"THIS ISN'T SEX"

Eric Mingus voice, double bass, Jim Dvorak tpt, pkt tpt, voice.

Recorded Katz’ Kitchen, London, England. January 1999.

SLAMCD 504 Bar code 5 028386 050421

TRACKS:

1   I can’t wait for Brooklyn                    0m 55s

2   Blood on the streets                           4   05

3   Brick exposed                                   2   35

4   This isn’t sex                                      3   15

5   Blue and white lights                           4   10

6   The phone went dead                         4   32

7   Baba O’Riley                                     2   03

8   Sex as a weapon                                3   05

9   It isn’t good poetry til you mention sex   1   13

10  I broke down                                    3   30

11  Feel good factor                               7   26

12  Yuppie status symbol                        3   35

13  Butchie                                             3   01

14  I think of you                                    3   09

15  Chemical attitude adjustment             3   48

TIME OUT Painfully hip jazz and poetry hybrid, pitched somewhere between Kerouac's beat ramblings, Archie Shepp's pornographic poetry and Gil Scott-Heron's spartan proto-rap of the early '70s. This is spiky, highly listenable stuff, and Eric's dad would've been proud. And "Yuppie Status Symbol" is the funniest piss-take of inverted snobbery I've ever heard. JOHN LEWIS

JAZZ JOURNAL Here we have 15 recitations about life and (one must say) death. Some are spoken, others are sung and they are supported by Mingus's bass and Dvorak's emotionally charged trumpet. Mingus tells most of the stories and they show him to be a sage with a good hang on life. Whether it is story telling with jazz accompaniment or purely jazz and poetry, is unimportant. Both men have impressive family backgrounds: Antonin Dvorak died in 1904 and Charles Mingus Sr in 1979 but, odds are, they would have been appreciative of the differing messages here. Yes, even Chazz himself. BARRY McRAE