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Charles Mingus

 
Charles Mingus

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Charles Mingus



 
 
Charles Mingus (22 April 1922–5 January 1979) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 bassist
Bassist

A bass player is a musician who plays a double bass, bass guitar, or another low-pitched instrument, such as keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as tuba or sousaphone....
, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, and occasional pianist
Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
. He was also known for his activism
Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
 against racial injustice
Racism

Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
.

Mingus is considered one of the most important composers and performers of jazz, and he recorded many highly regarded albums. Dozens of musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. His tunes—though melodic and distinctive—are not often re-recorded, in part because of their unconventional nature.






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Charles Mingus (22 April 1922–5 January 1979) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 bassist
Bassist

A bass player is a musician who plays a double bass, bass guitar, or another low-pitched instrument, such as keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as tuba or sousaphone....
, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, and occasional pianist
Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
. He was also known for his activism
Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change or politics change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversy argument....
 against racial injustice
Racism

Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
.

Mingus is considered one of the most important composers and performers of jazz, and he recorded many highly regarded albums. Dozens of musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. His tunes—though melodic and distinctive—are not often re-recorded, in part because of their unconventional nature. Mingus was also influential and creative as a band leader, recruiting talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations.

Nearly as well known as his ambitious music was Mingus' often fearsome temperament, which earned him the nickname "The Angry Man of Jazz." His refusal to compromise his musical integrity led to many on-stage eruptions, though it has been argued that his temper also grew from a need to vent frustration.

Mingus was prone to depression
Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive depression , low self-esteem, and anhedonia in normally enjoyable activities....
. He tended to have brief periods of extreme creative activity, intermixed with fairly long periods of greatly decreased output.

Most of Mingus's music retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop
Hard bop

Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Hard bop incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing....
 and drew heavily from black gospel music
Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
 while sometimes drawing on elements of Third Stream
Third stream

Third stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller to describe a musical genre which is a synthesis of European classical music and jazz....
, free jazz
Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and '50s....
, and even classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz. Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans Jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. He strove to create unique music to be played by unique musicians.

Due to his brilliant writing for mid-size ensembles—and his catering to and emphasizing the strengths of the musicians in his groups—Mingus is often considered the heir apparent to Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
, for whom he expressed unqualified admiration. Indeed, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
 had once claimed Mingus reminded him "of a young Duke", citing their shared "organizational genius."

Biography


Early life and career

Charles Mingus was born in Nogales
Nogales, Arizona

Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, Arizona, United States. The population was 20,878 at the United States Census, 2000. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833....
, Arizona
Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
. He was raised largely in the Watts
Watts, Los Angeles, California

Watts is a residential district in southern Los Angeles, California ....
 area of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
. His mother's paternal heritage was Chinese
Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People who reside in and hold citizenship of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China ....
 and English
English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English language in England. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
, while historical records indicate that his father was the illegitimate offspring of a black farmhand and his Swedish
Swedish people

Swedes are people from Sweden or of Swedish decent. Unlike the United States, United Kingdom, and Australian Censuses, Statistics Sweden does not classify the Swedish population by race or ethnicity....
 employer's white granddaughter.

His mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for jazz, especially the music of Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
. He studied trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
, and later cello
Cello

The violoncello is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra....
. Much of the cello technique he learned was applicable to double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
 when he took up the instrument in high school
High school

High school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides all or part of secondary education. The term originated in Scotland and spread to the New World countries as the high prestige that the Scottish educational system had at the time led several countries to employ Scottish educators to develop the...
.

Beginning in his teen years, Mingus was writing quite advanced pieces; many are similar to Third Stream Jazz. A number of them were recorded in 1960 with conductor Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller is an American composer, French horn player, and historian and performer of jazz. He is regarded as one of the key figures in contemporary classical music....
, and released as Pre-Bird, referring to Charlie "Bird" Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
.

Mingus gained a reputation as something of a bass prodigy. He toured with Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
 in 1943, then played with Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton , was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players....
's band in the late 1940s; Hampton performed and recorded several of Mingus's pieces. A popular trio of Mingus, Red Norvo
Red Norvo

Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphone, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments....
 and Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow

Talmage Holt Farlow was an United States jazz guitarist.He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1921. Nearly as famous for his reluctance to perform publicly as for his outstanding abilities, Tal did not take up the instrument until he was already 21, but within a year was playing professionally and in 1948 was with Margie Hyams' ban...
 in 1950 and 1951 received considerable acclaim, but Mingus' mixed origin caused problems with club owners and he left the group. Mingus was briefly a member of Ellington's band in the early 1950s, and Mingus's notorious temper reportedly led to his being the only musician personally fired by Ellington (although there are reports that Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophone, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist of any sort....
 in 1925 was another), after an on-stage fight between Mingus and Juan Tizol
Juan Tizol

Juan Tizol was a Puerto Rico trombone and composer.He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the mainland United States in 1920. He trained as a valve trombonist and Valide trombone....
.

Also in the early 1950s, before attaining commercial recognition as a bandleader, Mingus played gigs with Charlie Parker, whose compositions and improvisations greatly inspired and influenced him. Mingus considered Parker the greatest genius and innovator in jazz history, but he had a love-hate relationship with Parker's legacy. Mingus blamed the Parker mythology for a derivative crop of pretenders to Parker's throne. He was also conflicted and sometimes disgusted by Parker's self-destructive habits and the romanticized lure of drug addiction they offered to other jazz musicians. In response to the many sax players who imitated Parker, Mingus titled a song, "If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" (released on Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty

Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959 in music, and was inducted in the List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients J-P in 1999....
 as "Gunslinging Bird").

