CHARLES MUNGUS - EPITATH

I saw this performed shortly before the recording was released. It really knocked me out. As fine as the recording is, it doesn’t do the live performance any justice.

Musicologist/conductor Gunther Schuller discovered and restored this massive, 130-minute work by the late bassist, then presented it in concert in New York in 1989. Scored for 30-piece jazz orchestra, Epitaph is thought by Schuller to have been worked on between 1940 and 1962. Amazingly enough, six of the players specified in the score appear on this recording. Some of the sections are familiar to Charles Mingus fans from small-band recordings, particularly "Better Get It in Your Soul," "Monk, Bunk, & Vice Versa (Osmotin')," and "Peggy's Blue Skylight," and there was an attempt to record this work for United Artists in 1962. Schuller makes a case for this work as a unified, 18-movement work in his extensive notes to this set. There is definite evidence that this is how Mingus himself thought of it as well. There is plenty of great big-band writing here, and some fine soloists, notably Bobby Watson, Randy Brecker, George Adams, and Wynton Marsalis. Schuller says it best in his notes: "This recording, while not the perfect realization of Epitaph -- can that ever be achieved? -- is an enthusiastic, dedicated, loving recreation, which now at last brings Mingus' magnum opus to life." With luck, this release will send people back to his many excellent recordings.

AllMusic Review by Stuart Kremsky

Artist	Credit
Michael Rabinowitz	Bass, Bassoon, Clarinet (Bass), Doubling Clarinet
Charles Mingus	Bass, Composer, Primary Artist
Ed Schuller	Bass, Guiro
Reggie Johnson	Bass
Dale Kleps	Clarinet (Contrabass), Doubling Clarinet, Flute
Phil Bodner	Clarinet, Double Flute, Horn (English), Oboe, Sax (Tenor)
Bobby Watson	Clarinet, Double Sax, Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
Gunther Schuller	Conductor, Editing, Guest Artist, Liner Notes, Producer
Karl Berger	Cowbell, Vibraphone
Roger Rosenberg	Doubling Clarinet, Flute, Piccolo, Sax (Baritone)
John Handy	Doubling Clarinet, Guest Artist, Sax (Alto)
Jerome Richardson	Doubling Clarinet, Sax (Alto), Saxophone
Gary Smulyan	Doubling Clarinet, Sax (Baritone)
Victor Lewis	Drums, Guest Artist
John McClure	Editing, Engineer, Mixing, Producer
John Abercrombie	Guest Artist, Guitar
John Hicks	Guest Artist, Piano
George Adams	Guest Artist, Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
Randy Brecker	Guest Artist, Trumpet
Wynton Marsalis	Guest Artist, Trumpet
Daniel Druckman	Percussion, Tumba
Sue Mingus	Photography, Producer
Roland Hanna	Piano
Paul Faulise	Trombone, Trombone (Bass)
David Taylor	Trombone, Trombone (Bass)
Eddie Bert	Trombone
Sam Burtis	Trombone
Urbie Green	Trombone
Britt Woodman	Trombone
Lew Soloff	Trumpet
Jack Walrath	Trumpet
Joe Wilder	Trumpet
Snooky Young	Trumpet
Don Butterfield	Tuba