The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

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Professional reviews
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Studio album by Charles Mingus
Released	1963
Recorded	20 January 1963
Genre	Jazz
Length	39:32
Label	Impulse!
Producer(s)	Bob Thiele
All Music Guide link
Charles Mingus chronology
Oh Yeah (1961)	The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)	Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (1963)

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a 1963 jazz composition and album by bassist Charles Mingus. The piece consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band. An intensely emotional work, it displays Mingus' skill as composer, orchestrator, and technician.

Written as ballet, the work borrows from Ellingtonian and Latin sources, but creates a unique orchestral style that Mingus called "ethnic folk-dance music". The orchestrations (described as "one of the greatest achievements [...] by any composer in jazz history" by the All Music Guide) are rich and multi-layered. Mingus' perfectionism led to extensive use of studio overdubbing techniques, the first for a jazz album.

The album liner notes were provided by Mingus' psychotherapist, Dr. Edmund Pollock.

[edit] Track listing

"Track A — Solo Dancer" –6:20
"Stop! Look! and Listen, Sinner Jim Whitney!"
"Track B — Duet Solo Dancers" –6:25
"Hearts' Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces"
"Track C — Group Dancers" –7:00
"(Soul Fusion) Freewoman and Oh, This Freedom's Slave Cries"
–17:52

"Mode D — Trio and Group Dancers"
"Stop! Look! and Sing Songs of Revolutions!"

"Mode E — Single Solos and Group Dance"
"Saint and Sinner Join in Merriment on Battle Front"

"Mode F — Group and Solo Dance"
"Of Love, Pain, and Passioned Revolt, then Farewell, My Beloved, 'til It's Freedom Day"