Based in New York

In 1952 Mingus co-founded Debut Records
Debut Records

Debut Records was a United States jazz record label, which was founded in 1952 in music by bassist Charles Mingus, his then-wife Celia and drummer Max Roach....
 with Max Roach
Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
, in order to conduct his recording career as he saw fit; the name originated with a desire to document unrecorded young musicians. Despite this, the best known recording the company issued was of the most prominent figures in bebop. On May 15, 1953, Mingus joined Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
, Parker, Bud Powell
Bud Powell

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz piano. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bebop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk....
, and Roach for a concert at Massey Hall
Massey Hall

Massey Hall, located at 178 Victoria Street, in downtown Toronto's Garden District, Toronto, was built in 1894 by architect Sidney Badgley and financed by Hart Massey of Massey-Harris ....
 in Toronto
Toronto

Toronto is the List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population in Canada and the Provinces and territories of Canada Provincial and territorial capitals of Canada of Ontario....
, which is the last recorded documentation
Jazz at Massey Hall

Jazz at Massey Hall is a jazz album featuring a live performance by "The Quintet" on 15 May 1953 at Massey Hall in Toronto. The musicians were five of the biggest names in jazz: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach....
 of the two lead instrumentalists playing together. After the event, Mingus chose to overdub his barely-audible bass part back in New York; the original version was issued later. The two 10" albums of the Massey Hall concert (one featured the trio of Powell, Mingus and Roach) were among Debut Records' earliest releases. Mingus may have objected to the way the major record companies treated musicians, but Gillespie once commented that he did not receive any royalties
Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property right.Royalties can be determined as a percentage of gross or net sales derived from use of the asset or a fixed price per unit sold....
 "for years and years" for his Massey Hall appearance. The records though, are often regarded as among the finest live jazz recordings.

In 1955, Mingus was involved in a notorious incident while playing a club date billed as a "reunion" with Parker, Powell, and Roach. Powell, who had suffered from alcoholism and mental illness for years (potentially exacerbated by a severe police beating and electroshock treatments), had to be helped from the stage, unable to play or speak coherently. As Powell's incapacitation became apparent, Parker stood in one spot at a microphone, chanting "Bud Powell...Bud Powell..." as if beseeching Powell's return. Allegedly, Parker continued this incantation for several minutes after Powell's departure, to his own amusement and Mingus' exasperation. Mingus took another microphone and announced to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, please don't associate me with any of this. This is not jazz. These are sick people." This was Parker's last public performance; about a week later Parker died after years of alcohol and drug abuse.

Mingus often worked with a mid-sized ensemble (around 8–10 members) of rotating musicians known as the Jazz Workshop. Mingus broke new ground, constantly demanding that his musicians be able to explore and develop their perceptions on the spot. Those who joined the Workshop (or Sweatshops as they were colorfully dubbed by the musicians) included Pepper Adams
Pepper Adams

Pepper Adams , was a jazz baritone saxophonist, who is widely considered one of the most significant and influential baritone saxophonists in jazz....
, Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard was an American jazz piano and composer who also played trumpet and saxophones, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and Stride piano to free jazz....
, Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin

Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American hard bop tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
, John Handy
John Handy

John Richard Handy III is an USA jazz alto saxophone....
, Jimmy Knepper
Jimmy Knepper

James M. Knepper was an United States jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus....
, Charles McPherson and Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan

Horace Parlan is an United States hard bop and post-bop piano player.Noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots, Parlan often bridges the divide between the chordal sophistication of the bop idiom and the African-American "roots."...
. Mingus shaped these promising novices into a cohesive improvisational machine that in many ways anticipated free jazz
Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and '50s....
. Some musicians dubbed the workshop a "university" for jazz.

Pithecanthropus Erectus among other creations

The decade which followed is generally regarded as Mingus's most productive and fertile period. Impressive new compositions and albums appeared at an astonishing rate: some thirty records in ten years, for a number of record labels (Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an United States record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Long one of the most important American independent labels, Atlantic now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which consolidated Atlantic Records and the Elektra Entertainment Group into one...
, Candid
Candid Records

Candid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence Records label in New York City in 1960 in music. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff, worked as the label's A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day....
, Columbia Records
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, Impulse! Records
Impulse! Records

Impulse! Records was an American based jazz record label, originally launched in 1960 in music by Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records in New York City....
 and others), a pace perhaps unmatched by any other musician except Ellington.

Mingus had already recorded around ten albums as a bandleader, but 1956 was a breakthrough year for him, with the release of Pithecanthropus Erectus, arguably his first major work as both a bandleader and composer. Like Ellington, Mingus wrote songs with specific musicians in mind, and his band for Erectus included adventurous, though distinctly blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
-oriented musicians, piano player Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron

Malcolm Earl Waldron was an United States jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.His jazz work was chiefly in the hard bop, post-bebop and free jazz genres....
, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean

John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City....
 and the Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is an United States jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins' long, prolific career began at the age of 11, and he was playing with piano legend Thelonious Monk before reaching the age of 20....
-influenced tenor of J. R. Monterose
J. R. Monterose

J. R. Monterose , born Frank Anthony Peter Vincent Monterose, Jr. in Detroit, Michigan, Michigan,was an United States jazz tenor saxophone saxophonist....
. The title song is a ten minute tone poem, depicting the rise of man from his hominid
Hominidae

The Hominidae form a taxonomic biological family, including four extant genus: Homo s, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Hominina subtribe, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subtribe....
 roots (Pithecanthropus erectus
Java Man

Java Man is the name given to fossils discovered in 1891 at Trinil on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in East Java, Indonesia, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus....
) to an eventual downfall. A section of the piece was improvised
Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is musical improvisation without any rules beyond the taste or inclination of the musician involved; in many cases the musicians make an active effort to avoid overt references to recognizable musical genres....
 free of structure or theme.

