11. Charles MingusOh Yeah
The quintessential cover of this one is a CD release where he’s sat looking grumpy as fuck at a piano. It’s really good.
This is one of the first things I bought when I started working at Windows. I came in after the weekend and chatted to this guy Robert about it, and I remember I said that it was funny, and a lot of fun, but that I also felt like it was really angry. And he said “yes, that’s very perceptive”. I remember having this flush of pride because I’d been perceptive about an album. Of course Charles Mingus is angry, but back then I had no idea of the history of jazz or where it comes from.
It’s so relentless. I love this track ‘Ecclusiastics’ – it’s like The Magic Roundabout, but it gets to this really free thing where he’s just shouting all over the record… [does impression of Charles Mingus] and there’s hardly really any melodies to it… [imitates horns]… like alarm sounds going off everywhere, it’s really frantic. I understand now that it is a furious record.
