The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history. Charles Mingus consciously designed the six-part ballet as his magnum opus, and -- implied in his famous inclusion of liner notes by his psychologist -- it's as much an examination of his own tortured psyche as it is a conceptual piece about love and struggle. It veers between so many emotions that it defies easy encapsulation; for that matter, it can be difficult just to assimilate in the first place. ...
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The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history. Charles Mingus consciously designed the six-part ballet as his magnum opus, and -- implied in his famous inclusion of liner notes by his psychologist -- it's as much an examination of his own tortured psyche as it is a conceptual piece about love and struggle. It veers between so many emotions that it defies easy encapsulation; for that matter, it can be difficult just to assimilate in the first place. Yet the work soon reveals itself as a masterpiece of rich, multi-layered texture and swirling tonal colors, manipulated with a painter's attention to detail. There are a few stylistic reference points -- Ellington, the contemporary avant-garde, several flamenco guitar breaks -- but the totality is quite unlike what came before it. Mingus relies heavily on the timbral contrasts between expressively vocal-like muted brass, a rumbling mass of low voices (including tuba and baritone sax), and achingly lyrical upper woodwinds, highlighted by altoist Charlie Mariano. Within that framework, Mingus plays shifting rhythms, moaning dissonances, and multiple lines off one another in the most complex, interlaced fashion he'd ever attempted. Mingus was sometimes pigeonholed as a firebrand, but the personal exorcism of Black Saint deserves the reputation -- one needn't be able to follow the story line to hear the suffering, mourning, frustration, and caged fury pouring out of the music. The 11-piece group rehearsed the original score during a Village Vanguard engagement, where Mingus allowed the players to mold the music further; in the studio, however, his exacting perfectionism made The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady the first jazz album to rely on overdubbing technology. The result is one of the high-water marks for avant-garde jazz in the '60s and arguably Mingus' most brilliant moment. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi
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A tour de force if there ever was one, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band. Mingus gathered a wonderful group of musicians, but what goes on in the album far exceeds just great musicianship; listening to it, one gets the sense of people delving deep not only into their own souls, but also to those of everyone around them, and to the listeners? by extension. From the opening?a six-minute piece titled ?Stop! Look! and Listen, Sinner Jim Whitney??to the even more baroquely-named climax, ?Of Love, Pain, and Passioned Revolt, then Farewell, My Beloved, ?Till It?s Freedom Day!,? Mingus draws on an array of subjects, themes, and motifs, some political, some personal, all profoundly emotional. He beautifully evokes both his time and that of a long-gone era by biting Stravinsky and Schoenberg, in the end fashioning what the man himself deemed as ?ethnic folk-dance music.?
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