Another album from this period, The Clown
The Clown

The Clown may refer to:*The Clown , a short story by Thomas Mann*The Clown , a 1957 album by Charles Mingus*The Clown , a 1963 novel by Heinrich B?ll...
 (1957 also on Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an United States record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Long one of the most important American independent labels, Atlantic now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which consolidated Atlantic Records and the Elektra Entertainment Group into one...
), with an improvised story on the title track by humorist Jean Shepherd
Jean Shepherd

Jean Parker Shepherd was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep....
, was the first to feature drummer
Drummer

A drummer is a musician who plays a drum or drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays Classical music or Latin percussion....
 Dannie Richmond
Dannie Richmond

Dannie Richmond was an United States drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop music fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....
. Richmond would be his preferred drummer until Mingus's death in 1979. The two men formed one of the most impressive and versatile rhythm section
Rhythm section

A rhythm section is the musicians in a popular music musical band or musical ensemble who establish the rhythmic pulse of a song or musical piece, and who lay down the chordal structure....
s in jazz. Both were accomplished performers seeking to stretch the boundaries of their music while staying true to its roots. When joined by pianist Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard was an American jazz piano and composer who also played trumpet and saxophones, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and Stride piano to free jazz....
, they were dubbed "The Almighty Three".

Mingus Ah Um and other works


Mingus witnessed Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman is an United States saxophoneist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1950s and 1960s....
's legendary—and controversial—1960 appearances at New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
's Five Spot
Five Spot

The Five Spot Cafe was located in New York City at the corner of Cooper Square and St. Mark's Place. The Five Spot had originally been somewhat further downtown at 5 Cooper Square, between Third and Fourth Streets when it first started presenting jazz....
 jazz club. Though he initially expressed rather mixed feelings for Coleman's innovative music: "...if the free-form guys could play the same tune twice, then I would say they were playing something...Most of the time they use their fingers on the saxophone and they don't even know what's going to come out. They're experimenting." Mingus was in fact a prime influence of the early free jazz
Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and '50s....
 era. He formed a quartet with Richmond, trumpeter Ted Curson
Ted Curson

Theodore "Ted" Curson is a jazz trumpeter. He is perhaps best-known for recording and performing with Charles Mingus.Curson became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet....
 and saxophonist Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophone, Western concert flute #In jazz, and bass clarinetist.Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto saxophone players to rise to prominence in the 1960s....
. This ensemble featured the same instruments as Coleman's quartet, and is often regarded as Mingus rising to the challenging new standard established by Coleman. Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus is an album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; it was recorded and released in 1960.The album features a quartet, a small band for Mingus, in somewhat poor recording conditions on the small label Candid run by Nat Hentoff ....
, the quartet's sole album, is frequently included among the finest in Mingus's catalogue.

Only one misstep occurred in this era: 1962's Town Hall Concert. An ambitious program, it was unfortunately plagued with troubles from its inception. Mingus's vision was finally realized in 1989, see Epitaph (Mingus)
Epitaph (Mingus)

Epitaph is a composition by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It takes more than two hours to perform and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death....
.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and the other Impulse! albums

In 1963, Mingus released The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a 1963 jazz composition and album by bassist Charles Mingus. The piece consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band....
, a sprawling, multi-section masterpiece, described as "one of the greatest achievements in orchestration
Orchestration

Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium. It only gradually over the course of music history came to be regarded as a compositional art in itself....
 by any composer in jazz history." The album was also unique in that Mingus asked his psychotherapist
Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a wiktionary:Client in problems of living. It aims to increase the individual's sense of health and reduce their subjective sense of discomfort....
 to provide notes for the record.

1963 also saw the release of an unaccompanied album Mingus Plays Piano. A few pieces were entirely improvised and drew on classical music as much as jazz, preceding Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett

Keith Jarrett is an United States pianist, composer and jazz icon.His career started with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in both classical music and jazz, as a group leader and a solo performer....
's landmark The Köln Concert
The Köln Concert

The K?ln Concert is a recording released through ECM by the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, who performed solo improvisations at the Cologne Opera House in Cologne in 1975....
 in those respects by some twelve years.

In 1964 Mingus put together one of his best-known groups, a sextet including Dannie Richmond
Dannie Richmond

Dannie Richmond was an United States drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop music fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....
, Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard was an American jazz piano and composer who also played trumpet and saxophones, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and Stride piano to free jazz....
, Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophone, Western concert flute #In jazz, and bass clarinetist.Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto saxophone players to rise to prominence in the 1960s....
, trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
er Johnny Coles
Johnny Coles

Johnny Coles was an American jazz trumpeter.Coles spent his early career playing with R&B groups, including those of Eddie Vinson , Bull Moose Jackson , and Earl Bostic ....
, and tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan
Clifford Jordan

Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player.Jordan had his own sound on tenor saxophone almost from the start. He gigged around Chicago with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some R&B groups before moving to New York in 1957....
. The group was recorded frequently during its short existence; Coles fell ill during a European tour. On June 28, 1964 Dolphy died while in Berlin, and Mingus was evicted from his New York home in 1966.

Changes

Mingus's pace slowed somewhat in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1974 he formed a quintet with Richmond, pianist Don Pullen
Don Pullen

Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist.Don Pullen developed a strikingly individual style. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz....
, trumpeter Jack Walrath
Jack Walrath

Jack Walrath is a United States post bop jazz trumpeter and musical arranger born in Stuart, Florida, probably better known for his work with musicians like Ray Charles, Gary Peacock, Charles Mingus and Glenn Ferris, among others....
 and saxophonist George Adams
George Adams (musician)

George Rufus Adams was an United States jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing....
. They recorded two well-received albums, Changes One
Changes One (Mingus)

Changes One is a 1974 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus....
 and Changes Two. Mingus also played with Charles McPherson
Charles McPherson (musician)

Charles McPherson is an United States jazz alto saxophone born in Joplin, Missouri and raised in Detroit, Michigan, most notable for his work from 1960-1972 with Charles Mingus....
 in many of his groups during this time.

