Mingus! Mingus!

While at my community college my English Professor got me into all kinds of stuff. I mentioned this when in my post about Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. Not only did he help me with Jazz but he helped me with Classical. He was a great fan of 20th Century Classical and he liked all the hard Classical listens too. For example he loved Messiaen, Carter, Shostakovich, Mahler, Berg, Stockhausen and many others. He told me they were the Jazz forerunners of Classical music. He also told me that a man who does not get credit for his classical learning is Charles Mingus.

Charles Mingus was Classically trained he explained. He told me that he might have been the most music smart of all the Jazz people out there. I did not hear much Mingus before that time and I thought it would be cool to check him out. The English Professor asked me to bring in a few cassette tapes for him to record some Mingus. He told me he would give me full albums and not any type of greatest hits type albums. He did not tell me what albums I would be getting but he did tell me the two they have at the college library are not the ones I was going to get, but I should listen to those as well.



Two weeks passed and he asked me to come to his office for the tapes. He handed me Mingus, Mungus, Mingus, Mingus and Black Saint and the Sinner Lady on one tape and on the other the Charles Mingus Town Hall Concert and Oh Yeah on the other tape. He told me that I should soak it all in and enjoy. He did not tell me what his personal favorite, but he did mention that he was a fan of the early 60's Mingus of all. I took the tapes and put them in my car and I would listen to them after class. I was not sure what to think. I mean he told me he was classically trained and I thought I was going to listen to my uncle's Jazz not stuff I been listening to that he gave me. I mean we have yet to study him in Jazz class and the stuff I listened to in High School was not exactly the stuff I wanted to hear again.

So the first tape I started with was the Mingus, Mingus... one and like the Ornette Coleman this music was a life changing musical event. His music I was hearing before was something that sounded to much like the jazz that I heard. This music was fresh and wonderful and a little more different then most Jazz. Mingus not only played the Bass, but he also played the Piano and sang. He even had some conducting of the band that he was in. I could now see why Mingus was so good.



As I listened to the tapes I got more and more into him. I liked everything I heard. I really did like the first one I listened to and all the songs were very good. I would recommend any Mingus, but for now let's just start with the one I first heard. Mingus is a one of the best musicians to hear and if you don't have any this is the best place to start and see why his music crosses so many boundaries in the musical spectrum. Soon you too will be a Charles Mingus fan too. Enjoy!!