E’s Flat Ah’s Flat Too

Jackie McLean and John Handy (alto sax), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Pepper Adams (baritone sax), Jimmy Knepper and Willie Dennis (trombone), Mal Waldron (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Blues & Roots (1960).

Horace Parlan was an American pianist and composer who played in the hard bop and post-bop styles. As a child he suffered from polio and as a result his right hand was partially incapacitated. Ahmad Jamal and Bud Powell were his main influences. He started playing rhythm and blues, but he joined Charles Mingus’s group from 1957 to 1959. During the 1960s he played with Booker Ervin, the quintet of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He moved to Copenhagen in 1973 and gained international recognition for his albums with SteepleChase Records, including two magnificent duet albums with Archie Shepp. He also recorded with Dexter Gordon, Frank Foster and Red Mitchell. He died in Denmark in 2017 at the age of 86.

Dannie Richmond was an American jazz drummer whose musical career was closely linked to that of Charles Mingus, with whom he remained from 1955 to 1978. They were a very powerful team, changing rhythms and tempos, and were capable of both imitating New Orleans jazz and playing very freely. After Mingus death he was the first one to take charge of the Mingus Dynasty ensemble in 1980. He died in 1988 at 57 years of age.

After a brief introduction by Mingus and Richmond, Adams comes in and then the rest of the band, and they expose the theme to a fast tempo. These are phrases repeated by the wind section, and each instrument stands out briefly from the others. The first one to make his solo is Parlam, which shows his enthusiastic and optimistic side. Next McClean enters doing acrobatics full of energy and vitality. He is followed by Ervin, who is even more daring and overwhelming. Hardin doesn’t want to be left behind and presses the accelerator with impetuous phrases that seem impossible to execute. Richmond begins his solo with the cymbals and then moves to the drums in an unrestrained way. To conclude, the group re-exposes the theme extensively and end in a chaotic way.