Charles Mingus
Jazz great Charles Mingus was born on April 22, 1922, in Nogales, Arizona, and grew up in Los Angeles. The renowned bassist performed with such legends as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, and earned acclaim for his work as a bandleader and recording artist. After struggling with depression, Mingus made a successful comeback in the 1970s. He died in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on January 5, 1979.
Jazz great Charles Mingus was born on April 22, 1922, in Nogales, Arizona, and grew up in Los Angeles. The renowned bassist performed with such legends as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, and earned acclaim for his work as a bandleader and recording artist. After struggling with depression, Mingus made a successful comeback in the 1970s. He died in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on January 5, 1979.
East Coasting
Recorded in 1957 this is one of Charles Mingus's lesser known sessions. Here the master was at the head of an awesome band including some of his regular sidemen. Jimmy Knepper - trombone, Shafi Hadi - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and Dannie Richmond - drums, along with nothing but Bill Evans on piano! This is dense, lyrical and very stimulating music deeply rooted in the bop tradition yet with an open ear to other sound territories.
Mingus Plays Piano
One of Mingus' most straightforwardly beautiful recordings, there is a meditative calm found in Mingus' piano work, touching on shades of Debussy, Satie, Bill Evans, and Duke Ellington. There's no showboating, and not an ounce of amateurism considering Mingus was primarily known as a bassist. Making its way through standards, original compositions, and the blues, Mingus Plays Piano is a true document of the man's inherent musical genius, and a crucial LP for anyone wishing to dig a little deeper…
Jazz Composers Workshop
Charlie Mingus’s 1956 Jazz Composers Workshop showcases his visionary blend of hard bop, classical, gospel, and avant-garde. The album captures Mingus’s restless innovation—by turns explosive, tender, and genre-defying.
Complete Live At Town Hall '64
Dolphy’s complete April 4, 1964 Town Hall concert, a wonderful set in splendid Stereo sound quality. This concert was the last they played before traveling to Europe, where Dolphy would die shortly after. This is the first time the whole performance appears on a single set. Two extended songs from the group’s concert in Amsterdam six days later have been added as a bonus.
Mingus Ah Um
When driving a band with his upright bass, Charles Mingus looked -and was- gigantic, in more ways than one. He had huge creative appetites (as well as being hot tempered), creating his own combination of hard bop, blues, and avant-garde jazz. There was no one more multi-faceted than Mingus between the 1950s and 1970s and of his many albums, Mingus Ah Um (1959) is considered to be a jazz classic.
New Piano Expressions
** Rare original copies. Original 1987 LP pressing on Mythic Sounds, numbered edition. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers. Comes with original hype sticker ** A lost gem of modern jazz piano returns: New Piano Expressions is the singular, visionary statement from John Dennis, the Philadelphia pianist once hailed as the “Fat Genius” by his peers. Recorded in 1955 for Debut Records - the pioneering label founded by Charles Mingus and Max Roach - this album stands…
The Rarest On Debut - Mingus Newly Discovered
** Rare original copies. Original 1987 LP pressing on Mythic Sounds, numbered edition. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers. Comes with original hype sticker ** A remarkable addition to the legacy of Charles Mingus, The Rarest On Debut – Mingus Newly Discovered unveils previously unknown studio sessions from September 1957 in New York City, now available in a strictly limited edition of 1,000 hand-numbered copies. This release is a treasure for collectors and jaz…
The Rarest On Debut - Charles Mingus Sideman
** Rare original copies. Original 1987 LP pressing on Mythic Sounds, numbered edition. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers. Comes with original hype sticker ** A rare window into the collaborative genius of Charles Mingus, The Rarest On Debut – Charles Mingus Sideman assembles some of the most elusive and captivating sessions from the formative years of modern jazz. Issued as a numbered, limited edition of just 1,000 copies, this Italian compilation brings toget…
The Rarest On Debut
** Rare original copies. Original 1987 LP pressing on Mythic Sounds, numbered edition. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers. Comes with original hype sticker ** A treasure trove for jazz aficionados, The Rarest On Debut brings together some of the most sought-after and historically significant recordings from the formative years of Charles Mingus. This limited edition, numbered vinyl compilation (only 1,000 copies worldwide) is a meticulously curated journey thro…
Strings And Keys
** Rare original copies. Second LP pressing on Mythic Sounds, numbered edition. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers. Comes with original hype sticker ** A landmark in early modern jazz returns: Strings And Keys, the rare and sought-after 1953 debut from legendary bassist Charles Mingus and pianist Spaulding Givens, is available once again in a meticulously crafted, limited edition reissue. Originally released on Debut Records (DLP-1), this session captures two v…
Music Written For Monterey 1965, Not Heard, Played In Its Entirety At UCLA
