Label: Wax Time
Reissued 2014, originally released 1961
Limited 180 gram vinyl LP repressing including digital download. Charles Mingus' LP Pre-Bird [reissued as Mingus Revisited] comes after such Mingus hits as Pithecanthropus Erectus, East Coasting, the Clown, and Tijuana Moods. It compiles two sessions, one in a nonet format (with Sir Roland Hanna and Paul Bley alternating on piano, and singer Lorraine Cousins added on two songs), and the other recorded with a big band. Both feature Mingus' regular musicians, including Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson, Booker Ervin, Jimmy Knepper, and Dannie Richmond. The album was made at a time Mingus was in residence at the Showplace for the better part of a year, starting in 1959 and ending when he physically broke up an out-of-tune piano in the summer of 1960.