Track Listing

1. Myself When I Am Real
2. I Can't Get Started
3. Body and Soul
4. Roland Kirk's Message
5. Memories of You
6. She's Just Miss Popular Hybird
7. Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues
8. Meditations for Moses
9. Old Portrait
10. I'm Getting Sentimental over You
11. Compositional Theme Story: Medleys, Anthems and Folklore

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47872 in Music
• Released on: 1997-03-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
Japanese 24 Bit/96KHz remastered reissue of 1963 album originally issued on Impulse!, packaged in a limited edition miniature gatefold LP sleeve. 2001.

Customer Reviews

WHEN I HADN'T THOUGHT I DRANK THAT MUCH...
I enjoyed this Mingus piano album for years in an LP fromat. I loved everything about it: the cover portrait of the artist, the selections, and the "wee-small hours" feel of it. Back when I imbibed a bit, it often served as the unknown barometer that told me I had indeed been "over served." This was the album that hit that 3 o'clock in the morning, "dark night of the soul" spot. And often I would awaken (or "come to")to find the album still spinning on the turntable or spy the record jacket, which had served as a coaster, dotted with circles. But Mingus and his "Memories of You" or "I Can't Get Started" standards, along with his own compositions like "Myself When I Am Real," did the trick. They kept me company when I wasn't fit for anybody else's. At one point--and I'm glad the producers put the dialogue on the album--Mingus says "It's not like playing at home, is it?" and yet one would hardly know that he wasn't, that a studio indeed provided the venue. The engineer asks, "What can we do for you?" Whatever Mingus may have asked, and whatever was done for him, it all served the greater purpose of providing a vintage moment with Mingus, not standing beside his bass, but bent over a piano playing chords that resonated with the late-nite, early-morning mood. I once played a couple cuts of this album for the great pianist George Shearing, and while Mr. Shearing said that these were not standard pianistic chords, he acknowledged finding the Mingus interpretation enjoyable and inventive. I recommend the album, the CD, to anyone of taste.

A personal favorite.
1963 was quite a year for Charles Mingus. He'd already recorded what may be his masterwork in "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" when he returned to the studio to record in a rather unique manner-- as a solo pianist. The result is the stunning and often achingly beautiful "Mingus Plays Piano: Spontaneous Compositions and Improvisations".

Mingus, for someone known as a bassist, is quite a pianist-- his style is heavily indebted to Ellington, but there's also shades of Monk and Powell in his playing. More importantly, though, it's clear Mingus composed at the piano, as the voicings unique to his music are extraordinarily clear on this recording. And it's also clear that had he chosen this path, he'd've been a pianist of some repute.

The performances are largely pretty laid back, Mingus is in a pretty meditative and bluesy mood-- he tackles a few standards, some of his own compositions, and improvisations on brief themes within his music. The best of the material is delicate and lovely ("Myself When I Am Real"), energetic but not aggressive ("Body and Soul") or just stunning ("Orange Was the Color Of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues"). And while it lacks much of the bite, sarcasm, and aggressivenes of some of Mingus' better work, it is in its own way, a stunning album. Highly recommended.

mmmmmmmmm.....mingus.
wow. this album is incredible. i hear the sheer imaginative brilliance of charles mingus pure and unfiltered on this album. his impeccable, albeit at times quirky, sense of time and use of silence is a joy. i've found this album to be an excellent, easy-on-the-ears introduction to mingus for many of my friends. an intense solo-piano album that shines in its intensity and vision, mingus plays piano is a must have for anyone interested in mingus, jazz, piano, or the orangy-playfulness of pure imagination.