Pussy Cat Dues

Shafi Hadi and Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Jimmy Knepper (trombone), John Handy (clarinet), Horace Parlan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Mingus Ah Um (1959).

Mingus’ refusal to compromise his musical integrity caused much discussion on the stage, admonishment of musicians and dismissals. Although respected for his musical talent, he was feared for his sporadically violent temperament on stage, which was sometimes directed at members of his band and other times at the public.

Mingus’ music is being reinterpreted by the Mingus Big Band, which in 2008 began playing at the New York Jazz Standard and often tours the rest of the United States and Europe. Epitaph is considered one of his masterpieces. The composition requires two hours of performance and is one of the longest jazz pieces ever written. It was discovered by musicologist Andrew Homzy and premiered in 1989 by a 30-member orchestra conducted by Gunther Schuller.

This theme has a very suggestive melody at medium-slow tempo and all the solos are accompanied by the wind section making a sound mattress underneath. Knepper begins by following the harmonies of blues with a dirty, vocal sound. Then Parlan enters with a very bluesy and moving solo. After that, Handy plays very interesting and naughty phrases on the clarinet. Mingus follows with a simple, but with much meaning solo. Then Ervin comes in with a smooth and affable and melodic line, and finally the group re-exposes the theme.