Jazz Articles about Charles Mingus

About Charles Mingus

Album Review

Charles Mingus: Jazz In Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden

Read "Jazz In Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
October 22, 2018

Summer 2018 saw the general release of privately held recordings by two giants of twentieth century jazz. First up was John Coltrane's Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!). It was followed by Thelonious Monk's Mønk (Gearbox). In autumn 2018, recordings by another totemic figure, Charles Mingus, become the year's third newly revealed archaeological discovery. The release of the Coltrane album was hyped as an event akin to the excavation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ...

Jazz Journal

Spring 2018

by Doug Collette
May 27, 2018

Jazz Journal is a regular column consisting of pithy takes on recent jazz releases of note as well as spotlights on those titles in the genre that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Charles Mingus Live at Montreux 1975 Eagle Records 2018 Right from the opening notes of Charlies Mingus' jaunty insistent bass, Live at Montreaux 1975 captures the idiosyncratic jazz icon's personality to a T. Challenging charts for the ...

Hi-Res Jazz

Charles Mingus and Miles Davis: Changing Moods

by Mark Werlin
March 11, 2017

The recordings of Charles Mingus in the mid-1950s document a musical voice so distinctive that they are immediately recognizable today. But Mingus' obsessive commitment to the primacy of the composition was not always shared by his peers, nor understood by his critics. A public feud between Mingus, who was struggling unsuccessfully to win critical recognition and financial rewards, and Miles Davis, then poised for prominence and commercial success, contains clues to the musical conundrum that both sought to ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Charles Mingus: Mingus in Wonderland – 1959

by Marc Davis
August 15, 2016

In 1959, there were two Charles Minguses: the Mingus you knew and the Mingus you didn't. In May 1959, Mingus recorded his very best album ever: the incomparable Mingus Ah Um. And I mean incomparable in the literal sense. There is, literally, no other record quite like it. It's a big band, but not a Big Band. It's progressive but approachable. It's a tribute to the past that is also forward-looking. It is simply a tour de force. ...

Book Review

Better Git It In Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus

by Ian Patterson
June 10, 2016

Better Git It In Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography Of Charles Mingus Krin Gabbard 296 Pages ISBN: 978-0-520 University California Press 2016 Compared to other historically important jazz figures, few have been the books dedicated to Charles Mingus, which is strange given his enduring influence on modern jazz practitioners. Perhaps Mingus was simply too complex a figure, both as a character and as a prolific composer of wildly inventive music to invite easy ...

Book Excerpts

Mingus Speaks

by John Goodman
July 22, 2015

Mingus on the Avant-Garde and Tradition Here's Charles Mingus talking about two of his favorite subjects, the avant-garde pretenders and the need for jazz players to understand the traditions of their music. The excerpt is from my book Mingus Speaks (2013, University of California Press). --John F Goodman Mingus: Everybody's got ego and everybody who lives in a human body thinks they're better than another guy. Even if a guy's considered to be a nigger ...

Book Review

John F. Goodman: Mingus secondo Mingus

by Maurizio Zerbo
September 16, 2014

Mingus secondo Mingus John F. Goodman Minimum Fax482 pagine 978-88-7521-553-82014 Tra il 1972 ed il 1974 il cinquantenne Charles Mingus concede una serie di interviste a John F. Goodman, giornalista di Playboy che ne aveva empaticamente recensito il concerto di rientro, dopo alcuni anni di ritiro dalla scena musicale. Il geniale contrabbassista mette a nudo il suo cuore, rivelando aspetti poco noti della sua personalità umana (uno humor inglese) ed artistica. Questa ...