First broadcast on Detroit’s WDET-FM in 1973, these adventurous, highly representative Mingus performances highlight the iconic bassist and composer fairly late in his career. He’s free-spirited and hungry as ever, playing long, open-ended readings of great Mingus repertoire in a grassroots venue run by the Strata label. Pianist Don Pullen and tenor saxophonist John Stubblefield, both underappreciated masters, are heard brilliantly stretching out. As Detroiters Joe Gardner (trumpet) and Roy Brooks (drums) complete the lineup, one gets an extended look at Mingus with a drummer other than Dannie Richmond, his longtime companion from the mid-’50s onward. “Pithecanthropus Erectus,” “Peggy’s Blue Skylight,” and “Celia” date from that earlier era; “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress” and “Noddin’ Ya Head Blues,” newer pieces, would later be documented by Mingus in the studio, but the beautiful “Dizzy Profile” remained a rarity. Bud Spangler’s lengthy, relaxed interview with Brooks between sets, a fine bonus, offers an eye-popping lesson in jazz history—a time-machine glimpse into Detroit and the early ’70s scene.