Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. 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 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 the 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 they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history".
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Links to Peel[]
Because of the strong blues and gospel influence in his music, Charles (or Charlie, as he was known for much of his career) Mingus was more popular with artists outside the jazz field than the more introverted modernists from the cool jazz and West Coast jazz scenes. Some of his compositions had a wild, anarchic flavour which appealed to younger musicians in the 1960s, and his volatile personality and support for social protest movements also attracted attention. He was influential on many British jazz, rock and folk musicians, among them a few Peel favourites, including his producer John Walters; in a 1965 Record Mirror article on the Alan Price Set, JW is said to be “25 and likes cats, fish and chips, black, Newcastle United, Charlie Mingus and Marianne Faithfull" [1]
Tonight at Noon
Donovan, in the lyrics of his song “Sunny Goodge Street” (which Peel played on the Perfumed Garden in both the composer's own version and the one by Judy Collins) mentioned ”listening to sounds of Mingus, mellow, fantastic…..” Adrian Henri wrote a poem called Tonight At Noon, taking its title from one of Mingus's albums ("dedicated to Charles Mingus and the Clayton Squares") and recorded it for the LP The Incredible New Liverpool Scene, accompanied by Andy Roberts on guitar. It too was heard on the Perfumed Garden, became the title of a collection of Henri's poems, and was adapted as the basis of a song by Paul Weller for the Jam in 1977.
On the centre pages of issue 20 of International Times dated 27 October 1967, next to Peel’s Perfumed Garden column, is an interview by Mick Farren with Arthur Brown in which both refer to Mingus’s music. Brown remarks “Yeah, well you know, he’s got so much control; so much power and a lot of his music is like sort of flashing a light – suddenly everything’s dark and it becomes illuminated” [2].
Some of Mingus’s material was covered by artists JP favoured, including several versions of his tribute to Lester Young, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", done by, among others, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck, while a version with added lyrics was recorded by both June Tabor and Joni Mitchell, whose 1979 album Mingus was the result of a collaboration with the bassist in the months before his death. Pentangle's Danny Thompson, who had a background in jazz and was one of the few bass players who preferred double bass to electric bass, was strongly influenced by Mingus, as was Davey Graham, who recorded his "Better Get It In Your Soul".
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um -FULL ALBUM-
A further tribute album appeared in 1992 [3], with contributors including Elvis Costello, Leonard Cohen and Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Charlie Watts. A documentary film about the album was made by the Kinks' Ray Davies. Yet despite all of this interest from people Peel admired, there seem to be very few plays of Mingus's material in Peel's playlists. An exception was "Haitian Fight Song", done by Bert Jansch and Danny Thompson on their session of 18 December 1968, as mainly a bass solo feature for Danny Thompson despite the session being credited to Jansch. Finally, JP did get round to playing Mingus's original version of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on the show of 13 November 2001 - apparently after seeing the title used as a headline in the Guardian newspaper.
From the Peel record collection, Joe Boyd chose the album Mingus Ah Um for his Record Box in 2014.[4]
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- None
Sessions[]
- none
Other Shows Played[]
- 13 November 2001: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (LP – Mingus Ah Um) Columbia
See Also[]
- Cover Versions: Bert Jansch: Haitian Fight Song (session) 18 December 1968
External Links[]
- Wikipedia
- Official site
- [5] Other