''Epitaph'' is a composition by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It is 4,235 measures long, takes more than two hours to perform, and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death. With the help of a grant from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the work itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

and produced by Mingus's widow, Sue, at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

on June 3, 1989, 10 years after his death, and issued as a live album. It was performed again at several concerts in 2007. Accurately convinced that it would never be performed in his lifetime, Mingus called his work ''Epitaph'' declaring that it was written "for my tombstone."

1962 version

There was one ill-fated attempt to record some of "Epitaph" during Mingus's lifetime, in New York City on October 12, 1962. The album '' The Complete Town Hall Concert'' (United Artists UAJ 14024) includes the tracks "Epitaph Pt. I" and "Epitaph Pt. II", as well as "Clark in the Dark", for trumpeter Clark Terry, who played in the band. The musicians included: Saxes and woodwinds *

Danny Bank Daniel Bernard Bank (July 17, 1922 – June 5, 2010) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist. He is credited on some releases as Danny Banks. He was born on July 17, 1922. Early in his career Bank played with Charlie Barnet ...

(contrabass clarinet) *Romeo Penque (oboe) *

Buddy Collette William Marcel "Buddy" Collette (August 6, 1921 – September 19, 2010) was an American jazz flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Early life William Marcel Collette was born in L ...

(alto saxophone) * Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone) *

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biography Mariano was born in ...

(alto saxophone) * Charles McPherson (alto saxophone) *George Berg (tenor saxophone) *

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

(tenor saxophone) *

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with C ...

(baritone saxophone) *

Pepper Adams Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a s ...

(baritone saxophone) Trumpets *Eddie Armour * Rolf Ericson *

Lonnie Hillyer Lonnie Hillyer (March 25, 1940 in Monroe, Georgia – July 1, 1985 in New York City) was an American jazz trumpeter, strongly influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and other bebop legends of that era. Lonnie Hillyer ...

* Ernie Royal * Clark Terry *Richard Williams *

Snooky Young Eugene Edward "Snooky" Young (February 3, 1919 – May 11, 2011) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he was able to create a wide range of sounds. Biography Young was lead trumpeter of t ...

Trombones and tuba *

Eddie Bert Edward Joseph Bertolatus (May 16, 1922 – September 27, 2012), also known as Eddie Bert, was an American jazz trombonist. Music career He was born in Yonkers, New York, United States. Bert received a degree and a teaching license from the Manha ...

Jimmy Cleveland James Milton Cleveland (May 3, 1926 – August 23, 2008) was an American jazz trombonist born in Wartrace, Tennessee.

Willie Dennis Willie Dennis ( née William DeBerardinis, January 10, 1926 – July 8, 1965) was an American jazz trombonist known as a big band musician but who was also an excellent bebop soloist. Career After working with Elliot Lawrence, Claude Th ...

Quentin Jackson Quentin "Butter" Jackson

* Britt Woodman *Paul Faulise Rhythm section * Warren Smith (vibraphone, percussion) *

Les Spann Leslie Spann Jr. (May 23, 1932 – January 24, 1989) was an American jazz guitarist and flautist. As a sideman he recorded with Nat Adderley, Benny Bailey, Bill Coleman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Curtis Fuller, Red Garland, Benny Goodman, Sam Jon ...

(guitar) *

Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese–American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in '' Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. ...

(piano) *

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for hi ...

(piano) * Charles Mingus (bass) *

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

(bass) *

Dannie Richmond Charles Daniel Richmond (December 15, 1931 – March 16, 1988) was an American jazz drummer who is best known for his work with Charles Mingus. He also worked with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond. Biography Richmond was born Charles ...

(drums) *

Grady Tate Grady Tate (January 14, 1932 – October 8, 2017) was an American jazz and soul-jazz drummer and baritone vocalist. In addition to his work as sideman, Tate released many albums as leader and lent his voice to songs in the animated ''Schoolhou ...

(percussion) A review by Bill Coss appeared in the December 6, 1962 edition of ''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' titled "A Report of a Most Remarkable Event", and was reprinted in the January 2005 edition. The concert/recording was extremely disorganized. From the liner notes: "...this record represents a curious combination of open recording session and concert on a

New York City Town Hall The Town Hall (also Town Hall) is a performance space at 123 West 43rd Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was built from 1919 to 1921 and designed by a ...

stage that held thirty musicians, two men still copying the music to be played, no play-back equipment, and a host of unbelievable tensions." From Martin Williams's review: "The occasion was supposed to have been a public recording date, but the producers' announcements and ads somehow came out reading 'concert.' At one point during the proceedings, Mingus shouted to his audience, advising, 'Get your money back!'" From the Coss article: The problems seem to have arisen because Mingus had piles of new music in his head, and wanted to stage an open rehearsal which United Artists and producer Alan Douglas wanted to record and release. Then UA moved up the date five weeks, Mingus kept writing even newer music while rehearsals were underway, the musicians were unprepared (the Coss article suggests that in three previous rehearsals not one piece had been played all the way through), and the audience - most of whom were apparently expecting a fully rehearsed concert rather than a taping session with false starts, retakes and edit pieces - was flabbergasted.

