Review: Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus & Max Roach, Money Jungle

Enter the 1962 Jazz masterpiece, Money Jungle. The players: Duke Ellington on the piano, Charles Mingus on the bass, and Max Roach on the drums... If you are a jazz fan, you're probably already sold by mere account of the album's lineup. However, even without the giant names on the CD cover, I would still say that this is some of the best god damn jazz that I'd ever heard. Before I blab on, take a quick listen to a full track, Very Special [listen in mp3]

For the individual players, the album's highlights are "a little max"[listen wma] for the drummer Max Roach, "switchblade"[listen wma]" for the bassist Charles Mingus, and of course "solitude"[listen in wma] for the Duke.

In an NPR Interview [Listen in Realplayer] , Max Roach recalls the tension between Mingus and Ellington in this recording. Apparently, Mingus walked out of the recording session on the first day. Indeed, the tension is evident in the album's title track "money jungle"[listen to full mp3].

I'm really at a loss for words when it comes to this album. All I can say is that if I could only bring one jazz album to a desert island, I wouldn't even think twice -- It's going to be Money Jungle. *****