Cumbia and Jazz Fusion in 1976 sought to blend Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
n music (the "Cumbia
Cumbia

Cumbia is a Colombian musical style and folk dance that is considered to be representative of Colombia, along with Vallenato. Cumbia originated from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, with closely related variants existing today in Panama....
" of the title) with more traditional jazz forms.

In 1971, Mingus taught for a semester at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York as the Slee Professor of Music.

Later career and death

By the mid-1970s, Mingus was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement....
, popularly known as Lou Gehrig's
Lou Gehrig

Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , born Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig, was an United States Major League Baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter and the longevity of his consecutive games played record, and the pathos of his tearful farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with a fatal...
 disease, a wastage of the musculature. His once formidable bass technique suffered, until he could no longer play the instrument. He continued composing, however, and supervised a number of recordings before his death.

He did not complete his final project of an album named after him
Mingus (album)

Mingus is the tenth studio album by Joni Mitchell, and a collaboration with jazz musician Charles Mingus. Recorded in the months before his death, it would be Mingus's final musical project; the album is wholly dedicated to him....
 with singer Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, Order of Canada is a Canada musician, songwriter, and Painting.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto....
, which included lyrics added by Mitchell to Mingus compositions, including "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus and originally released on his 1959 album Mingus Ah Um. It is one of Mingus' best-known compositions and has been recorded by many jazz and jazz fusion artists....
," among Mitchell originals and short, spoken word duets and home recordings of Mitchell and Mingus. The album featured the talents of Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is an United States jazz composer and saxophone, commonly regarded as one of the most important American jazz saxophonists and composers since the 1960s....
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is a jazz pianist and composer. He embraces elements of rock and roll and soul music while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz....
, and another influential bassist and composer, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius

John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III was an United States jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged for his skills as an electric bass player, as well as his command of varied musical styles including jazz, jazz fusion, funk, and jazz-funk....
.

Mingus died aged 56 in Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Morelos in Mexico. As of the 2005 census, the population of the city was 332,197; the municipality's entire population was 349,102 in an area of that includes numerous small localities outside the city, like Ocotepec, where interesting religious celebrations take place, like...
, Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, where he had traveled for treatment and convalescence. His ashes were scattered in the Ganges River
Ganges River

The 'Ganges' is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh....
.

Legacy


The Mingus Big Band

The music of Charles Mingus is currently being performed and reinterpreted by the Mingus Big Band
Mingus Big Band

The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus....
, which, starting October 2008, plays every Monday at Jazz Standard in New York City, and often tours the rest of the U.S. and Europe. Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
 has written lyrics for a few Mingus pieces. He had once sung lyrics for one piece, "Invisible Lady", being backed by the Mingus Big Band on the album, Tonight at Noon: Three of Four Shades of Love.

In addition to the Mingus Big Band, there is the Mingus Orchestra and the Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty (band)

Mingus Dynasty was an American jazz ensemble formed in 1979, just after the death of Charles Mingus, which featured many musicians Mingus recorded or played with....
, each of which are managed by Jazz Workshop, Inc., and run by Mingus's widow Sue Graham Mingus. Other tribute bands are also active all around the US and the world, including Mingus Amungus in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Bay, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay Bays in Northern California....
, and the Swedish Mingus Band Siegmund Freud's Mothers in Stockholm.

Epitaph

Epitaph
Epitaph (Mingus)

Epitaph is a composition by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It takes more than two hours to perform and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death....
 is considered by many to be the masterwork
Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
 of Charles Mingus. It is a composition which is more than 4,000 measures long, requires two hours to perform and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death by musicologist Andrew Homzy. With the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the piece itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller is an American composer, French horn player, and historian and performer of jazz. He is regarded as one of the key figures in contemporary classical music....
. This concert was produced by Mingus's widow, Sue Graham Mingus, at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989, ten years after his death. Epitaph is one of the longest jazz pieces ever written. It was performed again at several concerts in 2007. The performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall is available on The complete score was published in 2008 by .

Autobiography

Written throughout the 1960s, Mingus's autobiography, Beneath the Underdog., was published in 1971. Written in a "stream of consciousness" style, it covered several aspects of Mingus's life that had previously been off-record.

In addition to his musical proliferation, Mingus goes into great detail about his sexual proclivity. He claims to have had over 31 affairs over the course of his life (including 26 prostitutes in one sitting). This does not include any of his five wives (he claims to have been married to two of them simultaneously). In addition, he asserts that he held a brief career as a pimp. This has never been confirmed.

Mingus's autobiography also serves as an insight into his history of violent behavior, as well as his contempt for consideration of race in the music business. Autobiographic accounts of abuse at the hands of his father from an early age, being bullied as a child, his removal from a white musician's union, and grappling with dissaproval while married to white women are all examples of the hardship and prejudice that left Mingus with a giant chip on his shoulder.

