A landmark meeting of two talents! This rare session has the poet Langston Hughes reading his own jazz-based work, set to arrangements by Charles Mingus, with additional work by Horace Parlan. Hughes' voice is incredible – a bit frail, with a wispy integrity that really opens up his own writings. Hughes was always a big jazz listener, and his work in this respect is a perfect consummation of ideas that he'd always said were present in his work. Titles include "Could Be", "Testament", "Commercial Theater", "Consider Me", "Jump Monk", and "Weird Nightmare". (Jazz, Spoken Word) LP, Vinyl record album

(Sound Library, Spoken Word) LP, Vinyl record album

A surprisingly witty record for the Cook label – a live recording of a burlesque performance, where no cameras were admitted – complete with strip tease and crowd noise too! Back cover has an annotated copy of a letter from the sherrif – further proof of the album's sense of humor. LP, Vinyl record album