Chris Biscoe
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Chris Biscoe: email: chrisbiscoemail (at) gmail (dot) com
Chris Biscoe: email: chrisbiscoemail (at) gmail (dot) com
The Complete Mingus Ah Um
Chris Biscoe formed Mingus Moves in 1996 with Henry Lowther.
The wellspring from which the music flowed was Mingus Ah Um, and Chris’s CD Profiles of Mingus from 2010 includes versions of five tunes from that album in instrumentations from quartet to septet.
The wellspring from which the music flowed was Mingus Ah Um, and Chris’s CD Profiles of Mingus from 2010 includes versions of five tunes from that album in instrumentations from quartet to septet.
The Complete Mingus Ah Um is a new venture using the same instrumentation as the original 1959 recording with some new twists. As you'd expect, all the music from the album is present, sometimes in its familiar form, sometimes not, plus some extra material. Performed by the original line-up of rhythm, trombone and three saxes, with some new twists and colours, including vocals and alto clarinets.
Also in the programme are Gunslinging Bird, Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love, the Joni Mitchell version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, and the essential song for today: Oh Lord, don’t let them drop that atomic bomb on me.
The musicians:
Chris Biscoe – alto and tenor sax, alto clarinet; Tony Woods – soprano and alto sax, alto clarinet; Nette Robinson – voice and tenor sax; Nick Mills – trombone; Kate Williams - piano, Larry Bartley – bass; Gary Willcox – drums
Chris Biscoe – alto and tenor sax, alto clarinet; Tony Woods – soprano and alto sax, alto clarinet; Nette Robinson – voice and tenor sax; Nick Mills – trombone; Kate Williams - piano, Larry Bartley – bass; Gary Willcox – drums
The first performance of The Complete Mingus Ah Um was at Jazz Café Posk in 2025, presented by Way Out West
Reviews of PROFILES OF MINGUS – Trio TR585
Tim Cumming, The Independent, Album of the week:
…flows with all the force of the originals, the ensemble broiling somewhere between whitewater and wildfire…
Tim Cumming, The Independent, Album of the week:
…flows with all the force of the originals, the ensemble broiling somewhere between whitewater and wildfire…
Kenny Mathieson, The Scotsman ****
Biscoe's sparkling arrangements and splendid playing vividly capture Mingus's sprawling, rumbustious energy, while giving the music a fresh twist.
Biscoe's sparkling arrangements and splendid playing vividly capture Mingus's sprawling, rumbustious energy, while giving the music a fresh twist.
John Fordham, Guardian ****
Saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Biscoe has been on the British scene for a long time, but he's made the territory between postbop and free-jazz entirely his own, and his sophisticated tributes to the jazz giants are always distinctive.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Biscoe has been on the British scene for a long time, but he's made the territory between postbop and free-jazz entirely his own, and his sophisticated tributes to the jazz giants are always distinctive.
Mike Butler: Dyverse Music
This is classical music in the jazz idiom and similarly open to fresh interpretation and exploration. Sheer genius.
This is classical music in the jazz idiom and similarly open to fresh interpretation and exploration. Sheer genius.
Chris Parker – Vortex Website
More importantly, however, both the Mingus compositions and the odd Biscoe original inspired by the great bassist/composer positively drip with Mingus's great musical strengths: an infectious, often downright brawling robustness that infuses not only the naggingly memorable themes but also spills over into the freewheeling solos to which they give rise; a faith in the music's basics (chiefly the blues, but also the sparky, interactive spontaneity of traditional jazz and rumbustious swing of big-band music) that grounds even the most sophisticated Mingus composition; the easy, fluid, natural movement between sharp ensemble work and solo eccentricity.
More importantly, however, both the Mingus compositions and the odd Biscoe original inspired by the great bassist/composer positively drip with Mingus's great musical strengths: an infectious, often downright brawling robustness that infuses not only the naggingly memorable themes but also spills over into the freewheeling solos to which they give rise; a faith in the music's basics (chiefly the blues, but also the sparky, interactive spontaneity of traditional jazz and rumbustious swing of big-band music) that grounds even the most sophisticated Mingus composition; the easy, fluid, natural movement between sharp ensemble work and solo eccentricity.
Brian Morton Jazz Journal August 2010
It illustrates all the things that modern jazz could have been if Charles Mingus had been recognised as a father figure instead of marginalised as a bad uncle.
It illustrates all the things that modern jazz could have been if Charles Mingus had been recognised as a father figure instead of marginalised as a bad uncle.
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Tony Woods - soprano & alto saxophones
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