eric’s bass clarinet solo is fantastic. Meditations - maybe the whole concert - seems less confrontational than hitherto. Perhaps the musicians have been subdued by Coles’ illness. Perhaps this audience (cheering rather than clapping politely) is more to their liking. Perhaps Charles simply hasn’t had time to go shirt shopping yet.

Fables of Faubus is the best version yet, despite the lack of Coles diminishing the theme noticeably. The interplay between Jordan and Dolphy brought a big smile to my face (very unusual) with Eric doubling Clifford’s line on bass clarinet - an octave above! Eric’s own solo is on another level entirely. It’s odd - I’m in two minds about him on alto, but on bass clarinet I think he’s untouchable.

I enjoyed this concert hugely - or at least, the bits I have. This is where things get complicated. Paul’s album (see his post above) includes Sophisticated Lady, but doesn’t have Fables of Faubus. If he has the accompanying Vol. 2 (I’m sure he does) he gets the ill-fated So Long Eric and also Parkeriana. There is an official CD release entitled Revenge which contains these two tracks along with the four I have, but… no Sophisticated Lady. For someone who seems to be turning into a Mingus completist in his old age, this could get expensive.

There is in fact another way you can hear tonight’s performance of So Long Eric - but that’s a tale for tomorrow night. There’s no travelling involved tomorrow - the gig is only ten minutes walk from here. So for 24 hours I’m a free man in Paris. I intend to wander down the Champs-Elysées going from café to cabaret. With any luck I’ll bump into a band member or two. I reckon that Jaki Byard appreciates a glass of decent red. It would be a pleasure to buy him one. And Paul too of course, unless he’s already halfway home on his scooter.
 
Marchbanks said:
I’ve included my copy of Brian Priestley’s biography in my photo for two reasons.......
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Wow, Brian is a blast from the past. I looked him up and he's now 83 and living in Ireland. He worked in Blackwells and was the pianist in the Pat Crumly Quartet when I was at Oxford as an undergrad and was bass player in the quartet. The drummer was Spike Wells, a very fine player who studied with Philly Joe Jones and played with guys like Stan Getz. Pat sadly passed some years ago. He was a lovely guy with a dry sense of humour, and a fine alto sax player. That was a while ago in the late '60s!
 
les24preludes said:
Wow, Brian is a blast from the past. I looked him up and he's now 83 and living in Ireland. He worked in Blackwells and was the pianist in the Pat Crumly Quartet when I was at Oxford as an undergrad and was bass player in the quartet. The drummer was Spike Wells, a very fine player who studied with Philly Joe Jones and played with guys like Stan Getz. Pat sadly passed some years ago. He was a lovely guy with a dry sense of humour, and a fine alto sax player. That was a while ago in the late '60s!
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I only know Brian Priestly from his writing - I never realised his was also a musician.

I have one or two records with Spike Wells on them. As you probably know he is also quite 'priestly' these days!
 
gavreid said:
The boxset from the slightly earlier 61-62 Birdland radio broadcasts might be un your street @Marchbanks

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It’s certainly on my radar, although the number of reviews mentioning bad SQ are putting me off a little. I’ve got a price watch set up in case it drops below £100 at Amazon. Ditto the late Atlantic box. I thought that one was heading in the right direction yesterday when it was down to £125. Sadly it’s up to £150 again today. In the meantime I’ve lashed out on 12 CDs of early stuff. Thank goodness the 8.5% OAP increase kicks in this month, eh?
 
Marchbanks said:
It’s certainly on my radar, although the number of reviews mentioning bad SQ are putting me off a little. I’ve got a price watch set up in case it drops below £100 at Amazon. Ditto the late Atlantic box. I thought that one was heading in the right direction yesterday when it was down to £125. Sadly it’s up to £150 again today. In the meantime I’ve lashed out on 12 CDs of early stuff. Thank goodness the 8.5% OAP increase kicks in this month, eh?
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It's not bad sound quality at all. However, it's just not audiophile (as I suspect some people though they were getting) and it's a bit patchy in places but well worth having in my book.
 
Tonight we’ve moved a few hundred metres into the Theatre des Champs-Elysées. From last night’s gig it’s down Avenue Wagram to the Arc de Triomphe, a quick detour beneath to pay our regards to the Unknown Soldier and then turn left.

If you only have a recording of one performance from the 1964 Europe tour the chances are it’s this one.

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Confusion no. 1: Some sources say the concert took place on April 18, 1964. Others say it was the next day. The others are strictly correct - it was supposed to happen on the 18th but didn’t begin until shortly after midnight. Thus… I don’t need to explain. But as far as I’m concerned the day doesn’t finish until you have gone to bed, so the 18th it is. Why the start was so delayed, I don’t know. Perhaps Charles wanted a lengthy rehearsal in order to thrash out some new trumpetless arrangements. But it means (try to indulge me here) that because of the time difference between the UK and France, a concert I am writing about at 11.30pm has already begun, despite history telling us it doesn’t happen until tomorrow. Such are the perils of travelling 60 years back in time.

Confusion no. 2: Johnny Coles doesn’t play on this date, despite Charles’ introduction. What he actually says is a play on words. It isn’t ‘Johnny Coles - trumpet’ but ‘Johnny Coles’ trumpet.’ The trumpet is there onstage, on top of its case, as the musicians’ tribute to their hospitalised colleague. See bottom of picture below. The audience seem a little bemused, presumably because the joke doesn’t work in French.

