Ellington/Mingus/Roach: Money Jungle (CD)

First released in 1962 via the United Artists label, Duke Ellington’s collaboration with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, Money Jungle, was a momentous jazz summit. Though often seen as the moment where the old guard (Ellington) squared up to jazz music’s young lions (Mingus and Roach), the generational differences between its three participants are often exaggerated. Certainly, Ellington was entering his twilight years – he had just turned 63 – but Mingus, then aged 40, and the 38-year-old Roach were hardly wet behind the ears when the album was recorded.

Perhaps a more accurate way of looking at the trio’s musical marriage is to see Ellington as a revered establishment figure pitted against modernist revolutionaries. Ultimately, though, the result of their collaboration wasn’t a confrontational face-off but a joyous celebration of jazz created by three unlikely kindred spirits.

1. Money Jungle
2. Fleurette Africaine
3. Very Special
4. Warm Valley
5. Switch Blade
6. A Little Max (Parfait)
7. Wig Wise
8. Caravan
9. Solitude
10. Rem Blues
11. Backward Country Boy Blues