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Charles Mingus

One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church— choir and group singing— and from "hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old." He studied double bass and composition in a formal way (five years with H. Rheinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with the legendary Lloyd Reese) while absorbing vernacular music from the great jazz masters, first-hand. His early professional experience, in the 40's, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton.

Eventually he settled in New York where he played and recorded with the leading musicians of the 1950's— Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington himself. One of the few bassists to do so, Mingus quickly developed as a leader of musicians. He was also an accomplished pianist who could have made a career playing that instrument. By the mid-50's he had formed his own publishing and recording companies to protect and document his growing repertoire of original music. He also founded the "Jazz Workshop," a group which enabled young composers to have their new works performed in concert and on recordings.

Mingus soon found himself at the forefront of the avant-garde. His recordings bear witness to the extraordinarily creative body of work that followed. They include: Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, Tijuana Moods, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Ah Um, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Cumbia and Jazz Fusion, Let My Children Hear Music. He recorded over a hundred albums and wrote over three hundred scores. Although he wrote his first concert piece, "Half-Mast Inhibition," when he was seventeen years old, it was not recorded until twenty years later by a 22-piece orchestra with Gunther Schuller conducting. It was the presentation of "Revelations" which combined jazz and classical idioms, at the 1955 Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts, that established him as one of the foremost jazz composers of his day.

In 1971 Mingus was awarded the Slee Chair of Music and spent a semester teaching composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the same year his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, was published by Knopf. In 1972 it appeared in a Bantam paperback and was reissued after his death, in 1980, by Viking/Penguin and again by Pantheon Books, in 1991. In 1972 he also re-signed with Columbia Records. His music was performed frequently by ballet companies, and Alvin Ailey choreographed an hour program called "The Mingus Dances" during a 1972 collaboration with the Robert Joffrey Ballet Company.

He toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States until the end of 1977 when he was diagnosed as having a rare nerve disease, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis. He was confined to a wheelchair, and although he was no longer able to write music on paper or compose at the piano, his last works were sung into a tape recorder.

From the 1960's until his death in 1979 at age 56, Mingus remained in the forefront of American music. When asked to comment on his accomplishments, Mingus said that his abilities as a bassist were the result of hard work but that his talent for composition came from God.

Mingus received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Smithsonian Institute, and the Guggenheim Foundation (two grants). He also received an honorary degree from Brandeis and an award from Yale University. At a memorial following Mingus' death, Steve Schlesinger of the Guggenheim Foundation commented that Mingus was one of the few artists who received two grants and added: "I look forward to the day when we can transcend labels like jazz and acknowledge Charles Mingus as the major American composer that he is." The New Yorker wrote: "For sheer melodic and rhythmic and structural originality, his compositions may equal anything written in western music in the twentieth century."

He died in Mexico on January 5, 1979, and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges River in India. Both New York City and Washington, D.C. honored him posthumously with a "Charles Mingus Day."

After his death, the National Endowment for the Arts provided grants for a Mingus foundation called "Let My Children Hear Music" which catalogued all of Mingus' works. The microfilms of these works were then given to the Music Division of the New York Public Library where they are currently available for study and scholarship - a first for jazz. Repertory bands called the Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Orchestra and the Mingus Big Band continue to perform his music. Biographies of Charles Mingus include Mingus by Brian Priestley; Mingus/Mingus by Janet Coleman and Al Young and Myself When I Am Real, by Gene Santoro.

Mingus' masterwork, "Epitaph," a composition which is more than 4000 measures long and which requires two hours to perform, was discovered during the cataloguing process. With the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the piece itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller, in a concert produced by Sue Mingus at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989, ten years after Mingus' death.

The New Yorker wrote that "Epitaph" represents the first advance in jazz composition since Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown, and Beige," which was written in 1943. The New York Times said it ranked with the "most memorable jazz events of the decade." Convinced that it would never be performed in his lifetime, Mingus called his work "Epitaph," declaring that he wrote it "for my tombstone."

The Library of Congress was presented with the Charles Mingus Collection in 1993, including autographed manuscripts, photographs, literary manuscripts, correspondence, and tape recordings of interviews, broadcasts, recording sessions, and Mingus composing at the piano. Show less

Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited

Read "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 27, 2024

In his liner notes for Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited, Bill Shoemaker sets out the context in which the two featured albums should be considered. He observes that so enormous was Charles Mingus' artistic vision that no two (or perhaps three) albums can encompass its totality. How true that is, even of the pairing of two Mingus albums that are as different as could be: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960) and Pre Bird (Mercury, ...

