WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.339 Welcome to the Deep Dive. This is where we take 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:04.179 that whole stack of sources you give us, the 00:00:04.179 --> 00:00:06.299 articles, the books, the analysis, and we boil 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:08.359 it all down into the essential knowledge you 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.740 really need. And today, we are going into the 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:16.920 world of one of jazz's most towering and turbulent 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:21.559 figures. Charles Mingus, 1922 to 1979. He was 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:24.440 just this foundational giant, a composer whose 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:28.019 legacy is a mix of, well, blistering genius and 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:31.440 equally blistering fury. Absolutely. He was without 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:34.439 a doubt one of the greatest bassists, composers 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:36.899 and band leaders of the entire 20th century. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.039 I mean, not just in jazz, but in music, period. 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:41.100 His career spanned, what, three decades? Over 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:43.659 three very turbulent decades. Yeah. And he collaborated 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:46.039 with basically everyone who was anyone from Louis 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:48.439 Armstrong and Charlie Parker all the way to Joni 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:50.460 Mitchell at the very end. So our mission with 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:52.119 this deep dive is to really pull out the key 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:54.729 insights. We want to get into his. his explosive 00:00:54.729 --> 00:00:57.189 personality, his really groundbreaking musical 00:00:57.189 --> 00:00:59.310 philosophy. And ultimately, we want to look at 00:00:59.310 --> 00:01:02.409 the architecture of his modern jazz masterpiece, 00:01:02.729 --> 00:01:05.250 the one that was almost lost to history, Epitaph. 00:01:05.450 --> 00:01:07.450 And the sources we're working with here are just 00:01:07.450 --> 00:01:10.250 incredibly comprehensive. We've got deep biographical 00:01:10.250 --> 00:01:13.450 details sitting right alongside some very complex 00:01:13.450 --> 00:01:15.969 musical analysis. Right. And the first thing 00:01:15.969 --> 00:01:18.010 that just jumps out from all of it is that Charles 00:01:18.010 --> 00:01:22.109 Mingus absolutely, fundamentally refused to be 00:01:22.109 --> 00:01:25.500 put in a box. That refusal seems central to everything 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:27.319 about him. It really is. I mean, you look at 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:29.420 his career, he starts out professionally and 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:32.219 he's, you know, firmly rooted in advanced bebop 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:35.299 and hard bop. But he just immediately starts 00:01:35.299 --> 00:01:37.700 pushing those boundaries. He starts pioneering 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:40.599 post -bop styles on albums that really changed 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.099 the whole genre. Exactly. Albums like Pythocanthropus 00:01:43.099 --> 00:01:45.659 Erectus in 56 and then, of course, the legendary 00:01:45.659 --> 00:01:52.099 Mingus in 1959. But he didn't stop there. He 00:01:52.099 --> 00:01:55.200 went on to embrace avant -garde jazz. He explored 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.400 these massive orchestral formats. And he made 00:01:57.400 --> 00:01:59.760 huge contributions to what we call third stream 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.260 music. That's right. That sort of formal synthesis 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:04.400 of classical music and jazz structures. You can 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.840 hear that most powerfully, I think, on The Black 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.419 Saint and The Sinner Lady. That blend is what 00:02:09.419 --> 00:02:11.520 makes his work so powerful, right? It's like 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:14.280 high art composition mixed with this raw visceral 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:17.400 heat you get from blues and gospel. But if we 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:19.759 had to pull out one big picture takeaway, just 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:21.659 one thing about his musical structure before 00:02:21.659 --> 00:02:24.259 we get started, it'd have to be his approach 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:26.879 to how musicians communicate. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:30.219 His focus on collective improvisation. It was 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:32.900 radical. So in traditional jazz, you have the 00:02:32.900 --> 00:02:36.020 main theme, the head, right? Then everyone takes 00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:38.000 their turn with a solo and then it's back to 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.639 the head at the end. Right. Very sequential. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.139 But Mingus wanted something much more dynamic, 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:46.460 more alive. He demanded his band's function like 00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:50.659 a real conversation or maybe like a New Orleans 00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:52.800 funeral parade. Where everyone is spontaneously 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.909 interacting at the same time. Yes. responding, 00:02:56.050 --> 00:02:58.810 anticipating, exploring the theme simultaneously. 00:02:59.389 --> 00:03:02.349 It creates this sound that's hot and chaotic, 00:03:02.530 --> 00:03:05.069 but also incredibly disciplined at the same time. 00:03:05.129 --> 00:03:07.389 And that demand for discipline, for integrity, 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:09.810 it often put him in direct conflict with the 00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:12.750 world around him, didn't it? All the time. His 00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:15.270 work was just inherently political. He was confronting 00:03:15.270 --> 00:03:18.610 racism and injustice head on right in the music, 00:03:18.669 --> 00:03:20.930 which made his art a direct reflection of his 00:03:20.930 --> 00:03:23.069 personal struggle. It was an uncompromising voice. 00:03:23.229 --> 00:03:26.930 A voice that often shouted. Yes, definitely shouted. 00:03:27.069 --> 00:03:28.870 Okay, let's unpack this. We'll start at the very 00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:32.009 beginning. Part one, roots, identity, and the 00:03:32.009 --> 00:03:34.879 struggle with tradition. He wasn't from a jazz 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:37.139 hub like New York or Chicago. No, not at all. 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.139 He was born in Nogales, Arizona in 1922, but 00:03:40.139 --> 00:03:42.340 he grew up in Watts in Los Angeles. And that 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:45.020 environment, his heritage, it seems to have created 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:48.460 this incredibly complex foundation. It really 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:51.039 fueled his sense of being an outsider, which 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:52.939 you hear in his music his entire life. Yeah. 00:03:52.979 --> 00:03:56.080 His ancestry was this rich. almost impossibly 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.360 intersectional mix. The sources break it down. 00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:00.659 They get very specific. It's German -American, 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:02.860 African -American, and Native American heritage. 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:05.759 His maternal grandfather was a Chinese -British 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.460 subject from Hong Kong, and his maternal grandmother 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:10.719 was an African -American woman from the southern 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.500 U .S. Wow. I mean, that's a remarkable amount 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.699 of cultural background to synthesize, especially 00:04:16.699 --> 00:04:19.680 in the very racially rigid world of early 20th 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.279 century America. Absolutely. And it has to be 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:24.879 part of why he refused to accept rigid categories, 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:28.139 musically or racially. But the story gets even 00:04:28.139 --> 00:04:30.300 more complicated when you look at his father's 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:32.360 identity. This is what he writes about in his 00:04:32.360 --> 00:04:35.639 autobiography. Beneath the Underdog. Yes, that 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:38.420 sprawling stream of consciousness book from 1971. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:41.720 He gives this almost mythological account of 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:44.319 his lineage, claiming his father was the son 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:47.319 of a black farm worker and a Swedish woman. But 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:49.379 there's a psychologically damaging part of that 00:04:49.379 --> 00:04:51.259 story, isn't there? The part about his father 00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:53.759 passing for white. Right. According to Mingus' 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:56.939 telling, his father, Charles Mingus Sr., was 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.180 raised by his mother and her white husband as 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:01.420 a white person. Until he was a teenager. Until 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:04.100 he was 14. And that's when his mother supposedly 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:06.779 revealed that his true father was a black slave, 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:09.860 at which point his father ran away. Now... The 00:05:09.860 --> 00:05:12.240 sources say the literal truth of that story is 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.480 maybe less important than the psychological impact 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.519 it had on Charles Jr. Exactly. The uncertainty, 