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Money Jungle is a studio album by the pianist Duke Ellington with the double bassist Charles Mingus and the drummer Max Roach. It was recorded on September 17, 1962, and released in February 1963 by United Artists Jazz."Album Reviews" (February 9, 1963) Billboard, p. 28. All but one of the compositions were written by Ellington, with four of the seven on the original LP being recorded for the first time on this album. Later releases on CD added eight tracks from the same recording session.
The album was reviewed positively at the time of its release and subsequent reviews have remained highly favorable. Negative comments have concentrated on differences in playing style among the three musicians, brought about by the generational gap between Ellington and the others, and an argument that led to Mingus leaving the studio mid-session. Hundreds of musicians have been influenced by the recording, in particular by the freedom of individual expression within a small-group setting.
At the time of the 1962 recording, Ellington was 63 years old, while Mingus was 40 and Roach 38. The generational difference was strengthened by Ellington being a guiding figure for the other two, who were born when Ellington was becoming an influence on music. In 1962, Ellington did not have a recording contract, while Mingus was signed to United Artists. According to Roach, the three musicians met the day before the recording, and Ellington told them to "Think of me as the poor man's Bud Powell" and that he would not like to play only his own material.
Money Jungle is a post-bop album. The original LP contained seven tracks – six composed by Ellington, and one, "Caravan" by Juan Tizol, strongly associated with him. The title track is a 12-bar blues that opens with strongly played notes from Mingus, then Ellington joins in with dissonant chords; Roach supports using ride cymbal, snare and bass drum. In the final minute, Down Beat magazine observed, Mingus bends the "strings with such force that he makes the instrument sound like a cross between a berimbau and a Delta blues guitar". "Fleurette Africaine" is a ballad developed from a simple melody stated on the piano, and features "Mingus's floating bassline and Roach's understated drumming". "Very Special" is another 12-bar blues, possibly improvised. These three compositions, plus "Wig Wise", with its "angular, descending line", were written specifically for this album. On "Caravan", Ellington plays the melody in low octaves, adding "Anton Webern-like notes on the top", imitating an orchestral sound. "Warm Valley" and "Solitude" are ballads, the latter being a piano solo piece until Mingus and Roach enter in the final minute.
The CD releases feature four more compositions: "Switch Blade", "Backward Country Boy Blues", "REM Blues", and "A Little Max (Parfait)". The last of these is a Latin jazz track that features Roach. "Switch Blade" is "a slow blues that showcases Mingus's virtuosity with a looseness that puts feeling before precision. ...He intersperses his basslines with countermelodies and answers to what Duke plays." According to drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, "Backward Country Boy Blues" was probably given its title because part of the usual blues construction is reversed – the V chord precedes the IV chord.
There have been persistent rumors of clashes among the musicians during the session. Douglas's version is that Mingus complained about Roach's playing, then left the studio mid-session, taking his bass with him. Ellington caught up with Mingus on the street outside and persuaded him to return. Ellington's account was slightly different – the reason for Mingus leaving was the same, but he was persuaded to return at the elevator. Another version is that Mingus was upset because Ellington did not use any of Mingus's compositions for the recording. Duke's son, Mercer Ellington, stated that the trio had a contract with United Artists for two albums, but they could not be persuaded to record together again. Critic Thomas Cunniffe suggests that, listening to the tracks in the order in which they were recorded, "one can easily hear the tension building during the uptempo numbers", and that Mingus' temporary departure probably occurred after playing "Money Jungle", which "represents the apex of the group's inner tension, with Mingus plucking the strings with his fingernails, Roach firing up the music with and Ellington laying down highly dissonant chords".
Much later reviews have been largely positive. Ken Dryden of AllMusic called it a "sensational recording session" and recommended it to "every jazz fan". The Penguin Guide to Jazz claimed that Mingus "completely steals the show", but suggested that the "long-standing Ellington staples" "Caravan" and "Warm Valley" are relatively weak renditions, and that Mingus either did not know the changes or was disgruntled on the latter track. The Financial Times in 2013 described it as "an angular piano-trio masterpiece that ... confirmed Ellington's inherent modernism". Jay Trachtenberg of The Austin Chronicle praised Ellington's playing and "the modernity of his ideas", and said that the album "stands, more than ever, as a masterful meeting of jazz royalty." Writing of the record's 1986 "remixed and reprogrammed" reissue, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said "the angular chromaticism and modernist swing of this session relegate most piano-trio records back to the supper clubs."
The sound quality of the original recording has been described as "disappointingly woolly", with "incidents of peaky distortion from the piano microphone". The stereo recording has the piano "up front and center", with the double bass "far to the right channel" and the drums "Strictly in the left channel and slightly behind the piano".
Pianists have been impressed by Ellington's playing. Fred Hersch believes that it is one of Ellington's best recordings on piano, as he was forced by the other musicians to improvise in ways beyond what he would normally have played. Matthew Shipp commented on the free elements in the playing, describing the album as "one of the greatest examples of piano playing I've ever heard". John Medeski remarked on the forceful, Counterpoint interaction, facilitated by space. Ethan Iverson commented that, on "Fleurette Africaine", "There's a group dynamic present that's quite amazing. ... It's a forerunner of The Bad Plus", the trio that he co-founded.
In 1999, the band Rhythm and Brass included Money Jungle tracks on their album More Money Jungle... Ellington Explorations. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington led the 2013 release , which includes cover versions of tracks from the original album. Of the compositions premiered on the album, "Fleurette Africaine" and "Wig Wise" are commonly recorded by others.
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