The Mingus aggregate that recorded this set lived by the perforations that saxophonist Shafi Hadi sent toward Jimmy Knepper´s slippery trombone. If the arrangements for the horns sound Ellingtonian, they´re scripted to do so. Mingus played temperately but importantly off the Duke´s model for sectional playing here. And Mingus´s bass was as wild as ever, especially on the intro to "Haitian Fight Song," which goes at a slow churn here. Hadi and Knepper sound more mainstream than, say, some of Mingus´s other brass-reeds combos, but Wade Legge´s strange piano voicings created a stormy harmonic frame for the band to thrive in. The title tune may be Mingus´s most oddball early composition, with Jean Shepherd narrating a fictional tale of a performing clown as the band mimics and comments on the spoken word.