Charles Mingus

As I my research on bassists, my third bassist is Charles Mingus. Charles was one truly an amazing bassist, pianist as well as a composer. Born in Arizona in the year of 1922 he spent the early part of his life in the “Roaring Twenties”. He grew up in a rather religious family as a lot of his inspiration to play and compose came from the music he heard at church. Around the age of 8 years old he started studying double bass under H. Rheinshagen, the principal bassist for the New York Philharmonic. Some sources say that he even worked and studied with Lloyd Reese, Reese being regarded as a very legendary composer. As his playing and composing matured he found his way to New York. He recorded and played with the best of the best including Charlie Parker and others. He was known for his ability to compose music for mid-sized bands and bass playing. According to allmusic “As a bassist, he knew few peers, blessed with a powerful tone and pulsating sense of rhythm, capable of elevating the instrument into the front line of a band. But had he been just a string player, few would know his name today. Rather, he was the greatest bass-playing leader/composer jazz has ever known, one who always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse, spirit, spontaneity, and ferocious expressive power of jazz.” [1]

Mingus made his presence known in the civil rights movement, but he was more of a hard head on stage. He was not afraid to delay, stop or cancel a concert if the crowd had a poor showing he wasn’t happy with the way something was going. There was even one reported event that in the middle of a concert he slammed the lid of the piano down and smashed the hands of his piano players hands and proceeded to punch his trombonist in the mouth. He truly wasn’t afraid to be himself on stage and intern he developed the nickname “The Angry Man of Jazz”.

My listening piece for this week is a piece called Moanin'. It actually features a baritone sax but the song was just too cool for me to pass up, the introduction to this song is one of the "dirtiest" things I have heard but I love it! Having played this song in high school I was quite familiar with it. I was told that he was drunk when he wrote it by my director but I really am not sure that is the case. It starts off with Ronnie Cuber on the bari with a little solo jam. Then the rest of the band comes in a it keeps getting more and more nasty until they reach quick stop section. They then plan an introduction into a sweet solo section first featuring the baritone sax. As I listen to this song I my legs are swinging and bouncing is many ways as it is truly a catchy tune. Very fast paced song that seems to be in a typical 4 beats per measure. Now we enter a trumpet solo and I can solidly hear Mingus swinging hard on what sounds like a stand up base in the background. The trumpet. After that solo we return to what almost sounds like the beginning of the song where it is finished out.