San Francisco Examiner
C.H. Garrigues : 08/19/1956

… Here Mingus is joined by Eddie Bert on trombone, George Barrow on tenor, Mal Waldron on piano and Willie Jones on drums for five very fine tracks of modern jazz. But as a special added attraction, Mingus and Max Roach do a drum-bass duet which is sheer melody.

On the quintet tracks, listen especially to Work Song for Waldon’s fine piano work and Eddie Bert’s persuasive trombone. Then remember Ellington‘s Liberation Suite and see how truly it is said that, after all, the line of jazz is continuous.

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Down Beat : 09/05/1956
Nat Hentoff : 4.5 stars

Recorded at Café Bohemia in New York, all but one track is played by the Jazz Workshop unit Mingus had last winter and which was reviewed in detail in Caught in the Act (Down Beat, Jan. 11). The musicians are trombonist Eddie Bert, tenorist George Barrow, pianist Mal Waldron, and drummer Willie Jones.

Within the last year, Mingus has reached a maturity as a leader and writer (often an oral writer in that the compositions sometimes are not written down but molded via instructions from Mingus and in-performance personalizations from the men.) Although he assuredly will have much more to say in the years to come, Minus is already one of the major music personalities in modern jazz. In basic freshness of approach, success in individualized collective impact, and searing sincerity of intent, Mingus is an impressive focal figure.

His associates are excellent musicians but not always up to Mingus in intensity. The much-overlooked Barrow plays with warmth, man-size tone, and imagination. Bert always flexible, fits in the professional skill. Waldron is a quite personal, always building pianist, and Jones is steady. Mingus, aside from the above-listed leadership qualities, is a masterful bassist, one of the greatest of this era in or out of jazz.

For astonishing proof of the latter, listen to Track 3 on which Mingus is joined only by Max Roach in a remarkable dialog. Max is fine, but Mingus especially says and does things on this track that I expect to be relistening to a long time from now. One Mingus line is dubbed in, but I wouldn’t have been certain except that I was told later. Very good notes by Waldron.

The recording quality makes it, but could have been better, presence-wise, and there is surface noise. Recommended especially for Tracks 1, 3, and 4, although there is much to hear in the rest. The last one, despite the danger of pastiche, comes off interestingly for the most part. Mingus continues, meanwhile, to grow as, for example, on his new Atlantic LP Pithecanthropus Erectus.

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Liner Notes by Mal Waldron

This is a Jazz Workshop Album! … which means that here you will find new ideas and new developments on old ideas. Whatever you find, you cannot judge with old criteria completely. You must add new measurements to your yardstick because we are aiming for new concepts. We are not presenting these concepts with the feeling that they must be used as is. Instead, we are presenting them as a record of our developments in Jazz. Some of the ideas will stay and some will disappear. The real test is time. Only the truly good ideas will last and become an integral part of modern jazz.

The following “program notes” are designed to introduce you to our concepts and help you to develop new criteria with which to evaluate our music. Read them, then close your eyes and enjoy a wonderful listening experience at the Bohemia with the Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop.

Side A – Jump, Monk
This composition is described by Mingus as a “profile of Monk”, not a complete picture of the man but a side view or one aspect of a complex personality. Actually, it is a double profile because we can see an important aspect of the composer, Mingus. The eight-bar, many-voiced section that keeps alternative with the melody most certainly mirrors the emotional, earthy quality found in both subject and composer. If you listen carefully to the last chorus, you will hear Mingus shout during a couple of the sections, thus bearing out the identity.

Of importance, also, are the compositional techniques used in this piece. Along with given melodic figures, the composer created the form and mood by giving the musicians scales on which they could build their own figures. These figures then had to appear in certain places and also had to maintain the mood of the composition. Listen to the first and last choruses and notice that even though George and Eddie play different notes in comparable places, the mood and feeling are still the same.

Serenade in Blue
The compositional devices used here are diminution and augmentation. The melody is first played slow then diminished and played twice as fast. The piano augments the melody in the bridge and it sounds slow again. Once again it is diminished, or played fast, and we go into blowing choruses.

Percussion Discussion
This is, in my estimation, the best track on the date. Just two men playing two instruments that are very rarely found on the stand alone. Two men producing an assortment of rich and exciting sounds. Listen well, because it may be many years before this type of music becomes a daily experience for jazz lovers. Here is a chance to really enjoy the artistry of Max and Mingus. Notice the clean, true snare sound that Max gets on his highest pitched drum. As he moves from snare drum to tom-tom, there is no doubt that he’s changed intentionally. No muddled indistinct sound here but a real fresh, swinging sound for Max. And he has his earthy qualities too: strong, vigorous, earthy qualities. Mingus is tremendous, matching Max mood for mood. His pizzicato becomes so strong at times that it sounds very close to Max’s percussive efforts. Also, for a new concept in jazz sounds, listen t the high, scraping sound Mingus gets on his bass immediately after Max’s cymbal entrance. You’ll want to hear this track over and over again.

Side B – Work Song
This is the only truly representative composition in the album. It is actually a jazz tone poem depicting the old slave gangs as they did their back-breaking work of “swinging that hammer.” In particular, I think Mingus thought of the men who worked out their bondage by driving stakes or laying railroad ties. In a broader sense, he thought of the whole Negro race with its oppressions and problems. Notice the cannon-like sound of the piano which really simulates the blow of a sledge-hammer. This is called a “cluster” on the piano and may some day be used much more in jazz than it is today. Because of the low register clusters and other rhythm section accents, we get a strong feeling of depression throughout the piece. However, there is a note of hope in the composition which is found in the words of the original melody: “Swing that hammer over your shoulder: get bolder and – BOLDER!”

Septemberly
Sub-titled “The Song Of The Thief,” this is, of course, a conscious accusal of musical plagiarism. As Mingus says, “Two composers collect royalties for the same tune.” Eddie has the first melody (September In The Rain) and George has the other (Tenderly). After treating both melodies simultaneously, the arrangement then moves from one section of the first tune to another section of the second tune. The solos are built on the exact chord changes of “September,” but they could just as well have been built on “Tenderly.” On the end of the arrangement you will hear another of Mingus’ new developments on old ideas. In the early days of Jazz, the musicians had no planned endings. They would all solo together into some kind of consonant, harmonious ending “a la New Orleans.” For this arrangement we have no ending. We just move together, each in his own way, toward a resolution of the composition. Now, however, with the new jazz idea, we can end with an atonal feeling. Note the beautiful sonority achieved at the end of this composition.

All The Things You C-Sharp
Mingus is very aware of similarities in tunes, and, as in one other case in this album (Septemberly), he combines two or three in a composition. Whether intentional or not, this often implies to the listener that one tune was derived or stolen from the other(s). In this case, the combined tunes are All The Things You Are, Prelude in C# Minor, and, if you listen carefully to the piano line, Clair de Lune. The similarity, of course, is the three-note motif that is found (1) in the beginning of Prelude, (2) in the introduction of Things You Are, and (3) although the melody is different, in the rhythmic idea of Clair de Lune. The motif is found throughout the composition and gives the piece a well-knit feeling.