Walking south in my Chelsea neighborhood along Seventh Avenue South, I swiftly passed the new Northwell Hospital without taking much notice on my way to the oldest jazz club in NYC, the Village Vanguard.
Twenty-three Taiwanese ladies from NATWA (the North American Taiwanese Women’s Association), most of whom were visiting the Big Apple for the first time, were now waiting patiently for me under the famous Vanguard awning.
This would be our ground zero meeting place to embark upon a unique NYC experience I planned for them that they could not likely get elsewhere in America. Thus, I felt a tremendous burden of responsibility, and I didn’t want to ruin their first trip to New York City ever, much less the Village!
This all happened on Friday, October 17, the first date of my inaugural Historic Greenwich Village Jazz Walking Tour. Originally set for October 18, to my delight it turned out that the date being changed to the 17th would be very serendipitous.
The famous Mingus Dynasty band had established a new residency with one of my favorite Greenwich Village jazz clubs, Zinc Bar, every third Friday of the month. Incredibly, they just happened to be playing at Zinc Bar on October 17! Jackpot!
Mingus Dynasty is an American jazz ensemble formed in 1979 by Charles Mingus’ widow Sue Mingus, just after his death. Mingus is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century. He was a renowned double bassist, pianist, composer, activist, and author.
The band has featured many musicians Mingus recorded or played with. Over 46 years, there still remains three Mingus repertory groups: Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Orchestra. All three have toured extensively worldwide and until only recently, made a “home” on Monday nights at DROM in New York.
We barely made it to Zinc Bar on time, but the owner was waiting for us. Somehow, they squeezed in 23 ladies and myself altogether in chairs and banquette seating.
Mingus Dynasty Hits Hard
Mingus Dynasty is a band where every single member is a decorated world class musician. The talent and experience on that stage at Zinc Bar was staggering.
Their set started fast and furious, with the band’s incendiary version of Mingus’ Gunslinging Bird, a song that pays homage to the late great alto saxophonist and one of the fathers of jazz improvisation, Charlie Parker.
As Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist and band leader for the evening Wayne Escoffery said shortly of the song, “The real full length title is ‘If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there would be a lot of dead copycats!’ ”
Mingus wrote many pieces to honor musicians he revered and respected. However, he also wrote pieces to dishonor and remind us of atrocities that happened during his time.
The second piece the band played was Mingus’ protest piece called Fables of Faubus to dishonor the Governor of Arkansas who in 1957 called out the National Guard to prevent the racial integration of schools. Mingus was a dedicated activist and was highly vocal towards the good and bad acts of the world around him.
Parts swung really hard, while others sounded satirical and even whimsical. The most noticeable “glue” of this piece were the band members’ vocal chants throughout the song. Brandon Wright on alto sax, and Tatum Greenblatt on trumpet both went off on exploratory solos.
The third song was Mingus’ beautiful ballad Portrait featuring the great trombonist Conrad Herwig who played a breath-taking, gorgeous solo. His beautiful yet precise rapid-fire fluttering of notes and total command of tone certainly makes him one of the best trombonists on the planet.
Their acclaimed pianist, Helen Sung, began the piece with a cascading introduction so splendid that it transported me to a peaceful place depicting a beautiful “portrait.” It is no wonder Sung has won many prestigious awards, notably the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition.
The last piece played was Mingus’ exuberant multi-layered Three or Four Shades of the Blues where Wayne Escoffery began in a tongue-in-cheek manner reciting 11 specific instructions by Mingus of how to play the blues!
After a whipping start, Sung completely diverged by playing a whimsical childlike improvisation solo which soon morphed into ragtime, atonal music, and back to the blues. Her versatility on the instrument is astounding.
Mark Lewandowsky on the double bass filled those Mingus double bass shoes nicely, by playing swingin’ lines while Sung continued playing the blues. The entire band came in swingin’, but quickly Lewandowsky switched to an Afro-Cuban rhythm!
Everyone on the bandstand had a chance to solo on this piece. Long-time drummer and veteran of the Mingus Big Band, Adam Cruz, got to solo too.
Wayne Escoffery had been holding back until the end all along. When it was his time to go, he simply “blew the doors off” with this fluttering in-and-out Byrd-like solo, at times fast angular lines, then returning home. What also really impressed me is how effective Escoffery was as a band leader.
End of the Night
After Mingus Dynasty’s flaming set had ended, Escoffery and the entire band were super nice, and allowed our entire group to take a photo with the full band after that set, an amazing rare treat for everyone!
I had a chance to speak separately with Herwig and Sung by the bar. That’s when I found out Sung was from Taiwan and introduced her to our 23 Taiwanese ladies on the tour. More photos. What a beautiful ending!
One of the best shows I’ve seen this year, and we were very lucky to have our inaugural Jazz Tour experience it. Thanks to Alex at Zinc Bar for accommodating us.
Read this article Mingus Dynasty on Fire at Zinc Bar where I originally wrote it in The Village View:
Kaju Roberto is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify.