Acrobat Music

Charles Mingus, jazz bassist, composer and bandleader, was born on April 22nd 1922

Charles Mingus, jazz bassist, composer and bandleader, was born on April 22nd 1922

We're just a day late with this reference because of the concidence with Earl Hines' anniversary yesterday, and once again we are celebrating an enormously influential and innovative jazz personality. Charles Mingus was born on a US Army base in Arizona, then son of parents of very mixed parentage, his background including Chinese, English, Swedish and black American lineage. He was brought up in the LA suburb of Watts, and was an early afficionado of Duke Ellington. He learnt trombone and cello before taking up the double bass, studying seriously under noted teachers, and was writing advanced pieces while still in his teens. He was regarded as something of a prodigy, and began playing with big name bands in the early 40s, notably Barney Bigard and Louis Armstrong. He was with Lionel Hampton in the late 40s, and played in a highly-regarded trio with Red Norvo and Tal Farlow for a couple of years in 1950-51 until he left because of problems with venue owners because of his mixed-race background. He played briefly with Duke Ellington until he was fired because of his notorious short temper, and then, most importantly, gigged with Charlie Parker - possibly his biggest influence, although he hated Parker's destructive drug and alcohol habits. Such was Parker's musical influence that Mingus categorised his own compositions as pre-Bird and post-Bird. In 1952 he founded Debur Records with Max Roach, to free himself from the strictures of major record companies, and to record new young talent, and made landmark recordings with a line-up of Parker, Gillespie, Roach and Bud Powell. Mingus' approach revolved around assembling adventurous ensembles to explore different approaches to his music, the style developing over the years from his hard bop roots to encompass free jazz styles following his exposure to Ornette Coleman's work around 1960. The decade from '55-'65 was hugely productive, as he made over 30 albums, many of which have been hailed as masterpieces of innovation. His pace slowed during the following decade, as he explored yet more areas of fusion, until he was afflicted with a muscle-wasting disease in the late 70s. He died in 1979 at the age of 57 while working  on a recording project based on his compositions with Joni Mitchell. Acrobat has on catalogue an album of his recordings from his later years - for details click here.

 

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