Download - Downbeat
Download - Downbeat
Download - Downbeat
- No tags were found...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Tá Lam 11<br />
Mingus!<br />
Jazzwerkstatt 105<br />
HHHHH<br />
Bass clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Gebhard<br />
Ullmann and his mostly reed-based aggregate<br />
present a portrait of Charles Mingus in a variety<br />
of colors: some, but not all of them, bold.<br />
Add to that palette more than a bit of impressionism,<br />
as these expertly arranged deliveries<br />
(most by Ullmann) contribute a new understanding<br />
and viewpoint on Mingus’ incredible corpus.<br />
In other words, it ain’t all straight up and<br />
down as we journey forth through eight reinterpreted<br />
songs, from titles like the earthy, soulful<br />
“Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” (ingeniously<br />
medley-d with the more rowdy “Boogie Stop<br />
Shuffle”) to a mind-shuffling alternate universe<br />
of colors with “Reincarnation Of A Lovebird,”<br />
the theme only hinted at toward the very end.<br />
Listening to Tá Lam 11’s Mingus! does not<br />
require that one be a Mingus fan, or even a fan<br />
of instrument-based music. In fact, listening to<br />
their haunting re-imagining of “Reincarnation<br />
Of A Lovebird,” one might surmise that this<br />
music is just as much about this group as it is<br />
about Mingus, the unified field of this saxophonic<br />
blend over one chord pointing toward the integration<br />
of sounds, the musical connections the 11<br />
musicians must have with each other.<br />
Mingus! reminds listeners that Mingus’<br />
music was heavily saxophone-based. So it was<br />
just a short walk for this band to jump in and<br />
explore. In each case, apart from sandwiching<br />
theme statements, there are rumination, fantasias<br />
and reveries. And the occasional hiccup of Hans<br />
Hassler’s accordion, which opens the whole shebang<br />
with the solemn, almost classical “Canon.”<br />
Clearly, this band is in love with this music,<br />
which, in case anyone was wondering, is also<br />
played with resonant ferocity. —John Ephland<br />
Mingus!: Canon; Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting/Boogie Stop<br />
Shuffle; Fables Of Faubus; Eclipse; Jelly Roll; Self-Portrait In Three<br />
Colors; Nostalgia In Times Square; Reincarnation Of A Lovebird.<br />
(61:33)<br />
Personnel: Gebhard Ullmann, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone;<br />
Hinrich Beermann, baritone saxophone; Daniel Erdmann, Vladimir<br />
Karparov, tenor saxophone; Juergen Kupke, clarinet; Joachim<br />
Litty, Heiner Reinhardt, bass clarinet; Volker Schlott, alto, soprano<br />
saxophones; Michael Thieke, clarinet, alto clarinet; Benjamin Weidekamp,<br />
alto saxophone, clarinet; Hans Hassler, accordion.<br />
Ordering info: records-cd.com<br />
DECEMBER 2011 DOWNBEAT 95