This album sounds like what its title tells you it is: the composer at play on his keyboard, tinkle-trinkle, virtuoso creator of music Wagnerian in scope and intensity just sitting down here to one of his favored secondary instruments. The songs are facile but never frivolous, clean and deep in their cut. Those fingers strengthened for the benefit of bass-playing don't go wasted here. Mingus Plays Piano (1963) leads with the song from which Gene Santoro got the name for his splendid biography: "Myself When I am Real." It's the first song, and it's also one of the ones on here composed by Mingus himself. That's no coincidence, and it's no lie, either.
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