1989 version

After Mingus's death, the score to ''Epitaph'' was rediscovered by Andrew Homzy, director of the jazz program at Concordia University, Montreal. He had been invited by Sue Mingus to catalogue a trunkful of Mingus's handwritten charts and in the process had discovered a vast assortment of orchestral pages written by Mingus with measures numbered consecutively well into the thousands. After some investigation, Homzy realized what it was that he had found and eventually managed to reassemble the ''Epitaph'' score. At that point Homzy and Sue Mingus got in touch with Gunther Schuller, who put together an all-star orchestra to play this very demanding piece of music. However, despite the stellar cast that was assembled, problems were again encountered. Thirty years earlier, charts were being copied in the wings before the show. This time, the charts were all computerized, but the software was buggy and again charts were being sight-read at the last minute. This was no mean feat. ''Epitaph'' resembles many other Mingus compositions in level of difficulty. Trumpeter

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Award ...

, pointing at a passage in the score said, "That looks like something you would find in an Etude Book... under 'Hard'." And conductor Gunther Schuller stated "The only comparison I've ever been able to find is the great iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives." Despite all these challenges, however, the concert, at Alice Tully Hall in New York's

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

in 1989, was a critical triumph, if ten years too late for Charles Mingus to enjoy it. The same personnel performed the piece two days later at the Wolf Trap Farm Park outside of Washington, DC. A double-CD was later released by Columbia/Sony Records. The concert was also filmed, and broadcast on U.K. television around 1990. The 1989 recording at Alice Tully Hall was recorded by John McClure and David Hewitt on Remote Recording Services' Silver Truck.

Track listings

Personnel

Conductor *

Saxes and woodwinds *

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor and baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and oboe. Biography Handy was born in ...

(clarinet, alto saxophone) *

(clarinet, alto saxophone, speech) *

Bobby Watson Robert Michael Watson Jr. (born August 23, 1953), known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. Music career Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He ...

(clarinet, flute, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone) * George Adams (tenor saxophone) *Phil Bodner (oboe, English horn, clarinet, tenor saxophone) *Roger Rosenberg (piccolo, flute, clarinet, baritone saxophone) *

Gary Smulyan Gary Smulyan (born April 4, 1956) is a jazz musician who plays baritone saxophone. He studied at Hofstra University before working with Woody Herman. He leads a trio with bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Kenny Washington (musician), Kenny Washi ...

(clarinet, baritone saxophone) * Michael Rabinowitz (bassoon, bass clarinet) *Dale Kleps (flute, contrabass clarinet) Trumpets *

Randy Brecker Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B. Early life Brecker was born on No ...

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944–March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard Sc ...

Jack Walrath Jack Arthur Walrath (born May 5, 1946) is an American post-bop jazz trumpeter and musical arranger known for his work with Ray Charles, Gary Peacock, Charles Mingus, and Glenn Ferris, among others. Biography Walrath was born in Stuart, Florida. ...

*Joe Wilder *

Trombones and tuba *

*Sam Burtis * Urbie Green * David Taylor * Britt Woodman (bass trombone) *Paul Faulise (bass trombone) *

Don Butterfield Don Kiethly Butterfield (April 1, 1923 – November 27, 2006) was an American jazz and classical tuba player. Biography Butterfield began to play the tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba inst ...

(tuba) Rhythm section *

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (born March 30, 1935 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German jazz pianist, composer, and educator. Career Berger played piano in Germany when he was ten and worked in his teens at a club in Heidelberg. He learned modern jazz from v ...

(vibraphone, cowbell) * John Abercrombie (guitar) *

Roland Hanna Roland Pembroke Hanna (February 10, 1932 – November 13, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and teacher. Biography Hanna studied classical piano from the age of 11, but was strongly interested in jazz, having been introduced to i ...

(piano) *

John Hicks Sir John Richards Hicks (8 April 1904 – 20 May 1989) was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economi ...

(piano) * Reggie Johnson (bass) *Ed Schuller (bass, guiro) *

Victor Lewis Victor Lewis (born May 20, 1950) is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator. Early life Victor Lewis was born on May 20, 1950 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Richard Lewis, who played saxophone and mother, Camille, a pianist-vocalist ...

