6. Charles MingusMingus Plays Piano
That is an amazing dinner party record I suppose, because I got into him through a track he did – ‘Mood Indigo’ which is in The Untouchables film, it’s like the first song in the film. There’s just a beautiful version of it, he does the most sublime bass solo, so I checked him out after that and got intrigued.
I was just looking for material to sample. I didn’t sample any of that album. It’s too good to sample really. I like sampling shit music because it’s harder to make something good out of it, it’s more of a challenge.
I like this album because the piano is not his first instrument. It’s incredibly clunky, the playing, but it’s also really clever. It’s so unpretentious and unaffected the way he plays, there’s no sort of notional trying to sound technically clever. It’s just purely instinctual and that combination of feeling like you’re in the hands of someone who’s playing quite naively but is also a total expert and you’re not quite sure where the line goes. There’s something very childlike about it but there’s also a subtle intelligence to his playing and the way his mind kind of picks out certain harmonies; it’s a really great record.
The recording of it is amazing too. It sounds really warm and lush. I think it’s his only solo piano record. It’s a shame it’s the only one, but it’s great when people do those one off records where they’re out of their comfort zone a bit. But he clearly had the chops to deliver a whole record of piano, which is quite amazing, given that it’s not his first instrument.
