Charles Mingus-Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956)

 

Artist: Charles Mingus

Title: Pithecanthropus Erectus

Label: Atlantic

Format: CD

Cat: 8809-2

Year of Release: 1956

Country and Year of Edition: US 1987 with 1981 reissue cover and Nat Hentoff notes preceding the Mingus notes

Sell Price: $3.75 VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 5/18/24 VG+/not graded $1.44

Low:$1.44

Median: $3.84

Average: $4.07

High: $12.00

Current low price: $2.35

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 29

Have/Want: 483/83

Where Sold: Clarks Hill, SC

Time it took to sell:  10 years

Where and When Purchased: Smash on St. Marks early 90's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go: No

If ever there was an album that needed liner notes, Pithecanthropus Erectus is it.  Mingus did them himself and the opening title track we are told is a tone poem about the first man to stand apart from the animals in the prone position.  Mingus in 1956 gave a dim view towards man who has 4 stages put to music: evolution, superiority-complex, decline and destruction.  Since we are well into the decline stage, it is interesting to note from Hentoff's early 80's notes that Mingus remarked late in his life (he passed in 1979 at 56) that the enslavement he saw at the time transcended color and the human race in the 70's was becoming fragmented to the point where they no longer have a choice about anything important, including who they are.  "We create our own slavery" Mingus concludes.  

There is nothing to indicate anything has improved in the 45 years since Mingus passing, however he did leave us with a vast discography from his sideman years on 40's single sides through work as a bandleader from the early 50's until his last recording in 1977.  Pithecantropus Erectus from 1956  finds Mingus still a young bandleader with a Jazz Workshop consisting of Jackie McLean on alto sax, J.R. Monterose on tenor sax, Mal Waldron on piano and Willie Jones on drums.  Of this group, none are still alive except of course in their extensive recorded histories.  This music is hard listening post-bop, clearly foreshadowing the Free Jazz of the 60's with roots in Bop and Swing.  The liner notes help wrap your head around it a little bit because this music requires attention and immersion.

Disturbingly, this reissue that first came out in 1981 with an alternate cover mitigates the artistic statement of the albums overarching theme with a more commercial one of the man and his bass.  This insensitive error coming less than two years after his death has since been corrected.

Of the 3 other cuts, Mingus tells us "A Foggy Day" is about San Francisco and is meant to provide musical comic relief of sorts with the street sounds of whistles, sirens and so forth punctuate the composition.  "Profile of Jackie" needed little description in the mind of Mingus because it continued with a series of musical paintings he had done of various people.  "Love Chant" is where Mingus starts getting technical as to what he is doing and you are just going to have to read that for your self to try to understand what he is getting at.  

Sometimes we forget the abstract isn't so out there after all.