There’s a “new” Mingus album out, a recently-discovered recording from a 1964 show at Cornell. The Blue Note-released disc’s attributed to the “Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy,” the album’s entitled Cornell 1964, and here’s the group’s rambling rendition of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” which makes me happy.

Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy - “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”

The Score, from our sister paper The Stranger, has a solid piece on the album as a whole. Worth reading. Man, between Cornell and last year’s Mingus, it’s been a good time to be listening to jazz.

Also: I don’t know how this bit of incredible news has escaped me for so long, but did you know Mingus was able to toilet train cats? Well, he did. He even collected said advice in a publication:

Here’s an excerpt:

Don’t be surprised if you hear the toilet flush in the middle of the night. A cat can learn how to do it, spurred on by his instinct to cover up. His main thing is to cover up. If he hits the flush knob accidentally and sees that it cleans the bowl inside, he may remember and do it intentionally.

The whole amazing thing is also online. (I’m pretty sure I read a very similar story in Maxim years ago, but they did not acknowledge that jazz legend Mingus apparently pioneered this revolutionary training regimen.)

I don’t have a cat, but this kind of makes me want to get one. Having a normal cat? Eh. Having a cat who shits in the toilet? And even flushes? Such a thing would be nothing short of miraculous.