For almost two decades, the two creative minds behind our big band – Sebastian ‘Sese’ Krol and Rüdiger ‘Rübe’ Ruppert – have been curating brilliant evenings of jazz: a radiant highlight of this work took place on 19 September 2022, when Charles Mingus' “Epitaph” was performed in the sold-out Philharmonie. This concert was a tribute to Mingus' 100th birthday and was a sensation, which is now available as a CD on the EuroArts label. We are giving away this CD in today's Advent window.
Win one of two CDs of Charles Mingus' “Epitaph”, recorded live at the Philharmonie. If you want to be one of the winners, send an e-mail to advent@deutscheoperberlin.de today with the subject “The 15th little window”.
Charles Mingus caused a sensation in 1959 with his album ‘Ah Um’, which catapulted him into the pantheon of jazz. Immediately afterwards, he devoted himself to an even bolder vision: a suite for orchestra, part improvised, part composed – written for an ensemble of two complete big bands plus additional orchestral instruments. It was to be a work of the ‘third way’, combining jazz with the classical modernism of a Bartók and Stravinsky, but at the same time his personal opus summum. We are talking about ‘Epitaph’. In Berlin in 2022, conductor Titus Engel brought it to the stage: together with Charles Mingus' companion Randy Brecker, with musicians from the BigBand and the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Jazz Institute Berlin.
Charles Mingus himself never heard the full version of ‘Epitaph’. That's because the 1962 premiere was a fiasco, perhaps the biggest in jazz history. It happened at the Town Hall in New York: everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Mingus wrote highly complex music, but had only scheduled three rehearsals. Trombonist Jimmy Knepper became a copyist, transcribing sheet music that Mingus produced every day. There was no end to it, he kept changing, adding to and expanding the music. Knepper couldn't keep up. Mingus became bad-tempered, then angry, then hated the world. The pressure was on: the record company wanted to record live – extremely unusual at the time. Eventually the concert took place, the sheet music wasn't ready, the tension between the musicians was unmistakable, and the audience didn't like the badly played music. The concert ended in a police intervention. The second part was never played. Mingus died in 1979 without ever having heard his major work. The 500 pages of sheet music were discovered years later in an old suitcase belonging to his widow Sue.
‘The music is very varied, very dense, powerful, a unique work between genres,’ says Titus Engel in 2022. The conductor of this CD recording is – like Mingus – equally at home in the worlds of classical, new and jazz music, and he plays double bass like the master. And so the rarely heard work was brought to new life in this concert by the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin: Not only was there sufficient rehearsal time for the concert in Berlin and the atmosphere between the musicians was enthusiastic, but the sheet music was also newly created based on the critical new edition.
Listen to Charles Mingus' “Epitaph” conducted by Titus Engel with musicians from the BigBand and the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Jazz Institute Berlin, with Jorge Puerta (speaker / tenor) and Randy Brecker (trumpet). The CD was released on the EuroArts label.
Closing date: 15 December 2024. The winners will be informed by email on 16 December 2024. The CDs will be sent by post. The judges' decision is final.
