Charles Mingus: Ecclusiastics

Kirks tenure with Mingus lasted only a few months, but the relationship was sympathetic and yielded a classic recording in Ecclusiastics. The title, strictly speaking, lacks a definition, but it looks like a word that means priests, only tweaked, and thats how the piece soundssacred but unhinged. Mingus leads from the piano, his vocals guiding the band through the episodic structure, from contrite confession to affirming exhortation, and finally, ecstatic wail. The climactic passages of Kirks triumphant solo feature him playing three horns at once, and his improvisation has a rare inevitabilityyou memorize it like a pop melody. Impossible to imagine it played any other way.