Named after bebop architect Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, Birdland has been a mecca for jazz heads ever since it opened in New York City in 1949. And when Charles Mingus, in the middle of his first stint with Atlantic Records, took to the stage for a series of radio broadcasts in the early 1960s, he was ready to further both the club's legacy and his own place within the jazz firmament. Using many of the compositions that made up his 1962 album 'Oh Yeah' as a jumping-off point ('Ecclusiastics', 'Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me', 'Eat That Chicken'), the bassist and composer redrew the boundaries of his art in typically uncompromising fashion. Whether paying idiosyncratic tribute to his Birdland forebears through a deconstruction of Duke Ellington's 'Take The 'A' Train' or on the Mingus original 'Monk, Funk Or Vice Versa', or turning his own compositions inside out with the help of some of the finest instrumentalists of the era (pianist Jaki Byard and saxophonist Charles McPherson are on regular backup duty), the bassist and composer stretches beyond the limitations of the recording studio in order to deliver some of the most exciting live performances the NYC jazz scene had ever witnessed.
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