Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Five Minguses in the title and it still undersells the man: Charles Mingus's 1964 Impulse! album gathers his large-ensemble writing into one ferocious, swinging statement.

Produced by Bob Thiele and drawn from two New York sessions in 1963, the record revisits pieces Mingus had already put on tape, reshaping them for a roaring band of brass and saxophones arranged with Bob Hammer. "II B.S." reworks one of his most famous earlier themes, while "Theme For Lester Young" is the elegy better known as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", here given a burnished, slow-motion glow.

The players are formidable. Eric Dolphy's alto and bass clarinet slice through the ensemble, Booker Ervin's tenor digs deep into the blues, and Jaki Byard's piano ricochets between stride and the avant-garde. "Hora Decubitus" is a riotous closer, horns piling on top of each other like a barroom argument that somehow resolves into harmony, and his take on Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" is a heartfelt bow to a hero.

Mingus himself drives it all from the bass, pushing, pulling and occasionally hollering the band into new shapes.

It is one of the best entry points into his world, and a record that rewards every return visit with something you missed the last time.