I am not great at concert reviews (would that Lades or Jim S. had been there and could write it up), but I'd like to give you my impressions of the Mingus Thingus at Weil Hall last night.

First just a few adjectives: GREAT, SUPERB, STUNNING. My wife, son, daughter in law, a friend from Baltimore and my wife's half-sister from Switzerland were all there with me. None of them are particularly jazz fans. They were all mesmerized and couldn't stop talking about it after it was over. Some of their comments: "What interesting numbers." "I usually find modern jazz to be atonal and chaotic, but these songs were so melodic." "What incredible musicianship - each was so excellent." "I'm so glad you talked us into coming." It really was a truly memorable concert. Weil Hall was nearly filled, and I don't think anyone went home unhappy.

The program was a mixture of Mingus compositions and two Mitcheltree originals. They began with a great blues, which a la Mingus had its own unique twists and turns - Pussy Cat Dues. This was followed by Fables of Faubus - an incredibly difficult number (like most of Mingus!), constantly changing tempos and moods. Then a wonderful composition by Dennis entitled "Oppressions." This tune defies description. a la Mingus, it was full of complex lines, moving from near cacophany to melodic sweetness and changes in tempo and featured a great drum solo by Bill McClellan. Then came "Celia" - a hauntingly beautiful tune that kept swooping back to a melodic repetition by Pete Yellin interspersed with sudden up-tempo bursts of improvisation by different members of the group.

The first half of the program ended wth "Boogie Stop Shuffle." Watching Howard Johnson do the amazingly fast tonguing and fingering that he did on this and other numbers with the tuba was incredible. I've never seen anyone play a tuba in this fashion before (and maybe no-one else can!) I mean he was phrasing on a tuba like one would expect on a flugelhorn, and at speeds around 300 or more (on a metronome). Extraordinary!

The second half of the program began with Love Chant, followed by East Coasting. Both of these tunes, like most Mingus compositions, were incredibly complex rhythmically. At one point in Love Chant someone was apparently slightly off, so Dennis tried to sing the line so everyone knew where they were. When that didn't work he stopped things very quickly and said "From the Sign" and they continued to wail. Hardly anyone noticed, and I doubt if many in the audience were aware that someone was on the wrong bar. East Coasting really wailed. The head on that alone is incredible rhythmically, with each of the three horns slightly ahead or behind the others, so as to give a sense of constant movement (a bit like a locomotive).

One of the highlights of the evening was Dennis' beautiful composition: "Brooklyn." If anyone doubts that Dennis has a love affair with Brooklyn, you need only listen to this song. Again it defies simple description. It is a ballad, but at times it is very up tempo. It is loosely a "waltz" but at times it feels like something else (it took me a moment to recognize this as a waltz, but the pianist, Uri Caine, confirmed my impression when he played a quick snippet from "Tennessee Waltz" in his solo). Dennis' own blowing on this song was wonderful: fluid, at times slow and dreamy, at other times fast and clean. The program ended with an up-tempo "Jump Monk". All three horns did some wonderful blowing on this number.

Until you've seen a mostly-Mingus program like this you don't realize:

1)how wonderfully melodic his compositions were. What makes him so wonderful, in my mind, is how just when you think he's going to take you to the outer edges or something that is almost freeform, he switches to a melodic phrase (e.g. three clarinets playing Ellingtonian like harmonics reminiscent of Mood Indigo.)

2)The constantly changing rhythmic patterns of his compositions. I don't think one number played last night remained at one constant tempo. This put tremendous pressure on Bill McClellan the drummer and Jesse Crawford on bass. They both were so essential to this concert -- and they were outstanding. I was amazed at the ease with which McClellan could change tempos (and these changes often came very abruptly: I mean switcing from 300 to 90 to Latin and back within the same tune). He was really on top of things. As was Crawford, who may be the "unsung hero" in this performance. He had only a couple of solos (but they were great, especially on Jump Monk), tremendously fast fingering -- and again nailing the beat every time, he was really on. At the end he and McClellan gave each other high fives -- and deservedly so. They were the driving force behind this musician's nightmare of rhythmic diversiity.

Each soloist was outstanding. Uri Caine on piano (I mean how do you comp on some of these songs? As a pianist, it blows my mind. But he was "right there.") And his solos were terrific. Howard Johnson showed tremendous versatility, soloing on bass clarinet, tuba and baritone sax. The tuba solos, above all, were show-stopping. You just don't see that very often. Pete Yellin was maginificent on both alto and clarinet. At times I feared he was going to have a stroke, because his face gets very red when he's blowing. But man was he blowing! He could be soloing at 300 or so on some very difficult changes, and still manage to work an Irish jig and a few other memorable melodies into the midst of his solos. He reminded me a bit of Art Pepper at his best.

And Dennis...what can one say. Great tone, wonderful virtuosity; real sensitivity to the other musicians and ability to mirror their phrasings and play off of them. It's hard to imagine the amount of work that Dennis put into getting this program ready. There are very few groups I know of who could have played this program (which is why we don't hear many people playing Mingus -- he's just too damned hard!)

All in all an exquisite evening. Unfortunately, this old man was feeling too tired at the end of the concert to join the festivities down in the Village. I hope and imagine it was a wonderful party. I was really sorry not to have had the chance to meet the other Jazzlers who were there. Another time, I hope. But I feel very privileged to have been present at this unique and wonderful concert.

It would be great if this group would come together again to make a recording or two. I think everyone would benefit from that.