Mingus at Eight

Friday at 8 p.m., the Harvard University Jazz Band will present a program of the music of Charles Mingus. The legendary bassist-composer had planned to attend the concert; his death in January at age 56 makes this performance a timely tribute to a stormy giant of American music. Trumpeter par excellence Ted Curson, who was a member of the Mingus Jazz Workshop in the early 60's, will be on hand to provide some of the spirit that Mingus passed on to all those with whom he played.

This concert offers a rare opportunity to hear a public performance of Mingus's music by a large band. Mingus made a number of important recordings with a large ensemble in the studio, but he only rarely appeared with a big band. When he did, he made an impression; his once-infamous Town Hall Concert of 1962 is now recognized as a landmark in jazz history.

The Harvard Jazz Band will perform several of Mingus's own arrangements, including his ambitious "Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife..." and his haunting tribute to saxophonist Lester Young, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." Also featured will be new arrangements of "Sue's Changes" and the rarely performed "Fables of Faubus," as well as a Mingus medley called "Amigus Amingus." This promises to be an evening of inspired music.

This Sunday's installment in the Emmanuel Church Jazz Celebration series is a performance by piano-vibes artist Karl Berger and the "Woodstock Orchestra." These musicians are associated with the Creative Music Studio, which was founded by Berger along with Ornette Coleman to provide alternatives in music education. The CMS headquarters in Woodstock, New York provides a focus for a Woodstock jazz community that is growing both in size and vitality. A two hour drive from downtown Manhattan, Woodstock is home for a stable of musicians that includes Berger and Jack DeJohnette, and the town has been a rest/retreat spot for scores of others. It shouldn't be too long before the influence of the CMS workshops, which have been led by, among many others, Anthony Braxton and the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, starts to make itself felt in the music world at large.

This newest burst of creative activity at Woodstock would seem to lend support to those, from Coleridge to Castaneda, who believe that nature's creative force springs from very specific spots on earth. Some forty miles north of the actual site of the festival that burnt its name onto the map, Woodstock might be any sleepy little town at the base of the Catskills, but for the amazing variety of artistic spirits that seem to gravitate there. The tourists shops and gaudy "art" galleries that sprang up at the end of the 60's (actually a few years earlier, when people found out that Dylan lived there) are gone now, and the village has, in return, regained much of its appeal.

The Woodstock jazz musicians are another chapter in the town's history of relaxed but imaginative activity; hear them now, it won't be the last time.