X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Charles Mingus


Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog

John Handy and Sue Mingus describe Charles as individual, volatile, strong, supremely honest, uncompromising, and having a very dynamic personality that ran like the color spectrum; testing people to see how far he could go.

Gunther Schuller adds that all of his variety of his personality comes out in Mingus' music, and not only that it is the widest range of music composed by one single human being.

Gunther Schuller a composer/conductor/historian states that Charles Mingus is high up with American composers.

When asked by Chris Albertson how Mingus feels about the term music, or jazz, Mingus replied with its like someone is using a substitute name for music.


Bill Wells

Wells' style of experimental jazz takes influences from Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, Gil Evans, and Charles Mingus.

C Jam Blues

"C Jam Blues" is a jazz standard composed in 1942 by Duke Ellington and performed by countless other musicians, such as Dave Grusin, Django Reinhardt, and Charles Mingus.

Dark Side of the Spoon

The saxophone part of the song "10 / 10" is taken from the last 22 seconds of "Group Dancers" on the Charles Mingus album The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

Dave Schildkraut

Schildkraut's playing was fluid and brilliant in pure bebop style: so much so that, during a blindfold test for Down Beat, Charles Mingus mistakenly identified him as Charlie Parker.

Elizabeth Wagele

Music played a major role in her life as a friend and spiritual guide, especially Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bartók, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, and other classical and jazz composers.

Folk, Blues and Beyond

#"Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" (Charles Mingus)

Frank Conroy

His book Dogs Bark, But the Caravan Rolls On: Observations Then and Now includes articles that describe jamming with Charles Mingus and with Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman.

Greg Kurstin

In high school, Kurstin focused on jazz piano, and after graduating he moved to New York to study with Jaki Byard, Charles Mingus' pianist, at the The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Horace Arnold

In 1959, he began performing as "Horacee" when he joined a big band led by Dave Baker; he also played with Roland Kirk and Charles Mingus that year.

Kongsberg Jazzfestival

Several worldwide great artists have visited Kongsberg during this festival; international stars including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Nigel Kennedy, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, McCoy Tyner, Radka Toneff, Bobby McFerrin, John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Diana Krall and Pat Metheny have played in Kongsberg several times.

Leo Wright

He played with Charles Mingus, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Coles, Blue Mitchell and Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1950s, early 1960s and in the late 1970s.

Michael C. Ford

The motif of many of Ford's works, be it collaborative cd recordings or written poetry is that he resurrects iconic figures ranging from actreses Susan Hayward, Dorothy McGuire to legendary jazzmen such as Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus.

Mingus Awareness Project

At the Mingus Awareness Project concerts, Charles Mingus compositions have been performed along with music by musicians associated with Mingus such as Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

National Jazz Museum in Harlem

Based at 104 East 126th Street, the museum emphasizes the role Harlem has played in the nurturing and cultivation of jazz as a home to legends such as Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, John Coltrane, and Billie Holiday.

Renato D'Aiello

Sintetico does not only contain songs by well-known artists like Charles Mingus (Ellington's Sound of Love) or Frank Loesser (If I Should Lose You), but also tracks written by Muresu (Sintetico and Spite) and D’Aiello (Never Doubt and Be Nice).

Rhythm Pigs

Baby Falcon Getaway included a hardcore cover of the Gordon Lightfoot classic "Sundown" and a furiously paced rendition of Charles Mingus's "Boogie Stop Shuffle," which recalled the Peanuts theme (Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy) from the first album.

Rolf Ericson

From 1956-1965 he was back in the U.S., working with Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Dan Terry, Max Roach and Charles Mingus, among others.

Shifty Henry

Henry recorded with and arranged for the elite of jazz and rhythm and blues, including Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, The Treniers, Illinois Jacquet, and Miles Davis.

The Great Concert of Charles Mingus

The Great Concert of Charles Mingus is a 1964 live album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France on April 19, 1964.

Yaron Lifschitz

:Four performers improvised with circus skills to two jazz pieces: A Love Supreme by John Coltrane and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus.


see also

Live at Massey Hall

Jazz at Massey Hall, 1953 album featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach