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Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series) Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records! 180-gram 45 RPM double LP Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog tape Mingus taps blues and roots sources for a joyous swinging outing! Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings! Gatefold old-style 'tip-on' jacket by Stoughton Printing AllMusic marks Charles Mingus' Blues & Roots as a rejoinder to the critical carping that the virtuoso bass player and accomplished jazz pianist and bandleader and his evocative music 'somehow didn't swing enough.' For this album Mingus turned to the earthiest and earliest sources of black musical expression - blues, gospel, and old-time New Orleans jazz. The resulting album ranks arguably as Mingus' most joyously swinging outing. Recorded in 1959 and released in 1960, Blues & Roots' birth was explained by Mingus in the album's liner notes 'This record is unusual-it presents only one part of my musical world, the blues. A year ago, Nesuhi Ertegun suggested that I record an entire blues album in the style of 'Haitian Fight Song' (in Atlantic LP 1260), because some people, particularly critics, were saying I didn't swing enough. He wanted to give them a barrage of soul music churchy, blues, swinging, earthy. I thought it over. I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing. So I agreed.' Anyone who had heard 'Haitian Fight Song' shouldn't have been surprised that such an album was well within Mingus' range. Mingus boosts the complexity of the music by assembling a nine-piece outfit and arranging multiple lines to be played simultaneously - somewhat akin to the Dixieland ensembles of old, but with an acutely modern flavor. That modern flavor is reinforced and enhanced by the rich Analogue Prod
