0011105017022. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Having completed what he (and many critics) regarded as his masterwork in The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Charles Mingus next sessions for Impulse found him looking back over a long and fruitful career. Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is sort of a greatest hits revisited record as the bassist revamps or tinkers with some of his best-known works. The titles are altered as well -- II B.S. is basically Haitian Fight Song (this is the version used in the late- 90s car commercial); Theme for Lester Young is Goodbye Pork Pie Hat ; Better Get Hit in Your Soul adds a new ending but just one letter to the title; Hora Decubitus is a growling overhaul of E s Flat Ah s Flat Too ; and I X Love modifies Nouroog which was part of Open Letter to Duke. There s also a cover of Duke Ellington s Mood Indigo leaving just one new composition Celia. Which naturally leads to the question: With the ostensible shortage of ideas what exactly makes this a significant Mingus effort? The answer is that the 11-piece bands assembled here (slightly different for the two separate recording sessions) are among Mingus finest featuring some of the key personnel (Eric Dolphy pianist Jaki Byard) that would make up the legendary quintet/sextet with which Mingus toured Europe in 1964. And they simply burn blasting through versions that equal and often surpass the originals -- which is of course no small feat. This was Mingus last major statement for quite some time and aside from a solo piano album and a series of live recordings from the 1964 tour also his last album until 1970. It closes out the most productive and significant chapter of his career and one of the most fertile inventive hot streaks of any composer in jazz history. ~ Steve Huey Rovi