It's touching that
Charles Mingus
, on what would be his last appearance on record as a bassist, should have hooked up once more with
Lionel Hampton
, with whom he first recorded almost 30 years to the day earlier in 1947. It's upbeat, bright, and chirpy, like
Hamp
's vibes, and
Mingus
' inimitable sense of line comes through the somewhat horn-heavy band lineup without difficulty (
' last working band, featuring
Jack Walrath
on trumpet,
Ricky Ford
on tenor, and pianist
Bob Neloms
, is augmented not only by
Hampton
but also by
Paul Jeffrey
's tenor and
Gerry Mulligan
's distinctively gruff baritone), but it all somehow lacks the depth -- acoustically as well as musically -- of other great late
albums such as
Changes One
,
Changes Two
, and
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
. One of the bassist's greatest contributions to
jazz
was the extended composition, and to hear great and harmonically rich
ballads
such as
"Duke Ellington's Sound of Love"
dispensed with in a mere six minutes (the presentation of its theme alone takes up a quarter of the track's total running time) is somewhat unfortunate. The inclusion of
classics such as
"Fables of Faubus"
and
"So Long Eric"
cannot help trigger nostalgia on the part of
aficionados for those pieces' legendary readings in the early '60s, and even
"Sound of Love"
"Just for Laughs"
received their definitive treatment at the hands of
George Adams
Don Pullen
on
Two
(the latter is known as
"Remember Rockefeller at Attica"
on 1975's
). ~ Dan Warburton