Take Two
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Image by Herman Leonard
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat was written by Charles Mingus and was featured on his 1959 album Mingus Ah Um. The tune was composed in memory of saxophonist Lester 'Prez' Young who had died two months before the Mingus recording session. It became one of Mingus's best known numbers and a jazz standard. Here is the haunting Mingus version from the album.
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In 1979, singer Joni Mitchell released her album Mingus. She collaborated with Charles Mingus in making the album and it was recorded in the months before and after Mingus' death in January 1979 and is wholly dedicated to him. Sadly he never got to hear the album. The recording included some fine jazz musicians - Jaco Pastorius (fretless bass), Wayne Shorter (saxophone), Herbie Hancock (electric piano), Peter Erskine (drums) and Don Alias (percussion). Joni wrote lyrics for the track Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The full lyrics are here.
When Charlie speaks of Lester
You know someone great has gone
The sweetest swinging music man
Had a Porkie Pig hat on
A bright star
In a dark age
For our first take, here is a video of Joni Mitchell singing the song. This time there is a slightly different line up with Pat Metheny added on guitar and Michael Brecker replacing Wayne Shorter on saxophone:
Our second take is different. Here we have bass player Pierre Dunker and trumpeter Avishai Cohen playing Goodbye Pork Pie Hat in 2015 at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam for VPRO Vrije Geluiden (Vrije Geluiden is a music programme made by the Dutch public broadcast organisation VPRO).
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.1