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"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" | |
---|---|
Composition by Charles Mingus | |
from the album Mingus Ah Um | |
Released | 1959 |
Genre | Jazz |
Length | 5:42 |
Label | Columbia |
Composer(s) | Charles Mingus |
Producer(s) | Teo Macero |
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz instrumental composed by Charles Mingus, originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 and released on his album Mingus Ah Um . One of Mingus's best-known compositions, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" became a jazz standard, [1] recorded by other jazz and jazz fusion artists. [2]
Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session [3] and who was known for wearing unusually broad-brimmed pork pie hats. These were "busted down" by Young himself, from hats that might better be described as Homburgs, but which he only purchased in "Negro districts". This was since, according to an interview with Young in the November 1949 edition of Our World , "You can't get the right type in a 'gray' neighborhood". [4]
Originally written as an instrumental piece, lyrics have been added on a number of occasions. Rahsaan Roland Kirk performed lyrics for the song on his 1976 album, The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man .[ citation needed ] Joni Mitchell did so on her 1979 album Mingus . [5] [6] English folk singer June Tabor recorded it with Kirk's lyrics on an album of jazz standards released in 1989.[ citation needed ] Lyrics have also been added by Vin D'Onofrio (whose version was recorded by the Japanese singer and pianist, Chie Ayado)[ citation needed ] and by the American jazz artist Lauren Hooker.[ citation needed ] Hooker's lyrics differ radically from those in earlier versions in that they address the experience of domestic abuse, perpetrated by a man who wears a pork pie hat, rather than celebrating the life and music of Lester Young in the manner favored by Kirk and Mitchell.
Mingus re-released the song on his 1963 album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus as "Theme for Lester Young" and on 1977's Three or Four Shades of Blues .
An early indication of the song's cross-genre appeal came in 1966, when it was recorded by the British folk guitar duo, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Rather than offering a tightly arranged collaboration between the two musicians, Jansch and Renbourn's rendition was recorded in hard stereo, with each guitarist offering a different interpretation of the tune. When Jansch and Renbourn formed Pentangle the next year, a group arrangement of the song became a fixture in their set, and a version recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London was released on Sweet Child in 1968.[ citation needed ] Though Pentangle included a lead vocalist and three of the four instrumentalists also sang, no attempt was made to add lyrics or scat. Renbourn returned to it again in 1985, this time with the American blues guitarist, Stefan Grossman.[ citation needed ]
It was recorded in March 1971 by John McLaughlin for his album My Goal's Beyond . [7] Like Renbourn with Pentangle and then Grossman, McLaughlin was also returning to the song. He had been involved in a live recording of the song in London in 1967, when he played guitar for the Mike Carr Trio.[ citation needed ] Jeff Beck (guitar) performed an interpretation of the song in his 1976 album Wired , as did Derek Sherinian (keyboards) in his 2001 album Intertia . Bernie Worrell also offered a solo piano version on his 2013 album: Elevation: The Upper Air.
Mingus Ah Um (1959) version
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Eric Dolphy. Mingus's work ranged from advanced bebop and avant-garde jazz with small and midsize ensembles to pioneering the post-bop style on seminal recordings like Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956) and Mingus Ah Um (1959) and progressive big band experiments such as The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963).
Wired is the third solo album by the British guitarist Jeff Beck, released on Epic Records in 1976. An instrumental album, it peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation.
Pentangle are a British folk rock band, formed in London in 1967. The original band was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967–1973), was Jacqui McShee (vocals); John Renbourn ; Bert Jansch ; Danny Thompson ; and Terry Cox (drums).
Herbert Jansch was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. He recorded more than 28 albums and toured extensively from the 1960s to the 21st century.
John Renbourn was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence (1967–1973). Several albums were credited to the John Renbourn Group. He worked later in a duo with Stefan Grossman.
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a studio album by the American jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus which was released on January 9, 1964.
Lester Willis Young, nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Mingus is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician Joni Mitchell. It was released on June 13, 1979, and was her last studio album for Asylum Records. The album is a collaboration between Mitchell and Charles Mingus. It was recorded in the months before and after Mingus' death in January 1979 and is wholly dedicated to him. The album is one of Mitchell's most experimental and jazz-centric works. Mingus originally wrote six compositions for Mitchell to write lyrics for, and three of these were included on the album. Two other tracks written exclusively by Mitchell are included, alongside a new version of Mingus' standard "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", featuring lyrics written by Mitchell. In addition to these, five spoken word tracks are dispersed throughout the album.
David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, who based his solo "White Summer" on Graham's "She Moved Through the Fair". Graham is probably best known for his acoustic instrumental "Anji" and for popularizing DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by acoustic guitarists.
Mingus Ah Um is a studio album by American jazz musician Charles Mingus which was released in October 1959 by Columbia Records. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S. Neil Fujita. The title is a corruption of an imaginary Latin declension. It is common for Latin students to memorize Latin adjectives by first saying the masculine nominative, then the feminine nominative, and finally the neuter nominative singular —implying a transformation of his name, Mingus, Minga, Mingum. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013. It was ranked 380 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Anne Patricia Briggs is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in Britain and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music. However, she was an influential figure in the British folk revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A. L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page, The Watersons, June Tabor, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, and Maddy Prior.
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Sweet Child is a 1968 double album by the British folk-rock band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson.
The Pentangle is the 1968 debut album of the band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary songwriting. One of the band's most commercially successful albums, it reached number 21 in the British charts.
Reflection is an album recorded in 1971 by folk-rock band Pentangle.
Solomon's Seal is an album recorded in 1972 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the last album recorded by the original line-up, before the band split in 1973. Jacqui McShee has stated that it is her favourite Pentangle album. The album title refers to the Seal of Solomon — a mythical signet ring with magical powers, sometimes associated with the pentagram symbol adopted by Pentangle.
The Great Concert of Charles Mingus is a live album by the jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France, on April 19, 1964. It was originally released as a triple album in 1971 on the French America label. The album was recorded just two days after the live sessions that produced Revenge!, which was also recorded live in Paris.
After Hours is an album by jazz singer Jeanne Lee and pianist Mal Waldron, recorded in 1994 and released on the Owl label. The album was released in the US on Sunnyside Records in 2003.
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