Dannie Richmond

CD version. Ode to Mingus is one of the records Dannie Richmond made as a leader after the death of Charles Mingus in 1979. Richmond had been the bassist's drummer and musical foil for more than twenty years, and in the same period he took part in the first performances of Mingus Dynasty, the memorial group. The quartet date was made in Milan for Soul Note, the label Giovanni Bonandrini had just founded, and first released as SN 1005. For all its title it holds no Mingus composition: four pieces are Richmond's own, and the fifth is a ballad by Tadd Dameron.

Recorded at Barigozzi Studios in Milan on 23 and 24 November 1979, with Giancarlo Barigozzi engineering and Giovanni Bonandrini producing, the quartet has Bill Saxton on tenor saxophone, Danny Mixon on piano and Mike Richmond on bass, with Richmond credited for vocals as well as drums. The title piece opens the record and runs for more than eighteen minutes, followed by the short Olduvai Gorge. Richmond's Love Bird lasts nine minutes, then comes Dameron's If You Could See Me Now, and the album ends with Drum Some, Some Drum, about forty minutes in all. The original credits give cover art to "Gigi" Barbieri and photographs to Isio Saba and Aldo La Stella, and Richmond's tunes are published by his own Tamia Pub. Co.

Soul Note CD 121005-2, which Discogs lists as a reissue of the album first released on LP in 1980, with the original five tracks.