Charles Mingus - Moanin’ (1959)

Someday, in some alternative universe, I’d like to walk into a store or restaurant or coffee shop or public space, and instead of being subjected to the usual shitty Muzak, mindlessly repetitive satellite radio, or the current top-40 pop drivel that all sounds the same, I’d like to hear this, because this is what music really sounds like and why people need to hear it.

Charles Mingus - Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting (1959)

From the mouth of Mingus:

“This record is unusual—it presents only one part of my musical world, the blues. A year ago, Nesuhi Ertegün suggested that I record an entire blues album in the style of “Haitian Fight Song,” because some people, particularly critics, were saying I didn’t swing enough. He wanted to give them a barrage of soul music: churchy, blues, swinging, earthy. I thought it over. I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I’ve grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing. So I agreed.”

Charles Mingus in Bologna Italy, 1972

delightfulee:

tornandfrayed:

Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival 1971, by Milt Hinton.

Charles Mingus. The Genius.

Thelonious Monk with [left to right] the hands of bassist Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Gigi Gryce, and Max Roach playing at Tony’s in Brooklyn NYC, March 1954

Thelonious Monk jamming with (left to right) Charles Mingus, Roy Haynes, and Charlie Parker at the Open Door in Greenwich Village NYC, September 1953

Clifford Jordan, in a concert with Charles Mingus in Italy circa 1963-64 (photo by Roberto Polillo)

Charles Mingus, Milan Italy, 1964

Jaki Byard performing with Charles Mingus, Bologna Italy, 1964

Roy Brooks performing with Charles Mingus, Bologna Italy, 1972

Two views of Eric Dolphy in concert, Bologna Italy, 1964, with Charles Mingus, a few months before his death

Eric Dolphy in Bologna Italy, 1964, in a concert with Charles Mingus (photo by Roberto Polillo)

Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, Bologna Italy 1964 (photo by Roberto Polillo)

Charles Mingus [with the sickest bass known to man]

CharlesMingus - Ysabel’s Table Dance (1957)

As Mingus recounts in the liner notes, his marriage had just broken up, so he went to Tijuana with drummer Dannie Richmond to drown his sorrows in as much debauchery as he could endure. This definitely comes through in the music, which combines south-of-the-border rhythms, folk melodies, and Mingus’s adventurous aural tendencies to fashion a masterpiece of modern jazz.

(Note: It says “Charlie Mingus” on the cover. Apparently he hated all derivations of the name Charles.)