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Jun 7, 2021 · Bandleader Charles Mingus was a notable jazz musician of the mid-twentieth century. He helped pioneer the concept of collective improvisation.
Mar 1, 2002 · This biography leaves no doubt that Charles Mingus was a major figure in the history of jazz and American music. He was a bassist without peer, a seminal influence on contemporary musicians, and the leader of a number of legendary jazz workshops, combos, and big bands.
- Gene Santoro
- 2000
A look at Mingus’ life and music forms a complex Venn diagram encompassing widely disparate areas of influence: a virtuoso bassist who began his musical training on trombone and cello; a strong pianist and composer; a musical upbringing in church (the Holiness Pentecostal Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles); a deep connection to ...
Nov 1, 2000 · There are vivid anecdotes and vignettes depicting Mingus’ struggles with record companies and nightclub owners, his working relationships and strained friendships, his musical triumphs and failures.
- Recording Background
- Pithecanthropus Erectus
- Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
- The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady
- Changes
- Later Career and Death
- Epitaph
- The Music After His Death
- Personality and Temper
- Awards and Honors
In 1952, Mingus co-founded Debut Records with Max Roach, in order to conduct his recording career as he saw fit. After bassist Oscar Pettiford broke his arm playing baseball, Mingus stepped in to replace him at the famed May 15, 1953 concert at Massey Hall. He joined Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach in what was to be the l...
Mingus had already recorded about ten albums as a bandleader, but 1956 was a breakthrough year, 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-orien...
Mingus witnessed Ornette Coleman's legendary—and controversial—1960 appearances at New York City's Five Spot 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 o...
In 1963, Mingus released The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, a sprawling, multi-section masterpiece, described as "one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history."The album was also unique in that Mingus asked his psychotherapist to provide notes for the record. The year also saw the release of an unaccompanied a...
Mingus's pace slowed somewhat in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1974, he formed a quintet with Richmond, pianist Don Pullen, trumpeter Jack Walrath and saxophonist George Adams. They recorded two well-received albums, "Changes One" and "Changes Two." Cumbia and Jazz Fusion in 1976 sought to blend Colombianmusic (the "Cumbia" of the title) with ...
By the mid-1970s, Mingus was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (popularly known as Lou Gehrig's 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. Mingus died aged 56 in ...
Epitaph is considered by many to be the masterwork 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, the score and instrumental ...
The Mingus Big Band
The music of Charles Mingus is currently being performed and reinterpreted by the Mingus Big Band, which plays every Tuesday and Thursday in New York City, and often tours the rest of the United Statesand Europe. Elvis Costello has written lyrics for a few Mingus pieces and has sung them in performances and recordings with the Mingus Big Band. Other tribute bands are also active around the US, including Mingus Amungus in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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 for Lester Young, "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, Andy Summers, Eugene Chadbourne, and Bert Jansch and John Renbourn with and without Pentangle. J...
As respected as Mingus was for his musical talents, he was often feared for his sometimes 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 (especially in his later years), and was by all accounts often intimidating and frightening when expres...
In 1995, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor. In 1997, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mar 30, 2022 · Casting even a cursory eye over the historic sweep of Mr Mingus’ work provides many clues to his compositional greatness – and suggests that he took the lessons learned from The Duke to the next level of music.
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Apr 14, 2023 · Through efforts such as his Debut record label and the Jazz Composers Workshop, Mingus sought ways to take control of his music and to make space for other musicians who deserved the chance to be heard, showing how much jazz is a collective and individual effort.
