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The Jazz Prometheus: Three or Four Shades of Charles Mingus for About $100.00
By C. Michael Bailey
"He is, I think, the greatest jazz composer- with the possible exception of Ellington."
--Gunther Schuller, Down Beat, 2002
How appropriate that Charles Mingus and Edward Kennedy Ellington be spoken of in the same sentence. They might be considered different sides of the same coin. Antithetical and respectful or one another, these two giants may encompass all that is great and essential in jazz. Where Ellington is erudite, Mingus is primal. Where Ellington is thoughtful and refined, Mingus is direct and swarthy. Where Ellington is champagne, cigars, and sex, Mingus is Sweat, cigarettes, and sex. Is one better than the other? Well, No. One could never be without the other.
The All Music Guide rates six musicians as having had an exceptional influence on the music: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. It is hard to rationalize why Charles Mingus is not included in this group. He was every bit as innovative as Armstrong was, he idolized and, in his own way, emulated Ellington. Mingus performed with Parker and Gillespie; he was as enigmatic as Davis, and promoted "Free Jazz" before Coleman and Coltrane. Mingus is that composer in the shadow of the great Ellington. The troublemaker that no one wants to pay particular attention to, Mingus makes himself relevant through his sheer force of will.
Perhaps too late for this Holiday Season, I have a suggestion for the next. I submit for any jazz enthusiast the coupling of the Rhino collection, Passions of a Man: Charles Mingus, The Complete Atlantic Recordings 1956-1961 and the recent Gene Santoro biography, Myself When I am Real. For about $100, you can make the day of any true jazz fan.
Released in 1997, Passions of a Man: Charles Mingus, The Complete Atlantic Recordings 1956-1961, provided a document to be evaluated on several different levels. The more obscure first- these were the essential Mingus sides from the late '50s. Mingus would later do important work of Impulse! (The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus), but these sides serve as the genesis of his total vision: improvisation on an idea, sketches to take to the studio years before Kind of Blue. In this collection are the separate LPs Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, Word From Bird (Teddy Charles), Blues and Roots, Oh Yeah, Tonight at Noon, Mingus at Antibes. This is a microcosm of jazz, a frenetic picture from all sides. This is the perfect picture of Mingus approaching his zenith.
Gene Santoro adds his two cents to the Mingus biography pool with Myself When I am Real. This is not the best nor the most complete treatment of the great bassist, but it may be the most readable. Written at the amphetamine pace, at which Mingus lived, Santoro's account is very much a digestible tome on Mingus. Written at a narrative pace, Myself When I am Real compares to Brian Priestley's Mingus, A Critical Biography as Frederick Robert Karl's William Faulkner- American Writer: A Biography compares to Joseph Blotner's exhaustive three-volume William Faulkner: A Biography. It is a leisurely intoduction to the artist.
Both documents are significant additions to the Mingus library. Together, they serve to give the novice and expert alike a better understanding of this Jazz Prometheus, Charles Mingus.
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