** Rare original copies. Second pressing on Jazz Workshop from the mid '70s (estimated) of this impossible to obtain album, the original issue being available only as a mail-order release. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, possible wear due to ageing on covers ** On September 25, 1965, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Charles Mingus took the stage with an octet of some of the most forward-thinking jazz musicians of the era. The occasion was not just any concert, but a determined response to an earlier set…
Mingus Dinasty
Recorded in jazz’s golden year of 1959, Mingus Dynasty is often overshadowed by Mingus Ah Um, but it stands as one of Charles Mingus’ most ambitious works. Expanding his regular band with additional players, he pushed his compositions into more intricate territory. With a lineup featuring Richard Williams, Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Booker Ervin, Roland Hanna, and Dannie Richmond—plus guests like Benny Golson and Jerome Richardson—Mingus crafted a dynamic set blending gospel-infused grooves (Slo…
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
*2024 stock* Official Reissue in collaboration with Impulse Records! Special gate-fold edition. Recorded on January 20, 1963, by an eleven-piece band and released in July of that year by Impulse!, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady consists of a single continuous composition partially written as a ballet divided into four tracks and six movements. Charles Mingus defined the album's orchestral style as "ethnic folk dance music", and it blends jazz and classical, while also integrating elements o…
Shadows
John Cassavetes’ directorial debut Shadows was a largely improvised film set in the bohemian jazz scene of 1950s New York; often referred to as the first truly independent film of American cinema, it featured a brief disjointed soundtrack improvised by Charles Mingus and his saxophonist Shafi Hadi, with various percussionists slotting in, including Phineas Newborn Jr. Gloriously messy, reportedly unfinished and referred to with scorn by Mingus, the Shadows soundtrack sketches ultimately yielded …
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird „Revisited“
"Heard together, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus and Pre Bird suggest the enormity of
Charles Mingus’ artistic vision. No one album encompasses it in its entirety, and perhaps not even
two or three. However, these recordings, made six months apart in 1960, vividly summarized his
work to date, as he headed towards to jazz’s pantheon." – Bill Shoemaker
At Antibes 1960, Revisited
Temporary Super Offer! "Mingus the visionary composer. Mingus the virtuoso bassist. Mingus the volcanic bandleader. As the 1960s began, with the new decade bringing a radically expansive new view of the possibilities of jazz expression, Charles Mingus, by virtue of his brilliantly nonconformist creative imagination, willingness to take risks along experimental paths, and (because of, or in spite of) an oft-times confrontational rebellious nature, had established himself among those in the forefr…
Town Hall Concert, 1964
Charles Mingus brought together an amazing lineup spanning the totality of the nation's jazz scene with such luminaries as Eric Dolphy, Buddy Collette, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Pepper Adams, Jaki Byard, Grady Tate, and more. Brought together to perform new Mingus compositions for the first time in public, the recording was initially considered weak due to limited rehearsal time but the years have been kind to this recording and it's a fantastic set of Mingus compositions, including the powerful "…
Introducing Paul Bley
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Originally released in 1953 on Charles Mingus's own "Debut" label, this is Paul Bley's historical debut album. Here the young talented and technically strong pianist appears as leader of a super-trio with nothing but Mingus himself on bass and Art Blakey on drums. This is a beautifully varied set including both renditions of classic standards such as "I can't get Started", and Bley's early originals like "Opus 1" and "Spontaneous Combustion" This is where you ca…
Jazz in Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden
**In process of stocking 5CD boxset includes poster, CD booklet, 5 CDs in cardboard wallets, housed all together in a clamshell box ** The radical discovery by Amir Abdullah of 5 two-track master tapes in the care of Hermine Brooks – widow of innovative Detroit drummer Roy Brooks – of the Charles Mingus Quintet recorded live in Detroit at Strata Concert Gallery is cause for some serious celebration. These electrifying recordings took place during Mingus’ week-long residency in February 1973. Th…
John Cassavetes' Shadows
For the first time on vinyl, Charles Mingus's great score for the legendary 1959 directorial debut of John Cassavetes, Shadows. Much has been said about the controversial relationship between these two masters."The score encapsulates Cassavetes's and Mingus's unique approaches to both improvisation and composition in their respective media, illuminating the oppositional nature of jazz to mainstream cultural production and the underbelly of race relations in 1950's America." - Ross Lipman