Charles Mingus

My horoscope in Las Vegas Weekly said I should listen to some free jazz, suggesting either Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, or Sun Ra. Never one to turn down a helpful suggestion, I bought a copy of Mingus' best work. I'm not much of a jazz expert, but I know what I like, and I like this.

Mingus was a practitioner of many styles of jazz, at least according to his Wikipedia article. He was a double-bassist and bandleader, and delved into what was known as hard bop, and also free jazz. What is free jazz? Well, Wikipedia says, "Defining and discussing free jazz is complicated." I guess the simplest way to describe it is as a rejection of forms that were laid down by those who came before, and experiments with rhythms and other aspects of jazz, relying heavily on improvisation.

To a jazz neophyte, it can be scary, and you wonder when you slide the disc in whether it will just be a cascade of noise. This is anything but. The selections on the CD I chose are melodious and are either swinging or serenely melancholy. 

Mingus was born in 1922, and was bi-racial. He worshiped Duke Ellington and aspired to a cellist, but it was impossible for a black man in those days to play classical music for a living, and the cello was not yet a jazz instrument. He applied what he knew of the cello the bass, and became known as a prodigy. He played something called Third Stream, which combined jazz and classical.

In 1952 he founded a record company with drummer Max Roach, and was part of the scene that included the giants Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Charlie Parker. He was also known as the "Angry Man of Jazz," due to his temper. He would stop shows if the audience were talking or clinking ice cubes, and he once busted the mouth of trombone-player Jimmy Knepper, who said it ruined his embouchure.

Plagued by ALS, he could not play the instrument by the '70s, but continued to compose, and worked on a Joni Mitchell titled after him. He died in 1979 at age 56, and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges River.

Of the cuts on the The Very Best of Charles Mingus, there is a wide variety. My favorite is "Boogie Stop Shuffle," which sounds like the theme song of a suspense movie, that sounds a bit like the theme for Courageous Cat (and a little bit like the theme from the TV series Batman). "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" and "Better Git It in Your Soul" are joyous and uplifting, while "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and "Flamingo" are reflective, the kind of thing you might hear Bleeding Gums Murphy play on a restless night of the soul.

"The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers," in addition to having a great title, has more improvisation than most of the other tracks, and ends with what some may find just to be a random series of notes. There is also a wonderful version of Ellington's "Mood Indigo."

I'm not sure if listening to free jazz this week improved my life any, but I like discovering new things, and am happy that I have now been exposed to the work of Charles Mingus.