Most tributes to the legendary bassist Charles Mingus fail because they try to reproduce the feel of the tormented genius, and the fact is that most jazz artists these days are just not that tormented. Harry Skoler avoids the problem by featuring the tunes of Mingus with his clarinet, something rarely played in the Mingus lexicon. He also brings in a string quartet and an all-star cast of Kenny Barron/p, Christian McBride/b, Johnathan Blake/dr, Nicholas Payton/tp and Jazzmeia Horn/voc to bring out fresh colors of the Mingus palate.
Horn is blue with Barron on “Moves” while Barron and McBride duke it out on “Underdog”. The team is pastoral on “Newcomer” and the strings are rich as they pizzicato through “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” and sway to “Peggy’s Blue Skylight”. Skoler’s warm and woody stick works wonders, particularly on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” but also on the dream y “Sue’s Changes” with Payton. For this session, beauty won out over anger.