Charles Mingus really like? The jazz bassist and composer, who was born 100 years ago on April 22nd, was “powerful…completely individual…volatile…strong…supremely honest and uncompromising,” said his widow, Sue, in “Triumph of the Underdog”, a documentary released in 1998.
When he died, Mingus left a musical legacy whose status and importance are beyond doubt. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz proclaims that his “achievements surpass in historic and stylistic breadth those of any other major figure in jazz”. His entire works are now in the Library of Congress, the first time a jazz composer had received that accolade. “Mingus Ah Um” and “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady” are often considered among the greatest albums of the 20th century.
That poetic episode was just the beginning. Ms Mingus has overseen weekly performances by the Mingus Big Band, a 14-piece ensemble, for three decades as its artistic director, a role she now shares with Boris Kozlov, who plays the “lion’s head” bass once owned by Mingus himself. At “Mingus Mondays”, the band preserves the bassist’s workshop/work-in-progress ethic, rather than giving polished or definitive performances.
The jazz legacy has an increasingly prized place in music colleges and conservatoires, where Mingus is seen as important, even indispensable. Hans Koller, head of the jazz programme at Trinity Laban in London, describes Mingus as a key figure: “He stands for the unity of composer and improviser that lies at the heart of the music. He can transcend boundaries and categories of styles, even in a single piece, like ‘Jelly Roll’ from ‘Mingus Ah Um’.
Mingus Among Us, Three or Four Shades of Blues…so many good ones!