Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Studio album by
ReleasedDecember 1960 (1960)[1]
RecordedOctober 20, 1960
StudioNola Penthouse Sound Studios, New York City
GenreJazz
Length46:23
LabelCandid
Charles Mingus chronology
Mingus Dynasty
(1960)
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
(1960)
Pre-Bird
(1961)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus is an album by the jazz double bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded in October 1960 and released in December of the same year.[1] The quartet of Mingus, multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Ted Curson, and drummer Dannie Richmond constituted Mingus' core working band at the time, and had been performing the material on this album for weeks at The Showplace in New York. To recreate this atmosphere, Mingus introduces the songs as if he were speaking to the audience, even admonishing them to not applaud or rattle their glasses. This explains why the recordings on Presents would seemingly give off the illusion of a live album, when in fact it is a studio album.

The album was recorded in New York for the Candid label, founded by Nat Hentoff. Mingus usually recorded on major labels like Columbia and Atlantic, but he was given more freedom on Hentoff's independent label.

Presents has received positive reviews from jazz critics and is among Mingus' most acclaimed albums. The album has been listed as part of The Penguin Guide to Jazz's "Core Collection."[5]

  1. ^ a b Editorial Staff, Cash Box (17 December 1960). "December Album Releases" (PDF). The Cash Box. The Cash Box, New York. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  2. ^ Lankford, Ronnie D. Jr. (2011). "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus - Charles Mingus | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  3. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. US: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 142. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  4. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1003. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. ^ "Penguin Guide to Jazz: Core Collection List". Retrieved 25 August 2020.