Me Myself An Eye

About

Me, Myself an Eye is a jazz album released under the name of Charles Mingus, featuring compositions by him but without his participation as a musician. The session took place on January 23, 1978, at the Atlantic Studios in New York City, led by Paul Jeffrey. The arrangements and orchestrations were realized by Jack Walrath, with the assistance or use of tape recordings by Charles Mingus. The album was released in 1979 as an LP on Atlantic Records and reissued on compact disc in 2002. Me, Myself an Eye was the last album in which Mingus was able to participate during his lifetime, although not as a musician due to illness. The longest track on the album, "Three Worlds of Drums," was conducted by Paul Jeffrey, who also premiered it in 1978 at the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga. For the execution of "Three Worlds of Drums" (which evokes memories of Duke Ellington's "A Drum Is a Woman"), Walrath received a tape from Mingus, on which he had sketched his ideas in the form of Moorish-sounding scales. Mingus instructed him to "Pick out some of my notes, organize a melody, and write an arrangement on it." In response, Walrath wrote an introduction for a four-part work for an ensemble with drum solos. The shout chorus was based on a melody written by Mingus and supplemented by Walrath. The trumpet-soprano saxophone melody just before the end also originated from Mingus's tape sketches, while the funereal ending was transcribed by Walrath from a piano recording by Mingus. The orchestration by Carolyn "Keki" Mingus was literally based on the piano sketch recorded by Mingus, except for the last chorus, which was written and arranged by Jack Walrath. "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" was arranged according to Mingus's instructions, again with the exception of the last chorus, which was written and arranged by Jack Walrath. "Devil Woman" was exclusively arranged by Walrath.

via Last.fm