00:05:17.779 --> 00:05:21.259 the sense of a constructed identity. It all points 00:05:21.259 --> 00:05:24.079 to a really profound and difficult reckoning 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:27.060 with race and with self. And that experience, 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:29.699 that ambiguity, coupled with the prejudice he 00:05:29.699 --> 00:05:32.939 faced every day, you can hear that volatile energy 00:05:32.939 --> 00:05:36.060 in his compositions. It's music that sounds like 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.699 it's fighting for its right to exist. That's 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:41.180 a great way to put it. So shifting to his musical 00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:45.220 beginnings, he was drawn to jazz early on, specifically 00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:47.920 Duke Ellington. He was, even though his mother 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.439 was very strict and only allowed church -related 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:52.899 music in the house. So he was a prodigy from 00:05:52.899 --> 00:05:54.899 the start, but his path was immediately blocked. 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.439 Blocked by the walls of the time, both societal 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:00.139 and musical. He started on trombone, but pretty 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:02.540 quickly moved to the cello. And he was very serious 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:05.040 about it. He wanted to be a classical cellist. 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:07.279 And that's where he hit the first wall. Why was 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.720 the cello a dead end for him? It was a two -pronged 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:13.259 problem. First, institutional racism made it 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:15.279 nearly impossible for a black musician to have 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:17.360 a career in classical music at that time. It 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:19.100 just wasn't happening. And the second problem. 00:06:19.339 --> 00:06:21.500 The cello wasn't accepted as a jazz instrument. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.360 There was just no established role for it in 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:28.360 a jazz band. So the instrument he loved was professionally 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.100 useless in the world he lived in. That denial, 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:34.220 that forced abandonment of his main musical voice 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:37.579 because of race and genre conventions, that must 00:06:37.579 --> 00:06:39.699 have been radicalizing. Absolutely heartbreaking. 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:42.600 And you're right, radicalizing. The sources note 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:44.819 that even after he was forced to switch to the 00:06:44.819 --> 00:06:47.439 double bass in high school, his first teacher, 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.779 Red Calendar, said his cello technique was still 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:53.449 dominant. So he just applied what he learned 00:06:53.449 --> 00:06:56.050 for the cello to the bass? He did. He took that 00:06:56.050 --> 00:06:58.790 rigorous bowing and fingering technique and just 00:06:58.790 --> 00:07:01.290 mapped it onto the double bass. And he didn't 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:03.209 just teach himself either. He sought out the 00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:05.930 best classical training he could find. The absolute 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:08.269 best. He studied for five years with Hermann 00:07:08.269 --> 00:07:10.269 Reinjagen, who was the principal bassist for 00:07:10.269 --> 00:07:12.870 the New York Philharmonic. So he had this impeccable 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:15.069 classical discipline. But the classical world 00:07:15.069 --> 00:07:17.790 still rejected him. It did. And it was personal. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:20.740 The sources say that because of a poor primary 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.420 education, he couldn't read musical notation 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:25.459 quickly enough for the local youth orchestra. 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:29.000 So he felt ostracized again. Right. He was talented 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.959 enough, he was trained well enough, but a systemic 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:35.019 failure denied him his place. And that patterned 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:37.319 denial of his instrument, denial of his seat 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:39.740 in the orchestra, it became the core motivation 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:42.199 in his music. His songs weren't just melodies, 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:45.139 they were arguments for justice. And yet, even 00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:47.480 as a teenager, he was already putting those two 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:49.579 worlds together. He was writing these advanced 00:07:49.579 --> 00:07:52.639 pieces that were similar to Third Stream. He 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:55.160 was. That formal blend of jazz and classical. 