Charles Mingus - Duet Solo Dancers
Coming off of one of the great Jazz albums, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Duet Solo Dancers is Mingus at his mad genius best. The album itself was intended to be a meditation on Mingus' fractured psyche and the emotional struggles he was enduring at the time. Chaotic, erratic and messy, Duet Solo Dancers can be a difficult, but extraordinary listen that encapsulates a wide array of emotion in one movement.
The piece starts with a fairly tender, melancholy piano intro, with the horns soon taking over and giving a very similar introspective sound. One that seems to resound with regret. From here we delve deeper into a personal struggle as the horn playing becomes more erratic and the tempo begins to increase, representing a loss of control and a free fall through an emotional mire - where one is trapped despite an apparent attempt at resilience. After a brief pause for thought, the sound then develops into an acceptance of this sad fate. Towards the end, a sax breaks through the feeling of complete abjection to offer a glimpse of hope despite being seemingly defeated. However, this is soon enclosed by the instrumentation that forebodes only inevitable doom.
