Jazz Portraits: Mingus in Wonderland is a live album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded in 1959 and released on the United Artists label in September of that year.[1][2][3] The original release was titled Jazz Portraits, and a subsequent edition was titled Wonderland, leading to the combined title of Jazz Portraits: Mingus in Wonderland.
Composition
Both "Alice's Wonderland" and "Nostalgia in Times Square" were originally written for the 1959 John Cassavetes film Shadows as part of a complete soundtrack. However, Mingus’ music was largely replaced in the final version of the film. A partial reconstruction of the soundtrack was released in 2015 under the compilation album Shadows.
A reworked version of "Nostalgia in Times Square," featuring vocals by Honi Gordon, was recorded during Mingus' 1959 Mingus Dynasty sessions and included as a bonus track on reissues of that album, titled "Strollin'".
Although "Nostalgia in Times Square" was never a major part of Mingus’ repertoire, it has since become a jazz standard, widely performed and recorded by other musicians.[4] Notably, the jazz fusion trio Medeski Martin & Wood frequently perform the song, often as part of a medley with Sun Ra’s “Angel Race.”[5]
Reception
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow called the music "advanced bop that looks toward the upcoming innovations of the avant-garde and is frequently quite exciting".[6]
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