00:07:55.300 --> 00:07:57.180 It shows the classical training was foundational 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:00.100 for him. He was using complex structures and 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:02.480 orchestral thinking in his jazz writing from 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:04.459 the very beginning. And a lot of those early 00:08:04.459 --> 00:08:07.120 pieces weren't recorded until much later. Much 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:10.500 later. In 1960, with the conductor Gunther Schuller 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:13.180 on an album called Pre -Bird. The title itself 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:15.379 is so telling. Pre -Charlie Parker. Exactly. 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.060 It shows Mingus understood that Charlie Parker 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:21.079 had so fundamentally changed music that you could 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:23.639 divide all of jazz history into pre - and post 00:08:23.639 --> 00:08:26.660 -Bird. Mingus knew tradition, but he was always 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:29.279 looking past it. Which sets us up perfectly for 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:33.000 part two. The prodigy, the firing, and the birth 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:36.539 of debut records. By the 1940s and early 50s, 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:39.220 he's a technical monster on the bass. A total 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.620 dynamo. He tours with Louis Armstrong in 1943. 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.820 He plays with Barney Biggard. And then he has 00:08:45.820 --> 00:08:47.940 this really crucial gig with Lionel Hampton's 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:50.200 orchestra. Why was the Hampton gig so important? 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:52.759 Because Hampton recorded several of Mingus's 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.460 compositions. So it gave him a platform not just 00:08:55.460 --> 00:08:58.159 as a player, but as a composer. Then he gets 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:00.919 huge critical acclaim in the early 50s. With 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.419 that innovative trio. The trio with guitarist 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:07.350 Hell Farlow and vibraphonist Red Norvo. A huge 00:09:07.350 --> 00:09:09.850 success. But Mingus left that group right at 00:09:09.850 --> 00:09:12.850 its peak in 1951. Why walk away from that? Well, 00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:14.909 it was the same old story. Racial prejudice. 00:09:15.190 --> 00:09:17.490 The sources confirmed that Mingus' race became 00:09:17.490 --> 00:09:19.830 an issue with some club owners. And rather than 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:21.909 put up with it, he just quit. He refused to let 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:23.970 anyone dictate his dignity. That volatility, 00:09:24.149 --> 00:09:26.750 that refusal to compromise, it leads him straight 00:09:26.750 --> 00:09:29.070 into his most famous conflict. A Duke Ellington 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:32.120 incident. 1953. Mingus is subbing in Ellington's 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:34.139 band. I mean, that's the absolute pinnacle of 00:09:34.139 --> 00:09:37.539 jazz. And his time there was legendary for how 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:40.340 short it was. Ellington, the smoothest, most 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:43.480 diplomatic leader in jazz history, had to personally 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:46.120 fire him. Mingus was one of the only musicians 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:48.139 Ellington ever fired. One of a tiny handful. 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:50.620 Yeah. And it was because of his, quote, notorious 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:53.399 temper. What was the specific fight about? A 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.039 massive backstage blowout with the trombonist 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:59.490 Juan Tiesel. Teasel was a key longtime member 00:09:59.490 --> 00:10:03.490 of Ellington's band, and Mingus basically challenged 00:10:03.490 --> 00:10:06.149 his authority and it got violent. So Mingus's 00:10:06.149 --> 00:10:08.450 fury couldn't be contained even in the Ellington 00:10:08.450 --> 00:10:10.309 organization. Not even there. It just speaks 00:10:10.309 --> 00:10:12.129 volumes about his character. He couldn't submit 00:10:12.129 --> 00:10:15.070 his ethics to anyone's diplomacy, not even Duke's. 00:10:15.149 --> 00:10:17.250 But he channels that energy right into his next 00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:20.629 project, co -founding debut records in 1952. 00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:23.289 With the great drummer Max Roach. And this was 00:10:23.289 --> 00:10:25.309 a pivotal move for him. It was all about control. 00:10:25.590 --> 00:10:28.090 He realized if he was going to be this uncompromising 00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:30.269 force, he had to control the means of production. 