Before Eric Dolphy’s Tragic Death

This morning I decided to check out another YouTube upload of a Jazz Icons DVD. My selection was Charles Mingus Live in ’64, consisting of selections from three of the concerts that took place during the European tour that Mingus arranged in April of that year. As they appear on the DVD, the concerts are not in chronological order, for which the dates and cities are as follows:

• April 12: Oslo, Norway
• April 13, Stockholm, Sweden (the second of two performances given that day)
• April 19, Liege, Belgium

The first of these, in Oslo, is excerpted, consisting of only the first four of the seven selections:

1. So Long Eric
2. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk
3. Parkeriana
4. Take the “A” Train (Billy Strayhorn)

The Stockholm program was a curious amalgam of “So Long Eric” and “Meditations On Integration,” seamlessly melding rehearsal and performance. The Liege program consisted of only three selections:

1. So Long Eric
2. Peggy’s Blue Skylight
3. Meditations on Integration

Except for “Take the ‘A’ Train,” all of the compositions were by Mingus.

Mingus put together an impressive sextet for the tour. This musicians were Dannie Richmond on drums, Jaki Bayard on piano, Johnny Coles on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone, and Eric Dolphy playing alto saxophone, flute, and bass clarinet. Mingus, of course, played bass. On one occasion he suggested that he might move over to piano, but that never happened. Coles collapsed due to a perforated gastric ulcer during the performance in Paris on April 17 (while playing “So Long Eric,” ironically); so the April 19 concert was a quintet gig. Dolphy remained in Europe following the end of the tour. He was performing in Berlin on June 27, when he had to be hospitalized. He died after falling into a diabetic coma on June 29.

As in other Jazz Icons releases, the video quality varies with that of the crew making the video. On this particular DVD, the most satisfying work can be found in the Oslo video. As already noted, the performance in Stockholm seemed to be a bit disoriented; but there was something almost prophetic about the way in which “Meditations on Integration” wrapped up by revisiting “So Long Eric.” The performance in Liege made for particularly satisfying listening, but the camera never seemed to be looking in the right place.

There are any number of stories about the strenuous demands that Mingus would impose on his performers and the hostility with which he reinforced those demands. In that perspective I feel it is important to point out that the group interactions in all three of these video documents were consistently collegial. My only real regret is that the one performance of “Parkeriana” never got past a false start, even if it managed to account for an impressive number of Charlie Parker’s tropes in only a few minutes’ time. On a more positive side, “Meditations on Integration” unfolded as an elaborate multi-movement suite, allowing each of the performers to develop his improvisation around his own “signature theme.”

Dannie Richmond on drums keeping an eye on Charles Mingus (screen shot from the YouTube video being discussed)

As with the other videos, the YouTube site does not provide any information from the 24-page booklet that accompanies the DVD. Personally, I did not mind the loss; but I have the advantage of a rather rich collection of text sources about Mingus’ life and works. Beyond any text or music, however, I was particularly taken with the wildly frenetic energy that Richmond brought to his drum work. However, while his technique made for a very compelling appearance, the drum work itself never tried to dominate any of the other players. For the most part, Richmond’s work was moderated through eye contact with Mingus, which was seldom (if ever) interrupted.

The bottom line is that engagement among all six of the players was never less than scrupulously attentive, resulting in one of the most compelling jazz listening experiences I have encountered for some time.