Seven for Saturday - 7 Charles Mingus Videos

"Seven for Saturday" is a great way to see some of the legendary men and women of jazz in action.

Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was a bassist, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.

Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz.

The first video with Mr. Mingus is probably not well known. He was a part of pianist Hazel Scott's trio (the drummer was Rudy Nichols). This performance of "A Foggy Day" was on a "March of Dimes" television show from 1955:

Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans Jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. Many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations. As a performer, he was a pioneer in double bass technique.

Because of his brilliant writing for mid-size ensembles—and his catering to and emphasizing the strengths of the musicians in his groups—Mingus is often considered the heir apparent to Duke Ellington, for whom he expressed unqualified admiration. Indeed, Dizzy Gillespie had once claimed Mingus reminded him "of a young Duke", citing their shared "organizational genius."

Although Mingus' music was once believed to be too difficult to play without Mingus' leadership, many musicians play Mingus compositions today, from those who play with the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition.

Extra Audio:

I couldn't readily find videos of Mr. Mingus performing "Haitian Fight Song", "Track A-Solo Dancer" or "Pithecanthropus Erectus". However, I did find audio files uploaded on YouTube. Enjoy!

Source: wikipedia.org