Cover versions

Considering the number of compositions that Charles Mingus has written, his works have not been recorded as often as comparable jazz composers. Of all his works, his elegant elegy
Elegy

An elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive Poetry#Elegy, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead....
 for Lester Young
Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed 'Prez', was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He was also known to play the trumpet, violin, and drums....
, "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" (from Mingus Ah Um) has probably had the most recordings. Besides recordings from the expected jazz artists, the song has also been recorded by musicians as disparate as Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an England rock music guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds....
, Andy Summers
Andy Summers

Andy Summers is an England guitarist and composer best known for his work in The Police. Summers' primary guitars are the Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, and various Hamer Guitars models when playing rock; and Gibson Guitar Corporation electric guitars when playing jazz fusion and jazz....
, Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne is an United States improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz....
, and Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch

Herbert Jansch , known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle . He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs....
 and John Renbourn
John Renbourn

John Renbourn is an England guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle , although he maintained a solo career both before, during and after that band's existence ....
 with and without Pentangle
Pentangle (band)

Pentangle are a United Kingdom folk rock band. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version have been active since the early 1980s....
. Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, Order of Canada is a Canada musician, songwriter, and Painting.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto....
 sang a version with lyrics that she wrote for the song. Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
 has recorded "Hora Decubitus" (from Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a 1963 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus....
) on My Flame Burns Blue (2006). "Better Git It in Your Soul" was covered by Davey Graham
Davey Graham

David Michael Gordon Graham, known as Davey Graham , , was a British nationality guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s folk music revolution in England....
 on his album "Folk, Blues, and Beyond." Trumpeter Ron Miles performs a version of "Pithecanthropus Erectus" on his EP "Witness." New York Ska Jazz Ensemble has done a cover of Mingus' "Haitian Fight Song", as have Pentangle and others. Hal Willner
Hal Willner

Hal Willner is an United States music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles ....
's 1992 tribute album
Tribute album

A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist....
 Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (Columbia Records
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
) contains idiosyncratic renditions of Mingus's works involving numerous popular musicians including Chuck D
Chuck D

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the late 1980s as the leader of the rap group, Public Enemy ....
, Keith Richards
Keith Richards

Keith Richards is an England guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm guitar playing....
, Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins is an United Statesn singer-songwriter, spoken word, stand-up comedian, author, actor, activist and publisher.After joining the short-lived Washington, D.C....
 and Dr. John
Dr. John

Dr. John is the stage name of Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. , a pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll....
. The Italian band Quintorigo
Quintorigo

Quintorigo is an Italian band founded in 1996 by John de Leo, who left the band in 2005. Their genre vary from experimental music, jazz, reggae, Pop music and rock music....
 recorded an entire album devoted to Mingus' music, titled Play Mingus.

Personality and temper


As respected as Mingus was for his musical talents, he was sometimes feared for his occasional violent onstage temper, which was at times directed at members of his band, and other times aimed at the audience. He was physically large, prone to obesity
Obesity

Obesity is a condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to an extent that health may be negatively affected. It is commonly defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher....
 (especially in his later years), and was by all accounts often intimidating and frightening when expressing anger or displeasure.

When confronted with a nightclub audience talking and clinking ice in their glasses while he performed, Mingus stopped his band and loudly chastised the audience, stating "Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern was a Jewish violin virtuoso born in the Ukraine.He was renowned for his Sound recordings and for discovering new musical talent....
 doesn't have to put up with this shit." He once played a prank on a similar group of nightclub chatterers by silencing his band for several seconds, allowing the loud audience members to be clearly heard, then continuing as the rest of the audience snickered at the oblivious "soloists".

Guitarist and singer Jackie Paris
Jackie Paris

Jackie Paris was an United States jazz singer and guitarist.He was born Carlo Jackie Paris in Nutley, New Jersey to his father Carlo, mother Rose, and brother Gene....
 was a first-hand witness to Mingus's irascibility. Paris recalls his time in the Jazz Workshop: "He chased everybody off the stand except [drummer] Paul Motian
Paul Motian

Stephen Paul Motian , is an United States Jazz drumming, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.First coming to prominence in the late '50s with the pioneering trio of pianist Bill Evans, Motian has since worked in an array of contexts, and has led a number of groups....
 and me... The three of us just wailed on the blues for about an hour and a half before he called the other cats back."

On October 12, 1962, Mingus punched Jimmy Knepper
Jimmy Knepper

James M. Knepper was an United States jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus....
 in the mouth while the two men were working together at Mingus's apartment on a score for his upcoming concert at New York Town Hall and Knepper refused to take on more work. The blow from Mingus broke off a crown
Crown (dentistry)

File:Dental crown 29 PFM on Die.JPGFile:Dental crown 29 die.JPGCrown refers to the Dental restorations using materials that are fabricated by indirect methods which are cemented into place....
ed tooth and its underlying stub. According to Knepper, this ruined his embouchure
Embouchure

The embouchure is the use of facial muscles and the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument.The word is of French language origin and is related to the root bouche , 'mouth'....
 and resulted in the permanent loss of the top octave of his range on the trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
 - a significant handicap for any professional trombonist. This attack ended their working relationship and Knepper was unable to perform at the concert. Charged with assault, Mingus appeared in court in January, 1963 and was given a suspended sentence
Suspended sentence

A suspended sentence is a legal construct. Unless a minimum punishment is prescribed by law, the court has the power to suspend the passing of sentence and place the offender on probation....
.

Mingus was also evicted from his apartment at 5 Great Jones Street in New York City because he fired a gun through his wall into a neighbor's apartment.

Awards and honors

  • 1971 Guggenheim Fellowship
    Guggenheim Fellowship

    Guggenheim Fellowships are United States Grant s that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes multiple awards in each of two separate compe...
     (Music Composition)
  • 1971: Inducted in the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
  • 1993: The Library of Congress
    Library of Congress

    The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
     acquired Mingus's collected papers — including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photos — in what they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history".
  • 1995: The United States Postal Service
    United States Postal Service

    The United States Postal Service is an Independent agencies of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States....
     issued a stamp in his honor.
  • 1997: Was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
    Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

    The Grammy Award Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording" ....
    .
  • 1999: The album Mingus Dynasty
    Mingus Dynasty

    Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959 in music, and was inducted in the List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients J-P in 1999....
     (1959) was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame
    List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients J-P

    See also:*Grammy*Grammy Hall of Fame Award*List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients A-D*List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients E-I*List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Q-Z...
    .
  • 2005: Inducted in the Jazz at Lincoln Center
    Jazz at Lincoln Center

    Jazz at Lincoln Center is a constituent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., whose performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle....
    , Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.


