Dannie Richmond

LP 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 given the catalogue number 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, over eighteen minutes long, takes up most of the first side, followed by the short Olduvai Gorge. Side two opens with Richmond's Love Bird, at nine minutes, then comes Dameron's If You Could See Me Now, and the record ends with Drum Some, Some Drum. The sleeve credits 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.

This is the original Soul Note LP with SN 1005 on the sleeve: CAM Jazz states on its product page that these are copies of the first vinyl edition, 140 gram, rediscovered in its own vaults. Discogs dates that first issue to 1980, the label to 1979.