Typed letter signed - photo 1
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Typed letter signed

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£ 2 016
Auction dateClassic
29.09.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1029219
Lot 568 | Typed letter signed
Charles MINGUS (1922-1979).

Mingus makes a claim against band leader Sonny Burke over Moods in Mambo.

Typed letter signed ‘Charles Mingus. Jr.’ to Miss Florence C. Cadrez of the American Federation of Musicians, 1594 Third Ave, New York 28, N.Y., 25 September 1952, one page, 280 x 217 mm, together with associated typed Musicians Protective Association claim form for the amount of $50.00, similarly dated, two typed letters signed from Sonny Burke to Miss Cadrez on Decca Records stationery, 10 October and 24 November 1952, and a typed letter signed from Leo Cluesman of the International Executive Board of the American Federation of Musicians, 16 January 1953.

Mingus notes to Miss Cadrez ‘I am enclosing the claim blank you sent me against Sonny Burke in the event you have not heard further from him. I certainly haven’t’, alleging on the claim form that Burke commissioned ‘a big band arrangement… using mombo [sic] rhythm,’ for which he was not paid, despite writing to Burke three times. The resulting composition, Moods in Mambo has been described by musicologist Stefano Zenni as ‘one of the greatest masterpieces ever written by Mingus… [but] much too complex for Burke’ (Zenni, ‘The Music of Charles Mingus in California, 1942-1949: an analytic survey’ in Quaderna di Siena Jazz, I, 1, 1995). In response to the claim, Burke maintains that ‘this orchestration is absolutely impossible to play… the arrangement has never been performed anywhere… if only because of the fact that we could never get through it,’ and contends that the MPA ‘would not want someone charged for an inferior, unplayable, and incoherent piece of work such as this.’ The piece became part of Mingus’ extended composition Epitaph, which was finally performed and recorded ten years after his death in 1989.

[With:] – an autograph note to Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson, probably dating to Mingus’ second stint with Columbia in the early 1970s, inscribed in green ink on a slip of notepaper ‘Goddard: Have decided to send this directly to you, - rather than the accounting department – as I know you will see it gets the proper results. “LOVE!” Charles Mingus’, 100 x 148 mm, together with Columbia’s forwarding memo on then Vice President Clive Davis’ personalised notepaper, on which Davis implores his underling Walter Yetnikoff to ‘please handle “delicately”, before Yetnikoff hands the matter over to an unidentified ‘HBC’ to handle, with the piquant parentheses ‘Is your life insurance up to date?’, 138 x 105 mm.

[And:] – a two-page CBS Records agreement signed by Charles Mingus, dated 30 October 1972, terminating a previous agreement dated 1 September 1971. Two facsimile typed pages on a single leaf, 279 x 216 mm, signed in blue ballpoint pen by Mingus on the second page. Mingus recorded his last great album Let My Children Hear Music during his brief spell with Columbia, before signing this release document to split with CBS and return to Atlantic Records for the remainder of his career. Provenance: Heritage Auctions, Dallas, 7 November 2009, lot 51094.

[And:] – a two-page CBS Records agreement signed by Charles Mingus, dated 30 October 1972, terminating a previous agreement dated 1 September 1971. Mingus recorded his last great album Let My Children Hear Music during his brief spell with Columbia, before signing this release document to split with CBS and return to Atlantic Records for the remainder of his career. Two facsimile typed pages on a single leaf, 279 x 216 mm, signed in blue ballpoint pen by Mingus on the second page. Provenance: Heritage Auctions, Dallas, 7 November 2009, lot 51094.
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