Discography


As bandleader

  • Baron Mingus - West Coast 1945-49 (1949, Uptown)
  • Strings and Keys (duo with Spaulding Givens) (1951, Debut)
  • The Young Rebel (1952, Swingtime)
  • The Charles Mingus Duo and Trio (1953, Fantasy)
  • Charles Mingus Octet (1953, Debut)
  • The Moods of Mingus (1954, Savoy)
  • The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus (1954, Bethlehem)
  • Jazzical Moods (1954, Bethlehem
    Bethlehem Records

    Bethlehem Records was a record label founded by Gus Wild and bought by King Records . It is mainly remembered for its jazz releases. It was the record company under which Nina Simone's 1958 in music debut album came out ....
    )
  • Mingus at the Bohemia
    Mingus at the Bohemia

    Mingus At The Bohemia is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded during a live concert and released in 1955. Further recordings from the concert were released under he title The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach....
     (1955, Debut)
  • The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach
    The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach

    The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded during a live concert and released in 1955. Further recordings from the concert were released under the title Mingus at the Bohemia....
     (1955, Debut)
  • Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956, Atlantic
    Atlantic Records

    Atlantic Records is an United States record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz. Long one of the most important American independent labels, Atlantic now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which consolidated Atlantic Records and the Elektra Entertainment Group into one...
    )
  • The Clown
    The Clown (album)

    The Clown is an album by Charles Mingus recorded and released in 1957. The follow-up to 1956's Pithecanthropus Erectus , it further established Mingus' reputation as one of jazz music's premiere band leaders....
     (1957, Atlantic)
  • The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus (1957)
  • Mingus Three (1957, Jubilee)
  • East Coasting
    East Coasting

    East Coasting is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1957. It was reissued on CD with bonus takes in 1993....
     (1957, Bethlehem)
  • A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry
    A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry

    A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry is an album by jazz Double bass Charles Mingus. In spite of the title, the album does not contain any poetry....
     (1957, Bethlehem)
  • Blues & Roots
    Blues & Roots

    Blues & Roots is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959. It has been reissued twice as a compact disc, first by Atlantic Records, and then again by Rhino Entertainment in 1998....
     (1959, Atlantic)
  • Mingus Ah Um
    Mingus Ah Um

    Mingus Ah Um is a jazz album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released on Columbia Records in 1959....
     (1959, Columbia
    Columbia Records

    Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
    )
  • Mingus Dynasty
    Mingus Dynasty

    Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959 in music, and was inducted in the List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients J-P in 1999....
     (1959, Columbia)
  • Jazz Portraits: Mingus in Wonderland (1959, United Artists)
  • Pre Bird (1960, Mercury
    Mercury Records

    Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Music Group in the US, and are both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group....
    )
  • Mingus at Antibes
    Mingus at Antibes

    Mingus at Antibes was originally a double album recorded at a live 1960 performance at Juan-les-Pins by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; it was released in 1976 in music....
     (1960, Atlantic)
  • Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
    Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

    Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus is an album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; it was recorded and released in 1960.The album features a quartet, a small band for Mingus, in somewhat poor recording conditions on the small label Candid run by Nat Hentoff ....
     (1960, Candid)
  • Reincarnation of a Love Bird (1960, Candid)
  • Tonight at Noon (1961, Atlantic)
  • Vital Savage Horizons (1962, Alto)
  • Tempo di Jazz (1962, Tempo di Jazz)
  • Town Hall Concert (1962, Blue Note)
  • Oh Yeah
    Oh Yeah (album)

    Oh Yeah is an album by Charles Mingus.This highly regarded album features the leader singing on three of the cuts, and playing piano throughout....
     (1962, Atlantic)
  • Tijuana Moods
    Tijuana Moods

    Tijuana Moods is a 1962 album by Charles Mingus that was originally recorded in 1957. It was reissued in 1996 on CD as New Tijuana Moods with four alternate takes....
     (1962, RCA
    RCA Records

    RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986....
    )
  • The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
    The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

    The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a 1963 jazz composition and album by bassist Charles Mingus. The piece consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band....
     (1963, Impulse!)
  • Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
    Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

    Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a 1963 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus....
     (1963, Impulse!; sometimes referred to as Five Mingus)
  • Mingus Plays Piano
    Mingus Plays Piano

    Mingus Plays Piano is a 1963 solo jazz album by Charles Mingus. The album is notable for Mingus' departure from his usual role as composer and double-bassist in ensemble recordings, instead playing piano without any additional musicians....
     (1963, Impulse!)
  • Soul Fusion (1963, Pickwick live)
  • Revenge! (live 1964 performance with Eric Dolphy
    Eric Dolphy

    Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophone, Western concert flute #In jazz, and bass clarinetist.Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto saxophone players to rise to prominence in the 1960s....
    , 32 Jazz; previously issued by Prestige as The Great Paris Concert)
  • Town Hall Concert (1964, Fantasy)
  • Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vol. 1 (1964, Ulysse Musique)
  • Charles Mingus Live In Oslo 1964 Featuring Eric Dolphy (1964, Jazz Up)
  • Charles Mingus Sextet Live In Stockholm 1964 (1964, Royal Jazz)
  • Charles Mingus Sextet Live In Europe (1964, Unique Jazz)
  • The Great Concert Of Charles Mingus (1964, America)
  • Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy CORNELL March 18 1964 (2007, Blue Note)
  • Mingus In Europe (1964, Enja)
  • Mingus In Stuttgart, April 28, 1964 Concert (1964, Unique Jazz)
  • Right Now: Live At The Jazz Workshop (1964, Fantasy)
  • Mingus At Monterey (1964, Mingus JWS)
  • Music Written For Monterey 1965. Not Heard... Played In Its Entirety At UCLA, Vol. 1&2 (1965, Mingus JWS)
  • Charles Mingus - Cecil Taylor (1966, Ozone)
  • Statements (1969, Joker)
  • Paris TNP (1970, Ulysse Musique)
  • Charles Mingus Sextet In Berlin (1970, Beppo)
  • Charles Mingus (1971, Columbia)
  • Charles Mingus And Friends In Concert (1972, Columbia)
  • Charles Mingus Quintet Featuring Dexter Gordon (1972, White Label)
  • Let My Children Hear Music
    Let My Children Hear Music

    Let My Children Hear Music is a 1972 jazz album by Charles Mingus. In the original liner notes, Mingus described it as "the best album I have ever made"....
     (1972, Columbia)
  • Passions of a Man (1973, Atlantic)
  • Mingus At Carnegie Hall (1974, Atlantic)
  • Changes One
    Changes One (Mingus)

    Changes One is a 1974 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus....
     (1974, Atlantic)
  • Changes Two (1974, Atlantic)
  • Mingus Moves
    Mingus Moves

    Mingus Moves is a 1973 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus....
     (1974, Atlantic)
  • Village Vanguard 1975 (1975, Blue Mark Music)
  • The Music Of Charles Mingus (1977, Bayside)
  • Stormy & Funky Blues (1977)
  • Cumbia & Jazz Fusion (1977, Atlantic)
  • Three or Four Shades of Blues
    Three or Four Shades of Blues

    Three or Four Shades of Blues is a 1977 release by Charles Mingus. The album includes a cover of Mingus' own "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" with vocals, which do not appear on most recordings of the song....
     (1977)
  • Something Like a Bird (1979, Atlantic) (Mingus does not play on this session)
  • Me, Myself An Eye (1979, Atlantic) (Mingus does not play on this session)
  • Epitaph
    Epitaph (Mingus)

    Epitaph is a composition by jazz musician Charles Mingus. It takes more than two hours to perform and was only completely discovered during the cataloguing process after his death....
     (1990, Columbia) (Mingus does not play on this session)
  • Mingus Mysterious Blues (1990, Candid) (Mingus does not play on this session)


As a sideman

  • Robbins' Nest (with Illinois Jacquet
    Illinois Jacquet

    Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was a jazz tenor saxophonist most famous for his solo on "Flying Home". He is better known simply as Illinois Jacquet....
    ) (1945, Toho)
  • Mellow Mama (with Dinah Washington
    Dinah Washington

    Dinah Washington was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. Because of her strong voice and emotional singing, she is known as the "Queen of the Blues"....
    ) (1945, Delmark)
  • Hot Piano (with Wilbert Baranco
    Wilbert Baranco

    Wilbert Baranco was an American jazz pianist and bandleader.Baranco played with Curtis Mosby in the early 1930s and then put together his own bands in the 1930s and 1940s, including several military bands during World War II....
    ) (1946, Tops)
  • Ivie Anderson and Her All Stars (with Ivie Anderson
    Ivie Anderson

    Ivie Anderson was an United States jazz singer. She was best-known for her performances with Duke Ellington's orchestra between 1931 and 1942....
    ) (1946, Storyville)
  • Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 1948 (with Lionel Hampton
    Lionel Hampton

    Lionel Leo Hampton , was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players....
    ) ((1948, Weka)
  • Lionel Hampton in Concert (with Lionel Hampton
    Lionel Hampton

    Lionel Leo Hampton , was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players....
    ) ((1948, Cicala Jazz)
  • The Red Norvo Trio (with Red Norvo
    Red Norvo

    Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphone, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments....
    ) (1951, Savoy)
  • Move (with Red Norvo
    Red Norvo

    Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphone, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments....
    ) (1951, Savoy)
  • Miles Davis at Birdland 1951 (with Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
    ) (1951, Beppo)
  • Jazz in Storyville (with Billy Taylor
    Billy Taylor

    Billy Taylor is an United States jazz pianist, composer, and educator. He is currently the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina....
    ) (1951, Roost)
  • The George Wallington Trios Featuring Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach (1952, Prestige)
  • Spring Broadcasts 1953 (with Bud Powell
    Bud Powell

    Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz piano. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bebop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk....
    ) (1953, ESP)
  • Inner Fires (with Bud Powell
    Bud Powell

    Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz piano. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bebop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk....
    ) (1953, Electra/Musician)
  • Jazz at Massey Hall (aka. The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever) (with Charlie Parker
    Charlie Parker

    Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
    ) (1953, Debut)
  • Introducing Paul Bley (with Paul Bley
    Paul Bley

    Paul Bley, Order of Canada is known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing....
    ) (1953, Debut)
  • Explorations (with Teo Macero
    Teo Macero

    Teo Macero , born Attilio Joseph Macero, was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years, and most notably produced the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of A...
    ) (1953, Debut)
  • The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet (with Oscar Pettiford
    Oscar Pettiford

    Oscar Pettiford was an United States jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop....
    ) (1953, Debut)
  • Ada Moore (with Ada Moore) (1954, Debut)
  • Mad Bebop (with J.J. Johnson
    J.J. Johnson

    J. J. Johnson in Indianapolis, Indiana, , was a United States of America jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.Johnson was one of the first trombonists to embrace bebop music....
    ) (1954, Savoy)
  • The Eminent J.J. Johnson (with J.J. Johnson
    J.J. Johnson

    J. J. Johnson in Indianapolis, Indiana, , was a United States of America jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.Johnson was one of the first trombonists to embrace bebop music....
    ) (1954, Blue Note)
  • Evolution (with Teddy Charles
    Teddy Charles

    Teddy Charles is an American jazz pianist, drummer and vibraphone musician. Born Theodore Charles Cohen in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, he began his musical career studying at Juilliard School of Music as a percussionist....
    ) (1955, Prestige)
  • Relaxed Piano Moods (with Hazel Scott
    Hazel Scott

    Hazel Dorothy Scott was a jazz and european classical music pianist and singer....
    ) (1955, Debut)
  • The John Mehegan Trio/Quartet (with John Mehegan
    John Mehegan

    John Mehegan was a jazz pianist, lecturer and critic.Mehegan was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and began playing the piano at the age of five....
    ) (1955, Savoy)
  • Very Truly Yours (with Jimmy Scott
    Jimmy Scott

    Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an United States jazz vocalist.Scott has Kallmann's syndrome, a genetic condition which stunted his growth at five feet and prevented him reaching puberty, leaving him with a high, undeveloped voice, hence his nickname "Little" Jimmy Scott....
    ) (1955, Savoy)
  • The Fabulous Thad Jones (with Thad Jones
    Thad Jones

    Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an United States jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader....
    ) (1955, Debut)
  • New Piano Expressions (with John Dennis
    John Dennis

    John Dennis , was an England critic and dramatist, born in London, the son of a saddler.He was educated at Harrow School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A....
    ) (1955, Debut)
  • Easy Jazz (with Ralph Sharon
    Ralph Sharon

    Ralph Sharon is a jazz pianist....
    ) (1955, London)
  • Blues Moods (with Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
    ) (1955, Prestige)
  • The Word from Bird (with Teddy Charles
    Teddy Charles

    Teddy Charles is an American jazz pianist, drummer and vibraphone musician. Born Theodore Charles Cohen in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, he began his musical career studying at Juilliard School of Music as a percussionist....
    ) (1956, Atlantic)
  • New Faces (with Jimmy Knepper
    Jimmy Knepper

    James M. Knepper was an United States jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus....
    ) (1957, Debut)
  • Money Jungle
    Money Jungle

    The album Money Jungle is a 1962 in music jazz trio session by Duke Ellington with drummer Max Roach and bassist Charles Mingus....
     (with Duke Ellington
    Duke Ellington

    Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
     and Max Roach
    Max Roach

    Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
    ) (1962, Blue Note)


Filmography

  • 1959, Mingus provided the music for John Cassavetes
    John Cassavetes

    John Nicholas Cassavetes was an United Statesn actor, screenwriter and film director. He appeared in many Hollywood films, and is considered a pioneer of independent film....
    's gritty New York City film, Shadows
    Shadows (film)

    Shadows is an improvisational film about interracial relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City, and was written and directed by John Cassavetes....
    .
  • 1961, Mingus appeared as a bassist and actor in the British film All Night Long
    All Night Long (1961 film)

    All Night Long is a Cinema of the United Kingdom film directed by Basil Dearden, and starring Patrick McGoohan, Marti Stevens, Paul Harris, Keith Michell, Richard Attenborough and Betsy Blair....
    .
  • 1968, Thomas Reichman directed the documentary Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968.
  • 1991, Ray Davies
    Ray Davies

    Ray Davies, Order of the British Empire is an English Rock music musician, best known as lead singer and songwriter for The Kinks - one of the most prolific and long-lived British Invasion bands - which he led with his younger brother, Dave Davies....
     produced a documentary entitled Weird Nightmare. It contains footage of Mingus and interviews with artists making Hal Willner
    Hal Willner

    Hal Willner is an United States music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles ....
    's tribute album of the same name, including Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello

    Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
    , Charlie Watts
    Charlie Watts

    Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is the drummer of The Rolling Stones. He is also a jazz bandleader and commercial artist. Watts is sometimes referred to as "The Wembley Whammer" when introduced by Mick Jagger during a concert....
    , Keith Richards
    Keith Richards

    Keith Richards is an England guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm guitar playing....
    , and Vernon Reid
    Vernon Reid

    Vernon Reid is an English guitarist, songwriter, composer and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time....
    .
  • Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog is a 78 minute long documentary film
    Documentary film

    Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
     on Charles Mingus directed by Don McGlynn and released in 1998.


Further reading

  • Beneath the Underdog, his autobiography, presents a vibrantly boastful and possibly apocryphal account of his early career as a pimp
    Pimp

    A pimp finds and manages clients for prostitutes and engages them in prostitution in order to profit from their earnings. Typically, a pimp will not force prostitutes to stay with him, although some have been known to be abusive in order to keep their prostitutes submissive or to maximize profits....
    .
  • Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus by Gene Santoro, Oxford University Press (November 1, 2001), 480 pages, ISBN 0-19-514711-1
  • Mingus: A Critical Biography by Brian Priestley, Da Capo Press (April 1, 1984), 340 pages, ISBN 0-306-80217-1
  • Tonight At Noon: A Love Story by Sue Graham Mingus, Da Capo Press; Reprint edition (April, 2003), 272 pages, ISBN 0-306-81220-7. Written by his widow.
  • Charles Mingus - More Than a Fake Book by Charles Mingus, Hal Leonard Corporation (November 1, 1991), 160 pages, ISBN 0-7935-0900-9. Includes 2 CDs, photos, discography, music transcriptions, a Mingus comic book promoting his anti-bootlegging project, etc.
  • Mingus/Mingus : Two Memoirs by Janet Coleman, Al Young, Limelight Editions (August 1, 2004), 164 pages, ISBN 0-87910-149-0
  • I Know What I Know : The Music of Charles Mingus by Todd S. Jenkins, Praeger (2006), 196 pages, ISBN 0-27598-102-9
  • But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer, Abacus (2006), pages 103 - 127, ISBN 0-349-11005-0


External links

  • - Liner notes from Let My Children Hear Music by Charles Mingus.
  • - sonic.net
  • by Alan Goldsher
    Alan Goldsher

    Alan Goldsher is an author and a musician....