Jazz Articles about Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus: Charles "Baron" Mingus: West Coast, 1945-49

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2001

For documentarians and jazz enthusiasts fascinated by Charles Mingus' career and musical aesthetic, Charles 'Baron' Mingus: West Coast 1945-1949 is a vastly significant CD. For it compiles into one package all of Mingus' first vinyl recordings as a band leader in Los Angeles.Performing in venues along Central Avenue, honing his craft through lessons with Red Callender and Herman Rheinshagen, and establishing important relationships (some of which, like those with Eric Dolphy, lasted a lifetime), Mingus transformed from an ...

Charles Mingus: Mingus Moves

by Jim Santella
September 1, 1999

Recorded in 1973 with one of his best ensembles, Charles Mingus’ Atlantic album has “that Mingus sound" down pat, pretty much at dead center. Piano, bass and drums roll out the beat while horns tackle the composer’s changes. There’s never a dull moment.

Highly recommended, the album opens with a typically Mingus slow 6/8 dramatic “Canon" that features George Adams’ muscular tenor alongside Ronald Hampton’s soothing trumpet. The quintet combines Don Pullen’s swirling keyboard figures and Dannie Richmond’s percussive ramblings ...

Charles Mingus: Mingus Moves

by Paula Edelstein
August 1, 1999

Joel Dorn, producer of The Masked Announcer series on the popular 32 JAZZ label, had the good sense to get the goods on this recording originally released by Atlantic in 1973 and re-issue it in the Winter of 1999. MINGUS MOVES, by the demanding, late genius, bassist Charles Mingus, is once again available after being out of print for many years. In 1973, Mingus introduced new artists to his Jazz Workshop. This excellent quintet consisted of Ronald Hampton on trumpet, ...

Charles Mingus: Mingus Moves

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 1, 1999

So many of the jazz great are now gone, a fact that no one would dispute but that really hits home after listening to a masterpiece such as this reissue of Charles Mingus' Mingus Moves. Not only have we lost the impetuous bassist and composer, but also drummer Dannie Richmond, tenor titan George Adams and the extraordinary pianist Don Pullen. The latter three men, in particular, were taken way before their times and one longs for the incendiary magic that ...

Mingus, Coltrane, Blakey & Monk: Four Rhino Reissues

by Robert Spencer
March 1, 1999

This second set of Atlantic classic jazz reissues from Rhino is just as attractively and imaginatively packaged as the first, and the music is just as seminal. I wonder why no one had this idea earlier: instead of trying to approximate LP packaging in and around a jewel box, Rhino here simply shrinks the actual original LP sleeve of these jazz classics down to CD size. Additional tracks are added. This mini-LP is then enclosed within a folder that reproduces ...

Charles Mingus: The Complete 1959 Columbia Recordings

by Joel Roberts
August 1, 1998

Charles Mingus was by all accounts an ornery and demanding man who frequently made life hell for those around him, including his fellow musicians. But there's no denying that he also made some of the most joyful and soulful music in jazz history. Some of the best of that music is captured in this three-disc set from Columbia/Legacy devoted to his 1959 recordings.

For all his modernism, Mingus was in many ways a traditionalist who never strayed far from the ...

Charles Mingus: His Final Work

by Robert Middleton
November 1, 1997

Like a dog that loves a fire hydrant, my ears love Mingus. I bought both of these some time ago but have been going through a Mingus phase and realized I had only played them once or twice. They are both treasure troves of classical American jazz at its finest. Make no question about it, Mingus was deadly serious about his music. For him, improvisation never meant “anything goes." On every composition, he left an indelible stamp--whether a sorrowful ballad ...