(drums) *Daniel Druckman (percussion, tumba)

2007 version

Let My Children Hear Music again presented ''Epitaph'' in 2007, including new sections discovered since the 1989 premiere. *Wed, April 25, 2007, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York. Hosted by Bill Cosby *Fri, April 27, 2007, 8pm, Tri-C Jazz Festival, Cleveland, Ohio *Wed, May 16, 2007, 8pm, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles *Fri, May 18, 2007, 8pm, Symphony Center Chicago, Symphony Orchestra Chicago The concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall was broadcast b
NPR
and available online.

Personnel

Conductor *

Saxes and woodwinds * Michael Rabinowitz, bassoon *

Douglas Yates Douglas A. Yates is an American political scientist residing in Paris. He specializes in African politics and the politics of the oil industry in Africa and is known for his development of rentier state theory. He has authored or co-authored severa ...

, contrabass clarinet * Craig Handy * Steve Slagle *

Abraham Burton Abraham Augustus Burton Jr. (born March 17, 1971) is an American saxophonist and bandleader. Biography Burton was born in New York City on March 17, 1971, and was raised in Greenwich Village. He studied at the Hartt School from 1989 to 1993, gradu ...

, alto saxophones * Kathy Halvorson * Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophones *

Ronnie Cuber Ronald Edward Cuber (December 25, 1941 – October 7, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. He also played in Latin, pop, rock, and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he played tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet ...

* Lauren Sevian, baritone saxophones Trumpets *

Ryan Kisor Ryan Kisor (born April 12, 1973) is an American jazz trumpeter. A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Kisor learned trumpet from his father, Larry Kisor, and started playing in a local dance band (the Eddie Skeets Orchestra) at age ten. Kisor began clas ...

Walter White Walter White most often refers to: * Walter White (''Breaking Bad''), character in the television series ''Breaking Bad'' * Walter Francis White (1893–1955), American leader of the NAACP Walter White may also refer to: Fictional characters ...

Dave Ballou Dave Ballou is an American jazz trumpeter and associate professor at Towson University, in Maryland. Early life and education Ballou was born in Peace Dale, Rhode Island. He started playing the trumpet at age 11. Ballou received his bachelor's ...

Alex Sipiagin Alex Sipiagin (born June 11, 1967) is a Russian jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. Biography Sipiagin was born on June 11, 1967. He moved from Russia to the U.S. in 1990. His first major job in the U.S. was with the Gil Evans Band. He has p ...

* Kenny Rampton Trombones and tuba * Sam Burtis * Ku-umba Frank Lacy * Andre Hayward * Conrad Herwig *

Earl McIntyre Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

* Dave Taylor * Howard Johnson, tuba Rhythm section * Kenny Drew Jr. *

George Colligan George Colligan (born December 29, 1969) is an American jazz pianist, organist, drummer, trumpeter, educator, composer, and bandleader. Early life and education Colligan was born in New Jersey and raised in Columbia, Maryland. He attended the P ...

, pianos *

Boris Kozlov Boris Kozlov is a Russian-born jazz bassist. Biography Born in Moscow, USSR on December 5, 1967, Kozlov studied piano at Children's Music School before switching to bass. Kozlov won the Gnesin Music Academy Competition which enabled him to enter ...

Christian McBride Christian McBride (born May 31, 1972) is an American jazz bassist, composer and arranger. He has appeared on more than 300 recordings as a sideman, and is an eight-time Grammy Award winner. McBride has performed and recorded with a number of j ...

, basses *

Johnathan Blake Johnathan Blake (born July 1, 1976, in Philadelphia) is an American jazz drummer. Biography Johnathan Blake is the son of jazz violinist John Blake Jr. He started playing the drums when he was ten; He gained his first experience in his homet ...

, drums *Christos Rafalides, vibraphone *

Jack Wilkins Jack Rivers Lewis (born June 4, 1944), known professionally as Jack Wilkins, is a jazz guitarist. Career A native of New York City, Wilkins grew up listening to his parents' music, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Billie Holiday. He ...

, guitar * Mark Belair * David Nyberg, percussion

Score

In 2008, the full score of ''Epitaph'' was published by Let My Children Hear Music, Inc (The Charles Mingus Institute), distributed by Hal Leonard.

References

External links

John Sobol, "Meeting the Underdog"
– in-depth personal memoir of ''Epitaphs recreation, by John Sobol, a jazz critic who was at the rehearsals and show

{{Authority control 1990 live albums Charles Mingus live albums Columbia Records live albums 1962 compositions Compositions by Charles Mingus Albums produced by Sue Mingus Charles Mingus tribute albums