a pleasant work environment

Posted on April 19th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.

Working at home on weekends is difficult. I can't combat the frequent outbreaks of bass-heavy music and piercing television from apartments on both sides of us with loud music of my own, because Velma doesn't like the music that loud and it just makes the problem worse for her; but I can't concentrate on my work. When I must get paying work done, as I must this weekend, sometimes the solution is to go in to my office. I've done so today, and the office is blessedly empty but for me, which means I can crank my own music, not bother anyone and not be bothered. And being away from the distractions of home helps me focus. The only downside is not being able to share space with Velma, a constant low-level nice thing we both like.

I knew I might need to come in to the office, so I prepared. I have twenty-two beloved Mingus albums digitized to my mp3 player, and I'm playing them all on shuffle now. This makes me very very happy.

3 comments.

Nancy Lebovitz

Comment on April 19th, 2008.

If it won't distract too much from getting work done, could you recommend some Mingus? I was blown away by The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Anything else in the same class?

Scraps

Comment on April 19th, 2008.

My favorite album of all time, any genre, is Mingus Ah Um. I have some objections to the current version available -- it has extra tracks, which is nice, but it has unedited versions of four of the standard songs, which I object to for reasons I'll go into in a post in the next few days -- but it's still great.

Other top-tier Mingus albums that you're likely to enjoy if you were blown away by Black Saint:

Mingus Dynasty
Blues and Roots
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Pre-Bird (also issued as Mingus Revisited)
Let My Children Hear Music
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

All of the albums he did for Atlantic are excellent -- Blues and Roots is the only one of them I listed above -- so if you feel like splurging, Passions of a Man: The Complete Atlantic Recordings is a great set (DeepDiscount.com has it for sixty bucks).

I'm probably forgetting something crucial.

Nancy Lebovitz

Comment on April 20th, 2008.

Thanks very much.

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