Mingus Plays Piano cover

Mingus Plays Piano

Released

The bassist sits down and improvises on known songs and unknown ideas for an hour, making it sound very much like he plays the piano as much as he plays any other instrument. (He generally did not.) What comes through is that non-stop melodic imagination, the same one you hear in “Better Git Hit In Your Soul” or “Fables of Faubus”—long, long phrases that feel a little bit like a late-night conversation rising and dimming with the moods of the talkers. A quiet monsterpiece.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Recommended by

Suggestions
Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings cover

Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings

Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids
Away with You cover

Away with You

Mary Halvorson Octet
Nocturnes cover

Nocturnes

William Basinski
Occam XXV cover

Occam XXV

Frédéric Blondy
Cyborg cover

Cyborg

Klaus Schulze
John Adams: Road Movies cover

John Adams: Road Movies

Leila Josefowicz, Rolf Hind, Nicolas Hodges
Time Capsule cover

Time Capsule

Chris Bowden
Ecstatic Computation cover

Ecstatic Computation

Caterina Barbieri