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What’s more, if you have a vinyl copy of the Great Concert of Charles Mingus, the first part of the version of So Long Eric that you hear was recorded last night, at the Salle Wagram! The beginning of tonight’s was deemed unfit for release due to technical deficiencies until the CD release. Thus I assume Coles is present on the vinyl version as he was playing at the start. The edit between the two is apparently at the start of Dolphy’s solo. Perhaps someone with a vinyl copy can confirm?

To compound the confusion - this cracks me up - So Long Eric on the vinyl version is mislabelled as Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. I can only assume someone thought this was Mingus playing his trick of giving pieces alternative titles. ‘Well, So Long means Goodbye, and presumably Eric, whoever he is, wears a hat and likes pork pies…’

This So Long Eric has a great section with Jordan and Dolphy trading ever shorter measures. During it Jordan’s style seems to be pulled slowly towards Dolphy’s - it made me think of the communication with aliens through music scene in ET… Eric is definitely the band’s secret weapon, and perhaps in some way his forward-looking tendencies balance out Jaki’s references to past styles.

After Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress and a wonderful Mingus solo we have Fables of Faubus. At times I can’t work out which instrument Eric is playing. Is he really switching from BC to AS that quickly, or is he managing to wrench similar tones out of both? I think I enjoy his duelling/interplay with the others more than his solos, which all tend to follow a similar pattern here. I guess part of that comes from his style being so singular, whereas Clifford, say, is more ‘generic hard bop’. But it’s a terrific version played at high speed and half-an-hour flies by.

Paris has definitely put Charles in a good mood. He asks if the audience member whistling his approval is able to read music and so sub for the trumpet. Then he stops Jaki’s piano solo in Parkeriana for a quick chuckle. Meditations maybe suffers most from the loss of Coles - the staccato sections lose a good deal of power and the whole becomes less furious and more elegiac. But overall, probably the best recording so far for me, just shading Bremen. ‘Great Concert’? Definitely.

There are more nights to be played in France in a couple of days, further south in Lyon and Marseille. So it makes perfect sense first to head back north for 150 miles or so, into Belgium. Doesn’t it?
 
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Today (I mean exactly 60 years ago today, in case you have forgotten the theme of the thread), a recording for Belgian TV in Liège. It takes place at the Palais des Congrès, a venue for meetings with many auditoria, but there is no audience. Why it should be recorded there rather than in a studio, I don’t know. Why it should be recorded between gigs in Paris and Marseille, entailing a massive detour, I don’t know. How much was recorded, I don’t know. It’s all very mysterious. But we can see the edited programme, and it is terrific.


We also get to see the tour bus! I suspect it hasn’t carried the band all the way from Scandinavia, it has a Parisian registration number and company address on the side. It doesn’t really look capable of travelling that far anyway. But think of the schedule - concert finished in Paris around 3am, travel 150 miles or so to Liège and record, then turn back south and drive 400 miles to Marseille to play tomorrow night. Oh yes, and sleep at some point, perhaps. Blimey.

But the band pass around the dark side of Europe now. We lose radio contact with them for a few days, although we know that after Marseille comes Lyon (April 21), then into Switzerland and Zurich (22) Biel-Bienne (no, me neither) (23) - keep going lads, Italy next - Bologna (24) and Milan (25). We will meet the band again in Wuppertal, Deutschland the day after that. If there’s anyone left standing.

I’ll provide a short intermezzo to keep us all going early on Monday. Mingus aficionados will have twigged already. Don’t miss it!
 
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Marchbanks said:
Today, a recording for Belgian TV in Liège. It takes place at the Palais des Congrès, a venue for meetings with many auditoria, but there is no audience. Why it should be recorded there rather than at a studio, I don’t know. Why it should be recorded between gigs in Paris and Marseille, entailing a massive detour, I don’t know. How much was recorded, I don’t know. It’s all very mysterious. But we can see the edited programme, and it is terrific.


We also get to see the tour bus! I suspect it hasn’t carried the band all the way from Scandinavia, it has a Parisian registration number and company address on the side. It doesn’t really look capable of travelling that far anyway. But think of the schedule - concert finished in Paris around 3am, travel 150 miles or so to Liège and record, then turn back south and drive 400 miles to Marseille to play tomorrow night. Oh yes, and sleep at some point, perhaps. Blimey.

But the band pass around the dark side of Europe now. We lose radio contact with them for a few days, although we know that after Marseille comes Lyon (April 21), then into Switzerland and Zurich (22) Biel-Bienne (no, me neither) (23) - keep going lads, Italy next - Bologna (24) and Milan (25). We will meet the band again in Wuppertal, Deutschland the day after that. If there’s anyone left standing.

I’ll provide a short intermezzo to keep us all going early on Monday. Mingus aficionados will have twigged already. Don’t miss it!
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Love this, schedules of touring Jazz Musicians was nuts. I read about Louis Armstrong being required to fly back to New York to record something he thought was a load of crap only to head back to the West Coast later that day.

The load of crap was Hello Dolly, he had no idea that it was a hit until fans started asking him to play it.
 
My mum's favorite anecdote from living in Greenwich Village in the mid sixties was hosting a party and then asking Martin Sheen (who she was dating at the time) who the incredibly grumpy guy in the hat, eating fried chicken in the kitchen was. Needless to say it was Mingus.

She had a little chat with him later, and they may even have smoked something naughty (although she was equivocal on that point).
 
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