Charles Mingus - Incarnations (Candid, 2024)

Candid Records was a notorious label founded in 1960 that, in more than six months of existence, released about 30 records. And what records: between them, the here reviewed Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, the other masterpiece We Insist! Freedom Now Suite by Max Roach, albums by Steve Lacy, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, records of blues and more. 

After planning some reissues last year, this Incarnations was published last November 2023 for Record Store Day, but then it was re-released both on CD (for the first time) and vinyl this year 2024. The album consists of 5 compositions recorded in October 20 and November 11, 1960, at Nola Penthouse Studios in New York, and they feature musicians such as Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Paul Bley on piano, Dannie Richmond and Jo Jones on drums between the others. 

Far from the violent expressionism of the sessions we were accustomed thanks to the still mentioned Presents album, the music here collected is mostly gentler and sweeter, even if more excited moments are also present. One of the reasons of interest of this album is the presence in these sessions of such diverse musicians as the avant-gardist Dolphy and Roy Eldridge, who was tied directly to the swing era. 

But let’s start from the beginning. The Lp presents as first Mingus’ composition Bugs, an 8 minutes tour the force with solos by Charles McPherson on alto, Booker Ervin on tenor and Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet. Paul Bley here is more than a mere accompanist, and his solo take place after Mcpherson’s filling the room with both his hands and creating a nice contrast between lower and upper registries before Ervin statement. 

Differently from Hillyer’s, Roy Eldridge’s trumpet on R&R, one of his own compositions, is muted. Subtly nuanced and accompanied through the melody exposition by Dolphy’s alto, his solo is sometimes scratchy and mostly anchored to the jazz tradition. It seems appropriate choice for Mingus to introduce trombonist Jimmy Knepper after Dolphy’s solo, just to widen the colors of this execution. 

Dolphy here is coherent with what the music requires, since his raucous and oblique style is way more consistent with the ‘old’ style, a lesson that the devotees of tradition are in need of relearning, instead of polishing and refining something that was full of ironic statements and near the colloquial eloquence of the old blues/swing era. 

Mingus finally can also cut out for himself the right space for a solo introducing again Eldridge, finally free to express himself without the damper: it is his turn to show how modern his solutions can be. Dolphy and Knepper agree with few statements before an enthusiastic ‘tutti’. 

All The Things You Are (All) opens with a unison between the arcoed bass and Knepper and Woodman trombones, before leaving space to an ensemble work that was typical of the 1950s Mingus’ works. Interestingly enough, Mingus introduces the track with a speech in which he explain to have added the ‘All’ to the title in order to get the royalties he deserves as arranger of the composition. 

Reincarnation of a Lovebird (2nd Version) is opened by a piano intro by Paul Bley embellished by Dannie Richmond snare drums. Differently from the most famous version o the album The Clown (Atlantic, 1960) here we have a more expressionistic rendition, with the slow section more stretched and a swinging section more thrilling. 

The album closes with a Body and Soul that is structured as the previous piece, with Dolphy soloing on alto followed by Jimmy Knepper and Britt Woodman on trombones, Bley on piano, Ted Curson and Hillyer on trumpets. With All The Things You Are as the only true unreleased composition, this album is nonetheless an important document of how the music of Mingus was multi-faceted, with one ear rooted in the tradition and the other pushed into the future. 

For those who want more, I know there is a boxset somewhere, released in 1989 on Mosaic, featuring all the bassist releases for Candid Records. Mingus’ music won’t cease to give surprises to those who will come close to it. Musicians like Dolphy, Richmond, Bley, Curson, and all the bass player’s cohort will amaze you with their inventiveness and musical mastery.