By Charles Mingus | Arranged for Eight Cellos by David Sanford | 8′

Listen to an excerpt of Haitian Fight Song:

Who’s playing? Matt Haimovitz + Uccello

David Sanford writes in the liner notes to the Oxingale recording:

My reading of Charles Mingus’s Haitian Fight Song (1957) is more drawn from the 1963 “II B.S.” version for a large ensemble and includes much of the later version’s tenor solo by Booker Ervin as well as all four choruses of Jaki Byard’s piano solo, which are scored for pizzicato cellos in the upper register. Mingus’s opening bass cadenza is also stated verbatim here on a cello with the C-string tuned down to a low G. The active and often contrapuntal bass parts were suggested in part by the use of tuba on “II B.S.”, and the use of two basses in the ensembles of Mingus’s final two albums (where the leader’s debilitating ALS left him unable to play).

This work is recorded on Oxingale Records’ album Meeting of the Spirits. Click here to go to the album page on iTunes.

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer sheet music for this eight-cello version Haitian Fight Song, as permission has been denied by the copyright holder.  Please contact us for more information.