Mingus Portrait by Attilio Zanchi Septet

When producer Rocco Pandiani approached Maestro Attilio Zanchi about collaborating on an album for Mono Jazz label, he discovered Zanchi's longstanding passion project: a tribute to jazz legend Charles Mingus, which he had nurtured for two decades with a close-knit group of musicians. Initially, Pandiani had a different project in mind, so to convince him, Zanchi swiftly organized a concert in Milan featuring the full septet. The electrifying performance ended with the audience ecstatically cheering and dancing. Impressed, Rocco agreed to proceed with the record production, which took place three months later at Novenove studio in Milan.

The group involved originates from a musical collaboration spanning over thirty years between double bassist Attilio Zanchi, pianist Massimo Colombo and saxophonist Tino Tracanna, and is complemented by saxophonist Gianni Azzali, drummer Tommy Bradascio, and two new young talents of the Italian Jazz scene: trombonist Andrea Andreoli and trumpeter Daniele Nocella.

"Mingus Portrait" is a monumental album that captures the essence of Mingus's dynamic and expressive music and is set to become one of the most celebrated tributes to Charles Mingus ever. In the words of Attilio Zanchi: "Charles Mingus's music is, and will remain, in the hearts and ears of all Jazz lovers, serving to inspire generations of musicians. [...] His music can almost be considered an encyclopedic portrait of Jazz history and can still be played today without appearing dated, instead providing new insights and inspiration.

One day, when he was already very ill, Charles Mingus said to his wife Sue: "You know, I've already had a body. Next time I want to be a star. I want to shine all night." We do not know if his wish was granted, but certainly his music continues to shine and illuminate the world like a star."
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Enter The Mingusverse® - by Enrico Sola:

“In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason is difficult it’s because I'm changing all the time”. [Charles Mingus, 1979]

Charles Mingus' music contains multitudes. Multitudes in constant evolution.

It is not possible to capture the Proteus-Mingus in a snapshot that fixes his essence forever. We need more work, we need more inspiration. It takes an act of love and courage.
And this is what Attilio Zanchi - a long-time jazz player and educator of musical talents in the most prestigious Italian Conservatories – has done. He fixed on this record an ancient passion for Mingus, who he followed and almost touched in life, creating - despite the title - much more than a portrait: a real live gallery of "ways of being Mingus".

"If I have to make one last record, now that I’m 70," he said, "I want it dedicated to Mingus. In such a poor musical age, his music - in which traditional jazz, classical and contemporary, but also dixieland and 'free', coexist - contains all the twentieth century".

The gallery of the many possible Minguses, curated and recreated by Zanchi after being brought live on stage, with exceptional formations in which he combines great names of Italian jazz with younger talents that he met in his path as an educator, grants a visit that leaves amazed for variety and intensity: Mingus is not for the faint of heart.

From the political vibes of "Remember Rockefeller At Attica", up to the melodic tribute of "Sounds Of Love," along the lines of the song that Mingus himself dedicated to Duke Ellington, up to the transcendence of "For Harry Carney" by Sy Johnson, this album offers a constant heartfelt homage and interpretation of the multifaceted genius of Mingus, rigorous, personal and contemporary at the same time.

The act of love and talent of Attilio Zanchi is a door to the sonic, human, political and cultural universe of Charles Mingus. A tribute to the past and a seed for the future that, like his music, is changing all the time.

“Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own!” [Charles Mingus from the liner notes of “Let My Children Hear Music”]

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