Charles Mingus manipulated and coerced spontaneous moments of collective improvisation to determine the ultimate shape of his compositions. So the standard song forms of theme, improvisational variations, etc., were cracked open by the vibration of musical force. In 1952 Mingus organized a performance recording in Toronto called--with typical understatement--The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever. The recording featured Mingus on bass, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, the alto sax of Charlie Parker, Bud Powell on piano and the drums of Max Roach. A firm believer in the role that teaching played in leadership, he would often teach his band mates the compositions by ear, resulting in more expressive and spontaneous performances. He even taught saxophonist Dannie Richmond to play drums because he couldn't find anyone else who could play the way he wanted. Meanwhile, he continued to add clever techniques to his performances, such as tremolo, flamenco rhythms, and the act of fingering and plucking notes with the same hand. All of this and more are heard on his finest recording, the album-length exorcism called The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. From the mid-1960s until 1970 he retired from performing to write his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. In the meantime, his recordings for nearly a dozen different labels continued to entertain and inspire. Preeminent among them were Better Git It in Your Soul, Stormy weather, and Changes One. Cultural artifacts arising from his death in 1979 include the Joni Mitchell recording Mingus, a band called Mingus Dynasty, and a book by Brian Priestly called Mingus: A Critical Biography.
--Phil Mershon
--Phil Mershon