Jazz supergroup! And a strange one at that. Why not combine the talents of an aging legend (Ellington), with a hard-bop mainstay (Max Roach), and musical chameleon (Charles Mingus) and see what happens?
Supposedly this recording was fraught with tension, which is not surprising seeing that you've got three guys in the room that by 1962 were all on substantially different trajectories. Ellington, the elder by 20-plus years, had experienced a revival of sorts in the post-"Newport 1956" era, yet had no recording contract at this time. Meanwhile, Mingus was on the verge of recording the complex Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Not to be outdone, a couple years prior to this, Max Roach masterminded the timely and ambitious We Insist!/Freedom Now Suite. All of this hyper-charged talent can be heard in these incredible clashes expressed musically, with Ellington and Mingus pounding the crap out of their instruments, beating them a-la-Roach.
While this is the only session to feature all three men, Roach had recorded with Ellington the previous year, and had played with the Mingus quintet in 1955, and of course both had played in the Quintet (Jazz at Massey Hall) in 1952. Mingus was also brief in Ellington's big band. Then again, should it be any surprise that everyone had played with everybody else at some point?
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