Money Jungle

Duke Ellington (piano), Charles Mingus (doble bass) and Max Roach (drums). From the album Money Jungle (1963).

In this album, Ellington surprised the world by playing with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, and all the themes except one were composed by Ellington especially for this session. The musicians didn’t want to rehearse, so the recording itself was their first experience playing together. The album belongs to the post-bop style and received favorable reviews at the time. Rumor has it that there were discussions among the musicians during the recording.

The title track of the album is a blues that begins with notes that Mingus plays forcefully, then Ellington joins in with dissonant chords and Roach supports them using the ride cymbal, the snare drum and the bass drum. “Fleurette Africaine” is a ballad built from a simple melody performed by Ellington. “Very Special” is another blues, this time quite catchy. In “Caravan”, Ellington plays the melody in low octaves imitating an orchestral sound and “Switch Blade” is a slow blues in which Mingus combines his bass lines with answers to what Duke plays.

Mingus begins playing, then Ellington joins him and then Roach. Ellington plays in an eccentric and impetuous way, with strange phrases, although very sanity gradually prevails. Sometimes Mingus gives up walking and accompanies Ellington freely, but he doesn’t care and continues to play the blues harmonies in a very peculiar way, occasionally being minimalistic. Mingus looks like he’s going to break the double bass of how hard he plays it while Roach accompanies the group in a solid way during the whole composition.