Sentimental Work: Raphaël Merlin on Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

SFP-EbeneQuartet-08

The Charles Mingus jazz standard Goodbye Pork Pie Hat has become the cellist’s own farewell to the Ébène Quartet after more than two decades performing together

The Ébène Quartet formed in 1999 and I joined three years later. One of the reasons I knew we’d work well together was that all four of us loved jazz music – both playing and listening to it. We could rehearse for six or seven hours on Schubert or Ravel, but at the end of the day we’d always finish with a jazz improvisation session…

Already subscribed? Please sign in

Continue reading this article and explore hundreds more…

  • Easy registration

    Sign up to access select Strad content and the option to receive our weekly newsletters

  • Free 7-day subscription

    Full access including all subscriber content and the digital archive

    No strings attached – we won’t ask for card details