Charles Mingus grew up in the Watts area of Los Angeles. He first attempted to learn trombone and cello, but after being frustrated by poor teachers he took up double bass in high school, studying with Red Callender and a former bass player with the NY Philharmonic Orchestra, Herman Rheinschagen. He also studied composition with Lloyd Reese.
He played with Barney Bigard’s ensemble (1942), and toured as bass player in the big bands of Louis Armstrong (1943) and Lionel Hampton (1947-48). In his first recordings he accompanied jazz musicians and rhythm-and-blues singers, and as “Baron Mingus” led diverse ensembles.
He gained national attention as a member of Red Norvo’s trio (with Tal Farlow) in 1950-51. Thereafter he settled in New York, where in the early 1950s he worked with Billy Taylor, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Art Tatum, and Bud Powell. Some of his performances during this period, including the famous concert at Massey Hall in Toronto with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and several of his early Jazz Workshop sessions, were preserved on recordings issued by Mingus’s own company, Debut Records (1952-55)…..Read More
Jazz and Classic Cuban Music, Afro Cuban, Bossa Nova, Brazilian Jazz
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