This Day In History: April 22nd
Composer, bandleader, bassist, pianist and more are all amongst the many titles held by the late Charles Mingus. Mingus wrote his first concert piece, “Half-Mast Inhibition,” when he was seventeen years old and ended his career with more than one hundred albums recorded and three hundred scores.
He was born on April 22, 1922, in Nogales, Arizona and got his early exposure to music from church choirs. Mingus was formally trained as a bassist and composer for over five years. This allowed him to tour with talents such as Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton. By the 1950s, he settled in New York and continued to build his reputation as an artist.
Mingus recorded with fellow artists such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. He also introduced fans to his piano-playing abilities and formed his own publishing and recording companies during this time. Mingus also established the “Jazz Workshop,” which provided performance opportunities to young composers.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Mingus began to take a more disciplined approach to performing. In 1971 he won the Slee Chair of Music and even served as a composition teacher at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also released his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, the same year.
Throughout the years, Mingus spent time touring in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and South America. He has released albums such as Mingus Ah Um (1959), Mingus Dynasty (1960), Tijuana Moods (1962), Let My Children Hear Music (1972), Cumbia and Jazz Fusion (1978) and more.
However as the decade came to a close, he was diagnosed with a rare nerve disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and confined to a wheelchair. Despite his declining health, Mingus still managed to work on music with the help of a tape recorder. One of his final pieces included “Epitaph,” which was not performed for the first time until 10 years after his death. The piece was more than 4000 measures long and took two hours to perform.
Charles Mingus died in Mexico on January 5, 1979. His legacy was posthumously honored with a “Charles Mingus Day” in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
