Jazz Articles about Charles Mingus

About Charles Mingus

Album Review

Charles Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's

Read "The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's" reviewed by Ken Dryden

by Ken Dryden
April 28, 2022

Charles Mingus was larger than life as a composer, performer and bandleader. A writer of frequently difficult music, Mingus was demanding of himself and his musicians, yet he never wanted his works to sound overly polished. These recordings made over two consecutive nights at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London in 1971 were recorded to be released on Columbia Records. Unfortunately, the gross incompetence of the label's president, Clive Davis, who dropped the entire jazz roster in 1973, except for ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mingus Centennial: The Composer + new releases

by David Brown
April 26, 2022

Celebrating the centennial of the birth of composer, bandleader and bassist Charles Mingus. We'll feature Mingus compositions as performed by Henry Threadgill, Chuck D, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Harry Skoler, Yoko Miwa, Joe Henderson, Anthony Braxton and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Then we'll spin Mingus last major work, Cumbia Jazz & Fusion. We'll start and end the show with some recent acquisitions and new releases form the Large Unit, Myra Melford Fire and Water Quintet, the Dave Rempis / Avreeayl Ra ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's

Read "The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 24, 2022

After the emotional and economic bankruptcies of the late 1960s that nearly took him out of the picture entirely, 1972 broke well for Charles Mingus. He had re-signed with Columbia and delivered the revered Let My Children Hear Music. (He would, a year later, be part of the great Clive Davis jazz purge of 1973 which included Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, and, some argue Ornette Coleman.) Grants and commissions were coming in and his music, in all its bold, gnarly, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Art of the Arranger

by David Brown
April 19, 2022

This week, we continue exploring the art of the arranger with large ensembles and jazz orchestras. Charles Mingus sets Meditations on Integration on a big band, The Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band presents a tone poem with traditional Japanese vocalists, we look at the Fletcher Henderson influence on Sun Ra, plus works by Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo, the Large Unit from Norway, and more. Go big on the Jazz Continuum. Playlist Steven Bernstein “Let My People Go" from ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's

Read "The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 12, 2022

Professionally recorded for Columbia Records, but never released, this live concert from London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is seeing the light of day some fifty years later, as well as marking the centennial celebration of Charles Mingus' birth. The music was never released, not because it was unworthy (it is indeed worthy), but because Mingus along with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Ornette Coleman were let go by the label's chief, Clive Davis. Only Miles Davis survived the ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)

Read "Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 8, 2022

The 100th anniversary of the birth of the Promethean genius Charles Mingus falls on April 22, 2022--and Rhino/Parlophone are releasing a 2 x CD edition of Mingus Three (aka Trio, Jubilee, 1957) to coincide. Disc one contains the original LP, vibrantly remastered by Dominique Brethes at Flow Mastering in London. Disc two consists of six previously unreleased outtakes, recently discovered in the Parlophone tape library and mastered by Brethers; also included are two untitled blues from the same session.

Album Review

Charles Mingus & Joni Mitchell: Jivin' with Joni: The Lost Recordings 1978-1979

Read "Jivin' with Joni: The Lost Recordings 1978-1979" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 1, 2022

Looks like a bumper month of archival releases awaits the ever ready Mingus aficionado. First, in late April, 2022, Resonance Records unleashes The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's. Just in time for Record Store Day (April 23) Candid Records releases a sweetly remastered Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus. Now, in a joint announcement from Jazz Workshop Inc. and Rhino Records to celebrate the big man's centennial (April 22) comes Jivin' with Joni: The Lost Recordings, 1978-1979. Recorded just ...