Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

[EAC + FLAC]


The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a 1963 jazz composition and album by bassist Charles Mingus. The piece consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band. An intensely emotional work, it displays Mingus' skill as composer, orchestrator, and technician.

Written as a ballet, the work borrows from Ellingtonian and Latin sources, but creates a unique orchestral style that Mingus called "ethnic folk-dance music". The orchestrations (described as "one of the greatest achievements [...] by any composer in jazz history" by the All Music Guide) are rich and multi-layered. Mingus' perfectionism led to extensive use of studio overdubbing techniques, the first for a jazz album.The track A features the virtuoso Don Butterfield (Normaly a tuba performer) playing a contrabass trombone

The album liner notes were provided by Mingus' psychotherapist, Dr. Edmund Pollock.

Track listing:
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1. "Track A - Solo Dancer" -6:20
"Stop! Look! and Listen, Sinner Jim Whitney!"
2. "Track B - Duet Solo Dancers" -6:25
"Hearts\' Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces"
3. "Track C - Group Dancers" -7:00
"(Soul Fusion) Freewoman and Oh, This Freedom's Slave Cries"
4. -17:52

"Mode D - Trio and Group Dancers"
"Stop! Look! and Sing Songs of Revolutions!"
"Mode E - Single Solos and Group Dance"
"Saint and Sinner Join in Merriment on Battle Front"
"Mode F - Group and Solo Dance"
"Of Love, Pain, and Passioned Revolt, then Farewell, My Beloved, 'til It's Freedom Day"

(All songs by Mingus; Bob Hammer helped in music arrangements. Recorded in New York City on 20 January 1963 by Bob Simpson.)

Personnel:
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* Charles Mingus - bass, piano, leader
* Jerome Richardson - soprano, baritone saxophones, flute
* Charlie Mariano - alto saxophone
* Dick Hafer - tenor saxophone, flute
* Rolf Ericson - trumpet
* Richard Williams - trumpet
* Quentin Jackson - trombone
* Don Butterfield - tuba, contrabass trombone
* Jaki Byard - piano
* Jay Berliner - acoustic guitar
* Dannie Richmond - drums