CHARLES MINGUS — Blues & Roots (review)

CHARLES MINGUS — Blues & Roots album cover Album · 1959 · Hard Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
darkprinceofjazz
Blues & Roots, It would have been hard to have come up with a more fitting name for the album than this, For Blues & Roots is just as the title suggests, the blues lives within this music, as well as the Southern Baptist Church, Gospel call and response, complete with hand clapping, and shouts of spiritual ecstasy, a lead off Song title like "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" leaves little doubt where Blues & Roots is coming from, and talk about a swinging album.

The saxophone line up on this album is killer to say the least, How does this sound for you, Jackie McLean and John Handy on alto and Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, with Pepper Adams on Baritone, These guys know how to squeeze every ounce of the blues out of their horns too, I love Pepper Adams's gruff intro to "Moanin" and when the other horns come in behind him, it's irresistible. "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" is a hard charging swinger that has a wonderful hand clapping accompaniment break, that spurs tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin to glorious heights, The congregation is now filled with the spirit and you may be too afterward, Even the hardest agnostic might be screaming Hallelujah!, Indeed, Blues & Roots is surely an experience worthy of it's accolades, Its Raw, its spontaneous and it's breath taking.
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