I'm sure that in 40 years, I'll have some great memories about my younger years. One of them will definitely be the jazz concert I attended that Thursday night on the Fez, located at 380 Lafayette St, right under the Time Café. That as any other Thursday night, the center of attention was the famous "Mingus Big Band", whose name keeps alive a great, and a little controversial jazz composer, Charles Mingus.
When I got there, the musicians were rehearsing, and talking about the performance. All of them played with their instruments, making sure that they will not cause any problem during the "feared" live act. The band was constituted of 12 artists who seemed to struggle trying to fit in that little platform. The wind instruments were located at the front of the band, composed by: a bassoon, a flute, a trumpet, a tenor saxophone, an alto saxophone, and even a soprano saxophone.
Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus - Bi Centenial, Lower Manhattan Jul...Behind them, a French horn, a trombone and a bass saxophone. A drum kit with cymbals was the only percussion instrument that played in the band. The piano represented the keyboard family while a double bass and an electrical guitar represented the stringed instruments.
The band started with a ballad called "Noon night". The protagonist of this piece was the French horn who played a solo. The bass and the trombone followed the solo in the background. The second piece, called "Eclipse" featured the electrical guitar and the bassoon. Both of them performed the same melody in their solos. In the first solo the melody was mellow and slow while in the second, it got faster and more joyful. This musical piece seemed to accelerate as time passed by. I still can remember the ecstatic and cheering crowd when the piece was over. The...