Ethan Philion - Meditations on Mingus (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

In-demand Chicago bassist Ethan Philion — praised by bass legend Rufus Reid for his “wonderful internal pulse,” and by The Washington Post for his “well-honed chops and astounding musicality” — has long looked to Charles Mingus as a towering role model. Mingus’ highly physical bass technique, his up-front communicative style as a bandleader, his interest in blending composition and improvisation, his pursuit of a unified voice in both small and large group settings, and not least of all his uncompromising antiracist politics and the way they manifest throughout his oeuvre: these qualities continue to inspire Philion and so many others in the decades following Mingus’ untimely death from ALS in 1979, at age 56.

Now, in Mingus’ centennial year of 2022, Philion is proud to present Meditations on Mingus, a powerfully swinging and inventive set of Mingus masterworks as arranged by Philion himself and performed by a stellar 10-piece ensemble. “My goal was to put together a program of pieces that speak to current events,” Philion states. “The themes of the songs on the album — racism, prejudice, identity, economic inequality — are all still relevant to the world today. These compositions ask listeners to reflect on humanity’s continued capacity for evil, but as Mingus’s psychiatrist Edmund Pollock put it, they are also ‘a call for acceptance, respect, love, understanding, fellowship, freedom — a plea to change the evil in man and to end hatred.’”

TRACKLIST

01. Ethan Philion - Once Upon a Time There Was a Holding Corporation Called Old America
02. Ethan Philion - Haitian Fight Song
03. Ethan Philion - Self-Portrait in Three Colors
04. Ethan Philion - Pithecanthropus Erectus
05. Ethan Philion - Prayer for Passive Resistance
06. Ethan Philion - Meditations on a Pair of Wirecutters
07. Ethan Philion - Remember Rockefeller at Attica
08. Ethan Philion - Better Git It In Your Soul



Thanks to the Original customer.