查尔斯·明格斯

Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz greats, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Eric Dolphy. Mingus's work ranged from advanced bebop and avant-garde jazz with small and midsize ensembles to pioneering the post-bop style on seminal recordings like Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956) and Mingus Ah Um (1959) and progressive big band experiments such as The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963).

Mingus's compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra to high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, the Library of Congress acquired Mingus's collected papers—including scores, sound recordings, correspondence, and photos—in what it called "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history".

Biography

Early life and career

Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona, in 1922, to Charles Mingus Sr., a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, and Harriet Sophia Mingus (née Phillips). His family moved to the Watts area of Los Angeles shortly after his birth.

Charles Sr. was born in 1877 in Swain County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains. His mother was a white teenager, Clarinda Mingus; his father was Daniel Mingus, a farmhand and former slave who worked for Clarinda's family. Clarinda married and started a new family when he was six, leaving him in the care of her father and grandparents. He left home at fourteen, enlisting in the army and seeing action in the Spanish–American War. In 1917, he married Harriet Sophia Phillips, who was of mixed Chinese and African-American descent. She died of myocarditis in 1922, a few months after the birth of their son.

Mingus was raised alongside his two elder half-sisters, from his father's first marriage. His father was married for a third time in 1923, to Mamie Carson. Mamie allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for other music, especially that of Duke Ellington. He studied trombone, and later cello, although he was unable to follow the cello professionally because, at the time, it was nearly impossible for a black musician to make a career of classical music, and the cello was not accepted as a jazz instrument. Despite this, Mingus remained attached to the cello; as he studied bass with Red Callender in the late 1930s, Callender even commented that the cello was still Mingus's main instrument. In his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, Mingus states that he did not actually start learning bass until Buddy Collette accepted him into his swing band under the stipulation that he be the band's bass player.

Due to a poor education, the young Mingus could not read musical notation quickly enough to join the local youth orchestra. This had a serious impact on his early musical experiences, leaving him feeling ostracized from the classical music world. These early experiences, in addition to his lifelong confrontations with racism, were reflected in his music, which often focused on themes of racism, discrimination, and (in)justice.