NICOLS/EBERHARD/NEUSER/MARIEN - I Am Three & Me: Mingus' Sounds Of Love
Leo Records CD LR 844
Maggie Nicols, voice; Silke Eberhard, alto saxophone; Nikolaus Neuser, trumpet, bugle; Christian Marien, drums
Back in 2016 the German trio from this album released I Am Three, which was a hugely successful tribute to Charles Mingus. The title is taken from Mingus’ autobiography Beneath the Underdog, which opens “In other words, I am three”.
Now the trio have invited Maggie Nicols to further explore his music and his poetry.
I think this is an equally rewarding construct – the sheer inventiveness matches that of the original, as much thanks to Nicols as to the trio and to an extent she comes close to making this her work, though that is not to ignore the contributions of the trio. I believe she has achieved this by moving away a little from the rumination on Mingus, into a modern-day refraction of that inheritance.
The more I listen, the more I realise that I am in fact listening to Maggie Nicols and her music, supported by the trio: maybe that’s why they invited her.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 844
Maggie Nicols, voice; Silke Eberhard, alto saxophone; Nikolaus Neuser, trumpet, bugle; Christian Marien, drums
Back in 2016 the German trio from this album released I Am Three, which was a hugely successful tribute to Charles Mingus. The title is taken from Mingus’ autobiography Beneath the Underdog, which opens “In other words, I am three”.
Now the trio have invited Maggie Nicols to further explore his music and his poetry.
I think this is an equally rewarding construct – the sheer inventiveness matches that of the original, as much thanks to Nicols as to the trio and to an extent she comes close to making this her work, though that is not to ignore the contributions of the trio. I believe she has achieved this by moving away a little from the rumination on Mingus, into a modern-day refraction of that inheritance.
The more I listen, the more I realise that I am in fact listening to Maggie Nicols and her music, supported by the trio: maybe that’s why they invited her.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
