Charlie Mingus* – The Jazz Experiments Of Charlie Mingus

A nice sounding and very clean and decent vinyl pressing

I had to break my personal rule, never buy a Mingus album where he is smiling on the cover. Despite that, here is a fine early effort by Mingus and band, with the seeds of creativity and humor, that will make his later, more complex works so compelling. Right off the bat, he creates a mashup of "What Is This Thing" and "Hot House", so you know what you're in for.

The audio is very good, tracked cleanly and beautifully mixed with a wide stereo soundstage. A little more wet than my ear is accustomed to, but very pleasant. I'm unfamiliar with this label, Affinity, however quite impressed with the pressing.

The track "Trilogy Pogo" is actually Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" In my opinion this Jazztone issue is closer to the original Period Records 10" LPs than the Bethlehem release because it has all of the tracks from "Jazzical Moods Vol. 1" and the Bethlehem release omits the track "Abstractions." Interestingly, both the Bethlehem and the Jazztone records omit the track "Echonitus" from "Jazzical Moods Vol. 2" and they both reorder the track list in different ways from the original and from one another. I have not listened to the Bethlehem release or the original 10" LPs so I do not have any information about the sound quality of the Jazztone copy in comparison but I do enjoy listening to it.

This is reasonably quiet vinyl, a few ticks here and there. It's music with many quiet passages and the minimal surface noise does not ruin those moments or interfere with enjoyment. Recorded sound is adequate, but by no means high fidelity. Most of the time you can hear what Mingus is playing, but in a few passages the bass textures become muddy and indistinct. Cello (not played by Mingus) sounds very good indeed. Piano tone is dull and rather lifeless, which is particularly relevant since Mingus plays the piano! This must have been recorded in a rather reverberant space; you can really hear that when the trumpet plays loud. Hard to believe this is mono. It really gives the illusion of a soundstage and instruments place in different locations. Musically, this is very interesting. There is a sort of fractured big band feel to it. I loved it on first hearing and my enjoyment only grew on repeat hearings. "Stormy Weather" is a highlight. Wonderful notes written by Mingus himself round out the package. I missed this one when it was available through VMP, and when I saw it on sale at Acoustic Sounds, I jumped. Glad I did, very nice record and a real bargain at 20 bucks.

Grabbed this today at a local(ish) record shop. Excellent pressing all around! Classic early Mingus finding his feet... so less bombastic than his later material (which didn't take long to happen). Borders on mellow cool bop, with some standards and originals written with John LaPorta. Spinning now and enjoying it highly... buy it if you like some lazy Sunday Mingus.

VMP re-released this (bought on first day of new solicitation on May 26th) again on purple vinyl. At least it was listed as a pressing of 1000 copies and is similarly on purple vinyl and numbered so not sure if this is another pressing or leftovers. My copy is number 253.

My copy is cup-warped pretty bad, but is playable and sounds fairly good with very minimal surface noise.

This is the 4th of the recent Bethlehem reissues that I have bought. This one might be the best of them because it really does a good job of extracting some extra (albeit slim) degrees of fidelity out of the rather boxy original tapes. Compared to a previous hi res digital download I’ve owned for years and what’s available on streaming platforms this record really comes to life. I still wouldn’t call it an audiophile level record but it sounds much better than I was expecting it to and as a matter of fact I’ve just put this on after listening to my Speakers Corner copy of Pithecanthropus Erectus and this record has much more clarity and polish than that one and it was recorded two years earlier. So not bad at all for a budget release.
The record is reasonably quiet and apart from the occasional minor click and pop it’s a smooth listen .

I've been told these Bethlehem reissues have been remastered by Kevin Gray, does anybody know about that?

Great pressing on dead silent vinyl. Mastering is focused on a warmer Mid-range and less of the artificial hifi high treble sound. As a result this pressing is more listenable than the digital editions which are just too sharp.

The best GZ pressing I’ve ever received. They really stepped it up!