Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus is one of the most important figures in 20th Century American music.  His life was filled with music from the time he was six years old until he died at the age of 56.  He was a virtuoso performer, composer, bandleader, author, and music teacher.  Mingus recorded over 100 jazz albums and changed the way jazz was played by inventing new formats and styles of playing bass.  In his compositions, Mingus mixed sounds and rhythms from all the music he heard around him as he grew up:  Latin, Mexican folk music, gospel, traditional jazz, European classical music, bebop, and flamenco.  Considered one of the most important jazz composers of his day, his entire body of over 300 music scores and suites are held in the U.S. Library of Congress.

Charles Mingus grew up on East 108th Street in the Watts community and attended the 103rd Street and 111th Street local schools.  As a child, Mingus joined other children in bringing Simon Rodia materials to use in what was to become the famous Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers.  His earliest musical influences came from the singing groups he heard in church.  As his musical talents grew, Mingus performed in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  While attending Jordan High, he met fellow students Buddy Collette and Britt Woodman, and they formed their own jazz band.  This young band would become instrumental in shaping the “West Coast jazz.” 

Settling in New York City, Mingus played with jazz luminaries Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, and became a leader of the avant-garde movement.  His extraordinarily creative body of work includes:  Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, Tijuana Moods, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Ah Um, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Cumbia and Jazz Fusion, and Let My Children Hear Music. 

Proud of his African American heritage, Mingus wanted to help eliminate prejudice, especially in the music world.  In an essay he wrote for his album, Let My Children Hear Music, Mingus expressed hope that children would listen to all kinds of good music.  He wanted them to hear jazz, but in a new way.  He founded The Jazz Workshop which enabled young Black composers to have their work performed in concerts and on recordings.         

After Mingus passed away in 1979, his final masterwork, “Epitaph,” was discovered.  Mingus believed the piece would never be performed, and said he wrote it “…for my tombstone.”  It premiered ten years after his death, and The New York Times said it ranked with “…the most memorable jazz events of the decade.”  The New Yorker also wrote:  “For sheer melodic, rhythmic and structural originality, his compositions may equal anything written in western music in the twentieth century.” 

It is quite fitting that a new art facility specifically dedicated to young people is named in honor of Charles Mingus, an artist of such talent, vision, and heart.

Excerpts from: Charles Mingus - More than a Fake Book, 1991, Sue Mingus, editor.
Jazz Workshop, Inc., New York, 1999.