The Complete Town Hall Concert


The Complete Town Hall Concert is a live album by American bassist, composer and bandleader Charles Mingus recorded at The Town Hall in New York City and first released on the United Artists label in 1962 as Town Hall Concert. The album was rereleased with additional tracks on the Blue Note label in 1994 as The Complete Town Hall Concert.
The concert was originally conceived as a "live workshop" of newly composed music which would be recorded for release by United Artists but rescheduling, lack of rehearsal time, poor sound and interruptions led to the event and subsequent album being considered a disaster. Much of the music intended for the concert/recording was finally realized by conductor Gunther Schuller in a concert in 1989 as Epitaph.

Reception

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 3 stars and stated, "Charles Mingus's Town Hall Concert has long been considered a famous fiasco, and the original United Artists LP made matters worse. But this 1994 Blue Note CD does its best to clean up the mess".

Track listing

All compositions by Charles Mingus except as indicated
  1. "Freedom Part 1" - 3:47
  2. "Freedom Part 2" - 3:14
  3. "Osmotin'" - 2:50 Bonus track on CD reissue
  4. "Epitaph Part 1" - 7:03
  5. "Peggy's Blue Skylight" - 5:21 Bonus track on CD reissue
  6. "Epitaph Part 2" - 5:10
  7. "My Search" - 8:09
  8. "Portrait" - 4:34 Bonus track on CD reissue
  9. "Duke's Choice" - 5:12
  10. "Please Don't Come Back from the Moon" - 7:24 Bonus track on CD reissue
  11. "In a Mellow Tone" - 8:21
  12. "Epitaph Part 1" - 7:23 Bonus track on CD reissue

    Personnel