Money Jungle
Recorded September 17, 1962 at Sound Makers, New York City. Blue Note Records.
Today I met two gentlemen in my store, one in his eighties the other late sixties. Money Jungle was playing overhead and our conversations quickly went from my generic retail pitch to trains and the various east coast lines. Waxing poetic about the romantic mundane we journeyed through conversations had in lounge cars to stale meals in dining cars that beat any fillet in a five star.
Money Jungle is indeed a ride. These tracks take you through the rough parts of town where all trains go – places that build character or turn you into one. Roach keep you on the rails clicking and banging along, while Mingus keeps the diesels humming and thumping with his meaty hand pulling hard notes on the bass strings that we never heard. Meanwhile Duke the elegant paints a picture of all the classy ladies and business men swimming car to car finally dumping you on a platform somewhere with sea legs, hungover and in need of a shave.
