East Coasting (Bonus Track Version)

Charles Mingus' East Coasting, originally released in 1957, was overshadowed by the session that preceded it, New Tijuana Moods (which wasn't released until 1962), and 1959's monumental Mingus Ah Um, both of which used essentially the same musicians (Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Clarence Gene Shaw on trumpet, Shafi Hadi (aka Curtis Porter) on tenor and alto sax, Dannie Richmond on drums, Mingus on bass, and for East Coasting, a young, pre-Miles Davis Bill Evans on piano). But although East Coasting is both more subdued and mainstream, at least for Mingus, than either of those more celebrated albums, it has more than enough of its own charm to go around. The opening cut, a version of the 1930s standard "Memories of You," seems a bit out of place on this set, although it exhibits a marvelous and haunting smoothness, and proves that when Mingus chose to, he could play the mainstream game as well as any of his contemporaries. The center of this set is undoubtedly the ten-minute-plus "West Coast Ghost," which is as autobiographical as it is impressive. Mingus, of course, wasn't particularly "East Coast" or "West Coast" in his jazz leanings, being really more of his own coast altogether, but on East Coasting he comes as close as he ever would to reconciling his sense of post-bop jazz with the general public's perception of it, making this one of his most accessible albums. This reissue adds alternate takes of "Memories of You" and "East Coasting."