Album Review

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach: Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings

Read "Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
December 28, 2023

This is the stuff of legend, one for the ages. It all started here; the greatest jazz concert of all time. How many times has the Massey Hall Concert (Toronto, 1953) been described that way? For the average All About Jazz reader, Massey Hall happened before he or she was born. Besides, there were other famous jazz concerts such as The Carnival of Swing (Randall's Island, NY, 1938), Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert (that remained unreleased until 1958), Gene ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 11, 2023

At Antibes could easily be an all-time favorite Charles Mingus recording if he had not produced such extraordinary sessions as Mingus Ah Um (Columbia, 1959), Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963) and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964). Listeners can make their own picks, but this live recording from 1960 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, has a power unique unto itself. One can almost feel the ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 28, 2023

Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do. Mingus leads a pianoless quintet completed by Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums. Bud Powell ...

Jazz in Long Form

The Vocal Music of Charles Mingus, Part 2

by Ellen Johnson
June 19, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Early Years: 1945 to 1953 Charles Mingus demonstrated his prowess as a songwriter even in the early stages of his career. Surprisingly, he started writing songs as early as 1945, a fact that often goes unnoticed. This collection of early vocal compositions includes titles such as “The Texas Hop" (1945), “Baby, Take a Chance with Me" (1945), “Ain't Jivin' Blues" (1946), “Weird Nightmare" (1946), “Pacific Coast Blues" (1948), “Boppin' in Boston" (1949), “I've ...

Jazz in Long Form

The Vocal Music of Charles Mingus

by Ellen Johnson
April 17, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Part ICharles Mingus is not typically the first name that comes to mind when discussing jazz vocal repertoire, but perhaps it should be. Since the 1940s, Mingus wrote songs in collaboration with other musicians and even penned his own lyrics. His oeuvre encompasses popular songs of the era as well as intricate vocal compositions that rival those of his self-proclaimed mentor, Duke Ellington. Despite their artistic merit, only a few of these pieces ...

Radio & Podcasts

Youngsters, Phoenixes, Mingi

by Patrick Burnette
January 26, 2023

We look at three 2022 releases this time (albeit one recorded way back in 1972) along with the first harbinger of the new year. There's an electronic sounding long-playing debut by a pair of YouTube wunderkinder (all played in real-time, we promise), a straight-ahead tenor sax trio, another star-studded portfolio album from a rising sax star, and a sprawling live opus from the music's greatest bassist/composer. For a chaser, a sprawl of pop matters that ranges from gospel tunes to ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bassist, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church— choir and group singing— and from “hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old." He studied double bass and composition in a ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

Event

New England Conservatory Celebrates Centennial Of Charles Mingus

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications
April 11, 2022

New England Conservatory celebrates the centennial of seminal American composer / bassist / bandleader / record label founder / activist / poet Charles Mingus with two concerts featuring NEC’s renowned faculty members and jazz students and a panel discussion. The events are free and open to the public. They take place: Tuesday, April 19Charles Mingus Centennial Panel 1:00 p.m., Pierce Hall NEC faculty member Jason Moran, bass trombonist and Mingus alumnus Earl McIntyre and others discuss Charles Mingus’s life and ...
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Performance / Tour

The Django Announces April Line-Up Including Charles Mingus Centennial Celebrations

Source: AMT Public Relations
March 7, 2022

The Django, downtown Manhattan’s premier jazz club, celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month with a spectacular April line-up. To commemorate what would have been the 100th birthday (April 22, 2022) of iconic jazz composer/bandleader/bassist Charles Mingus (1922-2022), The Django hosts performances by the Grammy Award-winning Mingus Big Band (April 1, April 11, April 18) and Mingus Orchestra (April 25), as well as special concerts led by Mingus band members including Tatum Greenblatt April 2, Jason Marshall Organ Quartet April 7, Boris Kozlov’s ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Charles Mingus

Source: Michael Ricci
April 22, 2018

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus' birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day ...
read more

Video / DVD

Charles Mingus: Montreux '75

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 27, 2018

On July 20, 1975, Charles Mingus was in Montreux, Switzerland, to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was on tour to promote Changes One and Changes Two, a pair of albums recorded for Atlantic in December 1974. They are among the bassist's finest albums of the decade and were his first studio recordings in the States up until that point in the 1970s. For better or worse, a bulk of Mingus's 1970s albums were concert recordings. Now, Eagle Rock ...
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Recording

Charles Mingus: Changes One

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 20, 2017

One of my favorite Charles Mingus albums is Changes One, recorded for Atlantic Records at the tail end of December 1974. There something about the recording that exceeds even Mingus's high composing standards and exotic vision. The album is moody, brooding and reminds me of New York in the mid-1970s more than any other. Yesterday, when I re-listened to the album and heard Remember Rockefeller at Attica, Sue's Changes, Devil's Blues and Duke Ellington's Sound of Love, I was transported ...
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Recent Releases

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson