Tui award winning NZ jazz legends The JAC present Charles Mingus's 1963 Black Saint and the Sinner Lady with full live band as Rogue & Vagabond hosts five nights of classic jazz albums played live by top local musicians.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz records of all time, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady comprises a single continuous composition—partially written as a ballet—divided into four tracks and six movements. Says Mingus of the album:
I wrote the music for dancing and listening. It is true music with much and many of my meanings. It is my living epitaph from birth til the day I first heard of Bird and Diz. Now it is me again. This music is only one little wave of styles and waves of little ideas my mind has encompassed through living in a society that calls itself sane, as long as you're not behind iron bars where there at least one can't be half as crazy as in most of the ventures our leaders take upon themselves to do and think for us, even to the day we should be blown up to preserve their idea of how life should be. Crazy? They'd never get out of the observation ward at Bellevue
I did. So, listen how. Play this record
Part of the Wellington Jazz Festival 2023
