Charles Mingus - 1979[2002] "Me, Myself an Eye"

 

Charles Mingus did not perform on the final sessions he made for Atlantic toward the end of his life. Too ill with ALS to pick up his bass, he nonetheless was a powerful presence in the studio. The arrangements and orchestrations were realized by trumpeter Jack Walrath based on Mingus's tapes and piano sketches. The huge band can get a bit unwieldy, and the arrangements, which feature a solo from Larry Coryell, do tend to pander a bit to the fusion audience. In spite of these drawbacks, the half-hour "Three Worlds of Drums" is great.

Among jazz's all-time greats, Charles Mingus made seminal contributions to the music as a bassist, bandleader and composer. Released 40 years ago this month, ME MYSELF AN EYE was recorded near the end of Mingus' career, when the ravages of ALS left him unable to play. But his forceful personality was ever-present in the studio, bringing the best out of the big band assembled for these sessions, and his tapes and piano sketches provided the basis for Jack Walrath's arrangements. Opening the set is the side-long “Three Worlds Of Drums,” on which longtime Mingus band member Danny Richmond is joined by fellow drummers Steve Gadd and Joe Chambers. With guitar and electronic instrumentation in places, the Atlantic collection touches on fusion, and axeman Larry Coryell is another luminary heard on the superb ME MYSELF AN EYE.

The following was published in Chords and Dischords section of the Downbeat magazine in June 21, 1979:

    In the review of the Charles Mingus record Me, Myself An Eye the reviewer was understandably vague as to what my contribution was in regard to the writing credits on the album. The quote, "all arrangements and orchestrations were realized by Jack Walrath under the supervision of and as dictated by Charles Mingus, in person and through the use of tapes and piano sketches," seems to imply that I was simply the copyist. In view of such descriptions of the music in media as "lasting work of genius," "monumental," etc., I think I should set the record straight as to what I actually did.

    I told Mingus that all I wanted was credit for arranging and orchestration.

    For Three Worlds Of Drums, Charles gave me a tape of himself noodling on a Moorish-sounding scale and said to me, "Pick out some of my notes, organize a melody and write an arrangement on it." This I did, plus wrote an introduction of my own invention, a background which is a four-part fugue, set the form and wrote the ensembles for the drum solos. The shout chorus was a melody which Mingus wrote and to which I kept adding counter lines until at one point the music breaks into five-part counterpoint. The trumpet-soprano melody near the end was organized the same as the initial melody, "take some of my notes...", etc., the funeral ending I transcribed from a piano tape. He visualized the work as a bebop tune, which when played in rehearsal was a disaster, so I had the band play the quasi-Latin-rock-bellydance rhythm as is heard. All in all Mingus supplied me with one lead line, loose sketches for two more, a six bar ending and a basic chord consisting of two perfect 5th's a half-step apart sounded simultaneously. I wrote 75 score pages of music or approximately 95% of the compositon.

    Carolyn "Keki" Mingus was orchestrated practically verbatim from his piano score except the out chorus which are my voicings and arrangement.

    Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting was written according to his instructions except the out chorus which are my voicings and arrangement.

    Devil Woman was totally my arrangement and was written while Charles was in Woodstock and I was in Manhattan. He said he wanted a slow blues. Neither did he hear the arrangement nor did he even know that I picked Devil Woman until two days before the session.

    I am in no way trying to discredit the talent of one of the great composers of any kind of music of any era, but I think that I have shown more fairness to Mingus, his executors, and the record company than they did to me. I was denied entrance to the mix, which would probably have been better had I been there, since I was the only one who really knew what was happening in the music.

    Jack Walrath, New York City.

Track listing:

1. Three Worlds Of Drums    30:21
2. Devil Woman    9:24
3. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting    9:50
4. Carolyn ''Keki'' Mingus    7:44

Personnel:

    Alto Saxophone – Akira Ohmori, Lee Konitz (tracks: B1 to B3), Yoshiaki Malta* (tracks: B1 to B3)
    Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ken Hitchcock
    Baritone Saxophone – Craig Purpura, Pepper Adams, Ronnie Cuber
    Bass – Eddie Gomez, George Mraz (tracks: A)    
    Drums – Dannie Richmond, Joe Chambers, Steve Gadd (tracks: A)
    Guitar – Jack Wilkins, Larry Coryell, Ted Dunbar
    Percussion – Ray Mantilla (tracks: A), Sammy Figueroa (tracks: A)
    Piano – Bob Neloms
    Tenor Saxophone – Daniel Block, George Coleman (tracks: A), John Tank (tracks: B1 to B3), Michael Brecker, Ricky Ford
    Trombone – Jimmy Knepper, Keith O'Quinn (tracks: B1 to B3), Slide Hampton (tracks: A)
    Trumpet – Jack Walrath, Mike Davis (49), Randy Brecker