Epitaph (Mingus)

Epitaph is the master work of jazz musician Charles Mingus. It is a composition which is more than 4000 measures long, requires two hours to perform and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death. With the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the piece itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller, in a concert produced by Sue Mingus at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989, ten years after Mingus's death.

1990 CD Version

After Mingus's death, the score to Epitaph was rediscovered by Andrew Homzy, director of the jazz program at Concordia University, Montreal. He had been invited by Sue Mingus to catalogue a trunkful of Mingus's handwritten charts and in the process had discovered a vast assortment of orchestral pages with measures numbered consecutively well into the thousands. After some investigation, Homzy realized what it was that he had found and eventually managed to reassemble the Epitaph score. At that point Homzy and Sue Mingus got in touch with Gunther Schuller, who put together an all-star orchestra to play this very demanding piece of music. However, despite the stellar cast that was assembled, problems were again encountered. 30 years earlier, charts were being copied in the wings before the show. This time, the charts were all computerized, but the software was buggy and again charts were being sight-read at the last minute.

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This was no mean feat. Epitaph resembles many other Mingus compositions in level of difficulty. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, pointing at a passage in the score said, "That looks like something you would find in an Etude Book ... under 'Hard'." And conductor Gunther Schuller stated "The only comparison I've ever been able to find is the great iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives." Despite all these challenges, however, the concert, at Alice Tully Hall in New York's Lincoln Centre in 1989, was a triumph, if ten years too late for Charles Mingus to enjoy it. A double-CD was later released by Columbia/Sony Records.

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Track Listings

Personnel

There is a long list of personnel involved in this album

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• John Abercrombie - Guitar
• George Adams - Saxophone, Sax (Tenor)
• Karl Berger - Vibraphone, Vibes, cowbell
• Eddie Bert - Trombone
• Phil Bodner - Clarinet, Horn (English), Oboe, Sax (Tenor)
• Urbie Green - Trombone
• John Handy - Sax (Alto), Doubling Clarinet
• John Hicks - Piano
• Charles Mingus - Bass
• Jerome Richardson - Saxophone, Sax (Alto), Doubling Clarinet
• Lew Soloff - Trumpet
• Jack Walrath - Trumpet
• Bobby Watson - Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
• Reggie Johnson - Bass
• Joe Wilder - Trumpet
• Victor Lewis - Drums
• Gary Smulyan - Sax (Baritone), Doubling Clarinet
• David Taylor - Trombone
• Britt Woodman - Trombone
• Ed Schuller - Bass, Guiro
• Randy Brecker - Trumpet
• Sam Burtis - Trombone
• Don Butterfield - Tuba
• Daniel Druckman - Percussion, Tumba
• Paul Faulise - Trombone, Trombone (Bass)
• Sir Roland Hanna - Piano
• Dale Kleps - Flute, Clarinet (Contrabass)
• Wynton Marsalis - Trumpet
• John McClure - Producer, Engineer, Editing, Mixing
• Vladimir Meller - Mastering
• Sue Mingus - Producer, Photography
• Charles Peterson - Photography
• Michael Rabinowitz - Bass, Bassoon, Clarinet (Bass)
• Roger Rosenberg - Flute, Piccolo, Sax (Baritone), Doubling Clarinet
• Gunther Schuller - Conductor, Producer, Liner Notes, Editing
• Snooky Young- Trumpet
• Allen Weinberg - Art Direction, Design
• David Gahr - Photography
• Andrew Homzy - Liner Notes