Charles Mingus Archives - Page 2

In 1972, Charles Mingus was making his return to the music scene, after a six or seven year layoff. Playboy writer John F. Goodman reviewed Mingus’ comeback concert that year, which brought the two together for various interviews between 1972 and 1974. The interviews were recorded by Goodman for a proposed memoir. Forty years later, these conversations are now collected...

Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington has good taste in bassists, and her new album Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue is more evidence of that as she recruited Christian McBride to lay down the low end. The effort pays homage to the classic Duke Ellington album Money Jungle, which featured bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, on its 50th anniversary. “I...

Columbia is putting together some terrific “Collection” box sets for bassists and bass enthusiasts. Among those is Charles Mingus – the Complete Columbia & RCA Albums Collection, a 10-disc set spanning seven titles by the late bassist and composer. The set starts with Tijuana Moods, the lone RCA release in the collection, recorded in 1957 and released in 1962 as...

In about nine hours, the fate of the “Mingus on Mingus” documentary project will be decided. At least this important phase of it. You’ve no doubt seen our promotions for this project. We have no affiliation with it, we just want to see it made a reality. Kevin Ellington Mingus, the grandson of Charles Mingus, is behind the project. In...

Charles Mingus’ grandson Kevin Ellington Mingus has set out to make a film exploring his grandfather’s life. Mingus on Mingus will be a full-length documentary including interviews with the musicians from bassist/composer’s band and his family and friends, to get a deeper understanding of the jazz icon. Mingus, who passed away in 1979, had a reputation of being unpredictable and...

Today marks the 89th year since Charles Mingus was born. The outspoken bassist/composer left a wealth of music in his wake, which is preserved through the work of the Charles Mingus Institute. Among the groups dedicated to keeping his music alive is the Mingus Orchestra, a 10-piece group held down by bassist Boris Kozlov. In addition to his role as...

Jazz bassist Boris Kozlov has released a new solo bass CD, Double Standard, featuring a mix of originals and jazz standards. The entire album is made of single-take, solo bass tracks with the exception of “RGB/Self Portrait in 3 Colors,” which has the bassist layering arco tracks on the Charles Mingus ballad. That track is especially poignant since the entire...

Candid Records is celebrating their 50th anniversary and offering some new and updated releases as part of the celebration. One of those albums is Charles Mingus And The Newport Rebels, recorded in studio on November 11, 1960. But the real story is how this recording came to be. From the liner notes: “The (now) famous Newport Jazz Festival was inaugurated...

The Mingus Big Band will be celebrating the release of their new album, Live at Jazz Standard with a CD release concert. The concert will also take place at Jazz Standard in New York City, on April 19th. The CD is released only three days before Charles Mingus’ 88th birthday, and was recorded on New Year’s Eve 2008/2009, which marked...

I am doing a Mingus project in May with the WDR Big Band, so I have been checking out Mingus’s music recently. He has left such a legacy on several levels: his bass playing, his rhythm section playing, his band leading and his composing. All of those aspects of Mingus’s music are interconnected, and he really made strong contributions in...

One year after the passing of Charles Mingus, the Mingus Dynasty band took the stage at Montreux. This performance of “Better Get It In Your Soul” features too bassists, starting with Mike Richmond and his opening solo, and also featuring bassist Aladár Pege. The rest of the band includes Randy Brecker on trumpet, Joe Farrell on saxophone, Jimmy Knepper on...

I’ve been on a Charles Mingus kick lately, watching a ton of great videos like this one. This performance of “Flowers for a Lady” was filmed on July 28, 1974 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Todi, Italy. Mingus is joined by Dannie Richmond on drums, Don Pullen on piano, George Adams on tenor sax and Hamiet Bluiett on baritone...