Charles Mingus: Tensions

Moods, contrasts and changes are a few words that have taken on elemental significance in Mingus song titles, or his own references to composition. Tensions belongs in that lexicon of fundamental concepts. This piece describes a state of agitation, maybe psychological or social, stacking up ideas to the point of distraction, almost dissolution. Riffs of varying length overlap irregularly. Then theyre restated in dissonant canon. Trilling saxophones interject freely. Its hectic. Finally (after a long minute-plus), a single voice emerges: the bass, in a stunning solo with hyperactive attack and a vast repertoire of harmonics, slides and leaps. The bridge sounds close to snappingliterally, too.