condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (light creasing and ring wear)

Live is where Charles Mingus makes most sense. In the studio the compositions get compressed; in a club or a hall they open out, the tempos shift on command, and the whole workshop method - stopping, restarting, shouting at the band, rebuilding a piece while it is being played - becomes audible. This Affinity release collects concert material from the sixties and has all of that in it: enormous bass playing, Dannie Richmond reading his leader's mind, and music that never once settles into a groove it cannot break out of.

UK Affinity pressing. Not an original album, and a perfectly good way to hear the band working.