Track Listing 1. Memories of You - (Take 7) 2. East Coasting - (Take 4) 3. West Coast Ghost - (Take 6) 4. Celia - (Take 5) 5. Conversation - (Take 16) 6. Fifty-First Street Blues - (Take 4) 7. East Coasting - (alternate take, alternate take 3, bonus track) 8. Memories of You - (alternate take, alternate take 3, bonus track)
| Details | | Playing Time: | 49 min. | | Contributing Artists: | Bill Evans | | Producer: | Jeff Palo (Reissue), Shawn Amos (Reissue) | | Distributor: | Sony Music Distribution ( | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes Also available in a 3-pack with JAZZ EXPERIMENTS OF CHARLES MINGUS and A MODERN JAZZ SYMPOSIUM OF MUSIC AND POETRY. Personnel: Charles Mingus (bass); Shafi Hadi (alto & tenor saxophones); Clarence Shaw (trumpet); Jimmy Knepper (trombone); Bill Evans (piano); Dannie Richmond (drums). Recorded in New York, New York in August 1957. Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff and Joseph F. Laredo. Digitally remastered by Tom Moulton, Rich Essig and Greg Vaughan (Frankford Wayne Mastering Labs, New York, New York). Personnel: Charles Mingus (double bass); Shafi Hadi (alto, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Clarence Gene Shaw (trumpet); Jimmy Knepper (trombone); Bill Evans (piano); Dannie Richmond (drums). Audio Remasterer: Randy Perry . Liner Note Authors: Joseph F. Laredo; Nat Hentoff. Recording information: New York, NY (08/1957). EAST COASTING is a Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop recording that's a departure from the volatile PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS that precedes it. The music is more lyrical than many of his more renowned works, perhaps due in part to the line-up of musicians on this recording, including pianist Bill Evans. The set begins with the standard "Memories of You," which gets the Mingus treatment, and ends with "Fifty-First Street Blues," which changes in a way the blues usually don't. "Conversation" begins as a ballad and later launches into a blues featuring a fine Bill Evans solo. While EAST COASTING may not be as fervent as either the aforementioned PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS, or as colorful as TIJUANA MOODS, it splendidly displays Mingus' full range as a composer whose music is so fueled by emotion that even a ballad has its explosive moments. Charles Mingus' East Coasting, originally released in 1957, was overshadowed by the session that preceded it, New Tijuana Moods (which wasn't released until 1962), and 1959's monumental Mingus Ah Um, both of which used essentially the same musicians (Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Clarence Gene Shaw on trumpet, Shafi Hadi (aka Curtis Porter) on tenor and alto sax, Dannie Richmond on drums, Mingus on bass, and for East Coasting, a young, pre-Miles Davis Bill Evans on piano). But although East Coasting is both more subdued and mainstream, at least for Mingus, than either of those more celebrated albums, it has more than enough of its own charm to go around. The opening cut, a version of the 1930s standard "Memories of You," seems a bit out of place on this set, although it exhibits a marvelous and haunting smoothness, and proves that when Mingus chose to, he could play the mainstream game as well as any of his contemporaries. The center of this set is undoubtedly the ten-minute-plus "West Coast Ghost," which is as autobiographical as it is impressive. Mingus, of course, wasn't particularly "East Coast" or "West Coast" in his jazz leanings, being really more of his own coast altogether, but on East Coasting he comes as close as he ever would to reconciling his sense of post-bop jazz with the general public's perception of it, making this one of his most accessible albums. This reissue adds alternate takes of "Memories of You" and "East Coasting." ~ Steve Leggett
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