Charlie mingus biography

Mingus Among Us

Induction: 2021
Website:  Charles Mingus Institute

Mingus Among Us (By Alex Foster) 
January 28, 2021

Charles Mingus’ life was a hero’s journey, to say the least. This musical giant left us one of the richest catalogues in American Music. Born in Nogales, AZ, April 22, 1922, Mingus was born in a nation strictly divided by race, education, and just about any opportunity or advantage imaginable.  Slavery was not such a distant memory at that time.  In short, the cards were stacked against him and people of color in America.

Despite those odds, Mingus rose to be a musical innovator on his primary instrument, the double bass, as well as one of the most recognizable composers in American Music.  He is still revered as a great band leader for his work over the four decades of his colorful career. From an early age, Mingus understood music in its entirety.  This is evident in one of his early compositions, “Baby Take A Chance With Me,” which was written at age 17 and later performed with the Lionel Hampton Band.  The struggle he was feeling is also evident in his composition, “Chill of Death” also written at age 17.  Charles Mingus was an American Jazz musician whose compositions and arrangements crossed numerous boundaries from Swing to Boogie Woogie, from Bebop to Classical and the Avant Garde. Like Duke Ellington, Mingus was an innovator in the long form of jazz composition.  Mingus defined himself through his compositions as well as commenting on society around him. That’s why we can, and we do wish to talk about him today.

In other words, his body of work is vast and in its entirety is a celebration.  From “Haitian Fight Song” to “Boogie Stop Shuffle” to “Peggy’s Blue Sky Light” to “Children’s Hour of Dream,” Mingus’ music plays all the inner voices of life.

Sy Johnson, one of two of Mingus’s surviving arranging collaborators wrote:

“Charles Mingus first he

American jazz musician (1922–1979)

Musical artist

Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazzupright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Eric Dolphy. Mingus's work ranged from advanced bebop and avant-garde jazz with small and midsize ensembles to pioneering the post-bop style on seminal recordings like Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956) and Mingus Ah Um (1959) and progressive big band experiments such as The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963).

Mingus's compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra to high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, the Library of Congress acquired Mingus's collected papers—including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photos—in what it called "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history".

Biography

Early life and career

Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona. His father, Charles Mingus Sr., was a sergeant in the U.S. Army. Mingus Jr. was largely raised in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

Mingus's ethnic background was complex. His ancestry included German American, African American, and Native American heritage. His maternal grandfather was a Chinese British subject from Hong Kong, and his maternal grandmother was an African American from the southern United States. Mingus was the great-great-great-grandson of his family's founding patriarch who, by most accounts, was a Germa

Charles Mingus was an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer, and bandleader. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dannie Richmond, and Herbie Hancock.

Mingus was born April 22 1922 in Nogales, Arizona. He began to study the cello before switching to the bass. He began his professional career in 1940, playing bass with Lee Young, and he toured with Louis Armstrong's big band the following year. In 1942 he played bass with Barney Bigard's ensemble which featured retired trombonist Kid Ory. The next year he began studying symphonic form and technique with Herman Rheinschagen. He toured with Lionel Hampton's big band beginning in 1946 and in 1950 gained national attention as a member of Red Norvo's trio. He founded the Jazz Workshop in 1955 and in 1964 started the record company Charles Mingus Enterprises. His autobiography Beneath the Underdog was published in 1972. Mingus died in 1979.

One of the most important figures in 20th-century American music, CHARLES MINGUS was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader, and composer. Born in Arizona and raised in Watts, California, 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 '40s, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and Lionel Hampton and brought him to New York where he played and recorded with the leading musicians of the 1950s - Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Duke Ellington. One of the few bassists to do so, Mingus quickly developed as a leader of musicians, and recorded over a hundred albums and wrote over three hundred scores.

After his death in 1979 from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 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. The Library of Congress acquired the complete Mingus Collection between 1993 and 1997, including original manuscripts, recordings, photographs, and personal memorabilia. The New Yorker wrote: "For sheer melodic and rhythmic and structural originality, his compositions may equal anything written in western music in the 20th century."

Since Charles Mingus' death in 1979, SUE MINGUS has created and continues to direct repertory ensembles to carry on the music of her late husband. The most well-known is the Mingus Big Band, a New York institution that performs weekly to packed crowds at the Iridium nightclub. In 1989, she produced the premiere of Mingus' Epitaph at Lin