00:10:30.549 --> 00:10:33.049 Precisely. He wanted agency over his own career. 00:10:33.169 --> 00:10:35.889 And just as important to him, he wanted to document 00:10:35.889 --> 00:10:38.330 all these talented young musicians who were being 00:10:38.330 --> 00:10:41.110 ignored by the major labels. But the label's 00:10:41.110 --> 00:10:43.850 most famous release wasn't an unknown talent. 00:10:44.190 --> 00:10:46.789 It was, well, it was a gathering of giants. It 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:50.870 was the May 15th, 1953 concert at Massey Hall 00:10:50.870 --> 00:10:54.059 in Toronto. You had the Mount Rushmore of bebop 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:56.960 all on one stage. Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, 00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:01.100 Bud Powell, Max Roach, and Mingus himself. It's 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:03.000 often called the last recorded collaboration 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.220 between Dizzy and Bird. An absolutely historic 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:08.360 night. And there's that amazing little detail 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:10.639 about the recording itself. Oh, yeah. The technical 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:13.279 limitations of the recording were not great. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:16.120 So Mingus' bass part was barely audible on the 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.519 original live tape. So what did he do? Being 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:21.039 the perfectionist and producer he was, he took 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:23.179 the capes back to New York and overdubbed his 00:11:23.179 --> 00:11:25.860 entire bass part in the studio by himself. Wow. 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:28.299 So when you listen to that classic live album, 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:30.559 the bass you're hearing was added later. It's 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:32.779 Mingus, the recording engineer, fixing history 00:11:32.779 --> 00:11:35.019 in post. It's that nature controlled again. So 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:36.799 while he's collaborating at this incredible level, 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:39.840 he has this really complicated, almost love -hate 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:42.370 relationship with Charlie Parker. Oh, completely. 00:11:42.669 --> 00:11:45.789 He revered Parker. He thought he was the greatest 00:11:45.789 --> 00:11:48.509 genius in jazz history. But at the same time, 00:11:48.570 --> 00:11:51.509 he despised the destructive mythology that grew 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:53.929 up around him. The cult of personality. Right. 00:11:54.110 --> 00:11:57.629 Mingus felt that people were romanticizing Parker's 00:11:57.629 --> 00:12:01.070 self -destructive habits, his drug use, and it 00:12:01.070 --> 00:12:02.929 was leading to all these derivative musicians 00:12:02.929 --> 00:12:05.649 who were just copying the lifestyle instead of 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:08.139 innovating with the music. and he expressed that 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:10.299 frustration in one of the greatest song titles 00:12:10.299 --> 00:12:13.250 ever if charlie parker were gunslinger there'd 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:15.669 be a whole lot of dead copycats. I mean, that's 00:12:15.669 --> 00:12:18.210 not just a title, it's a manifesto. It's a declaration 00:12:18.210 --> 00:12:21.009 of war. He's saying genius isn't imitation. If 00:12:21.009 --> 00:12:22.950 you're just copying Bird, you're missing the 00:12:22.950 --> 00:12:25.409 entire point. And this all came to a really tragic 00:12:25.409 --> 00:12:29.730 head at a club date in 1955. Parker's final public 00:12:29.730 --> 00:12:31.649 performance. It was supposed to be a reunion 00:12:31.649 --> 00:12:35.169 gig with Parker, Powell, and Roach. But Bud Powell, 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:38.009 who suffered from severe mental illness and alcoholism, 00:12:38.090 --> 00:12:40.870 was completely incapacitated. He had to be helped 00:12:40.870 --> 00:12:43.500 offstage. And Parker, according to the sources, 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:47.240 just stood at the mic chanting Bud Powell. Bud 00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:49.919 Powell. Almost like he was mocking the whole 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:52.740 tragic situation. And Mingus just couldn't let 00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:55.000 it stand. He couldn't. He grabbed another microphone, 00:12:55.179 --> 00:12:57.419 interrupted the whole mess, and said to the audience, 00:12:57.639 --> 00:12:59.860 ladies and gentlemen, please don't associate 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:02.740 me with any of this. This is not jazz. These 00:13:02.740 --> 00:13:05.639 are sick people. And Parker died just over a 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:08.490 week later. It's just this incredibly stark moment 00:13:08.490 --> 00:13:11.450 that shows Mingus' absolute commitment to separating 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:14.129 the art from the self -destruction he saw being 00:13:14.129 --> 00:13:17.190 glorified. That desire for integrity, for constant 00:13:17.190 --> 00:13:19.590 development, it leads him directly to his next 00:13:19.590 --> 00:13:22.850 big idea, the jazz workshop. And that's where 00:13:22.850 --> 00:13:25.230 we move into part three, the breakthrough decade. 00:13:25.529 --> 00:13:29.149 The jazz workshop was his answer to what he saw 00:13:29.149 --> 00:13:31.669 as stagnation in jazz. It wasn't really a formal 00:13:31.669 --> 00:13:33.470 band in the traditional sense. It was more of 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:36.389 a concept. Right. A mid -sized ensemble, usually 00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:38.990 eight to ten musicians, with a constantly rotating 00:13:38.990 --> 00:13:41.389 lineup. Some of the musicians called them the 00:13:41.389 --> 00:13:43.830 sweatshops because of how intense and demanding 00:13:43.830 --> 00:13:46.230 the work was. And what was the core philosophy 00:13:46.230 --> 00:13:48.789 behind it? What was he demanding from them? He 00:13:48.789 --> 00:13:51.210 demanded that they constantly explore and develop 00:13:51.210 --> 00:13:54.570 their perceptions on the spot, live, in the moment. 00:13:54.850 --> 00:13:57.210 They were expected to be co -composers with him. 00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:00.309 So he would conduct them non -verbally? With 00:14:00.309 --> 00:14:04.009 hand gestures, subtle tempo changes. Sometimes 00:14:04.009 --> 00:14:06.350 he'd literally sing or shout a part he wanted 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:09.549 them to play during the performance. The role 00:14:09.549 --> 00:14:12.509 of just accompanying was basically gone. You 00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:14.330 weren't just following a chart. You were inside 00:14:14.330 --> 00:14:16.809 his head, anticipating his next move. Exactly. 00:14:16.809 --> 00:14:20.090 The whole band becomes this single, living, compositional 00:14:20.090 --> 00:14:22.549 voice. It was really anticipating a lot of the 00:14:22.549 --> 00:14:24.750 ideas of free jazz, but it was always rooted 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:27.429 in these deeply soulful composed structures. 00:14:27.629 --> 00:14:29.789 It was freedom within his architecture. And some 00:14:29.789 --> 00:14:32.190 incredible musicians came through that. University, 00:14:32.250 --> 00:14:34.509 as they called it. Oh, the alumni list is staggering. 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:37.570 Pepper Adams, Eric Dolphy, Charles McPherson, 00:14:37.789 --> 00:14:40.649 J .K. Beard. Major figures who all learned how 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:43.649 to be incredibly flexible, deep thinkers under 00:14:43.649 --> 00:14:46.009 Mingus. And this period of the workshop was also 00:14:46.009 --> 00:14:48.570 his most productive. The output is just astonishing. 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:51.809 In the 1950s alone, he recorded something like 00:14:51.809 --> 00:14:54.230 30 albums for all the major labels, Atlantic, 00:14:54.629 --> 00:14:58.129 Columbia, Candid, Impulse, just a relentless 00:14:58.129 --> 00:15:00.460 stream of innovation. And the big breakthrough 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:03.259 from this era is probably Pythocanthropus erectus 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:07.120 from 1956. This is seen as his first major work 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.659 as a band leader. It was a massive compositional 00:15:09.659 --> 00:15:11.759 statement. He was writing specifically for the 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.139 personalities in his band, like the adventurous 00:15:14.139 --> 00:15:17.000 saxophonist Jackie McLean. And the title track 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.899 is this sprawling 10 -minute tone poem. The theme 00:15:19.899 --> 00:15:22.659 is just epic. It's the rise of man, Pythagoras 00:15:22.659 --> 00:15:25.899 erectus, evolving, achieving greatness. And then 00:15:25.899 --> 00:15:27.840 his eventual downfall and self -destruction. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.200 It's symphonic in its ambition, but the most 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:32.379 innovative part was the structure. This is where 00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:35.139 he introduces pure, free improvisation. Yes, 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.779 there's a section of the piece where Mingus' 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:39.419 only instruction was to improvise freely. No 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:42.139 theme, no chords, no fixed structure, just explore. 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.779 That was a truly radical move in 1956. It cemented 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:48.379 his role as this bridge between tradition and 00:15:48.379 --> 00:15:51.120 the avant -garde. This era also brings in his 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:53.360 most important collaborator, the drummer Danny 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:55.820 Richmond. Richmond first appears on the 1957 00:15:55.820 --> 00:15:59.460 album The Clown, and from that point on, he was 00:15:59.460 --> 00:16:01.919 Mingus' guy. He stayed with him until Mingus 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:05.460 died in 1979. What made their connection so special? 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:07.639 They just formed one of the most versatile rhythm 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:09.940 sections ever. Richmond could play the deepest, 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.360 swampiest glues grooves, and then on a dime, 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.779 pivot to the most abstract, free jazz polyrhythms 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:18.620 Mingus could throw at him. And when they were 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:21.080 joined by the pianist Jackie Beard, they were 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:23.720 dubbed the Almighty Three. Just a testament to 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:25.480 the power of that rhythm section. Now, before 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:27.600 we move on, we have to talk about the most bizarre, 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.580 unexpected detail from this period. The catalog. 00:16:31.210 --> 00:16:34.909 The famous catalog. Yes. In 1954, Charles Mingus, 00:16:35.049 --> 00:16:37.370 the great avant -garde composer, published a 00:16:37.370 --> 00:16:39.830 mail -order guide. It was called The Charles 00:16:39.830 --> 00:16:42.909 Mingus Analog for Toilet Training Your Cat. And 00:16:42.909 --> 00:16:45.370 this wasn't a joke? Not at all. It was a serious 00:16:45.370 --> 00:16:47.889 instructional pamphlet with detailed steps on 00:16:47.889 --> 00:16:49.750 how to train your cat to use a human toilet. 00:16:49.970 --> 00:16:53.639 How does that even compute? The man is composing 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.679 these epic tone poems about the downfall of civilization, 00:16:57.139 --> 00:16:59.879 and he's also writing a manual for feline hygiene. 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:02.279 I think it speaks to that central theme of his 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:05.519 personality, an obsessive need for control and 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:08.359 order. Whether it's the spontaneous flow of his 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:11.099 musicians or the domestic habits of his pets, 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:14.460 he demanded perfection and compliance in every 00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:17.180 single corner of his life. It's hilarious, but 00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:19.599 it's also incredibly insightful. It really is. 00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:21.839 It underscores the whole duality of the man. 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.200 And that duality brings us right into part four. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.480 masterpieces, experimentation, and controversy, 00:17:27.779 --> 00:17:31.119 and it's all centered on one landmark year. 1959. 00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:34.259 Just an unbelievable year for jazz. You have 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:37.160 Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Miles Davis' Kind of 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:39.920 Blue, John Coltrane's Giant Steps. And Mingus' 00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:43.660 contribution, I mean, stands right there with 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:45.579 them. It's a masterpiece, a collection of songs 00:17:45.579 --> 00:17:47.460 that are now standards. It has the beautiful 00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:49.779 moving elegy for Lester Young. Goodbye, pork 00:17:49.779 --> 00:17:52.180 pie hat. A stunning piece of music. But the most 00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:54.680 important and most political track on that album 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.240 was the original version of Fables of Faubus. 00:17:57.339 --> 00:17:59.859 This was a direct protest against Orville Faubus, 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.259 the governor of Arkansas. Who had become nationally 00:18:02.259 --> 00:18:05.740 infamous for defying school integration during 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:08.539 the Little Rock crisis. It was incredibly brave 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:11.460 protest music for the time. Migas was using the 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:14.019 language of jazz to make this explicit, buying. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.000 political statement. And that album's importance 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.900 has been formally recognized. It was inducted 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:22.039 into the National Recording Registry in 2003, 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:27.960 a landmark record. So after he releases Blues 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:30.579 and Roots in 1960, and he makes his philosophy 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:33.299 very clear in the liner notes. He does. He says, 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:35.940 I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church 00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:38.059 as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like 00:18:38.059 --> 00:18:40.480 to do things other than just swing. But blues 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:42.720 can do more than just swing. What did he mean 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:45.380 by that? How is he expanding the blues? He was 00:18:45.380 --> 00:18:47.240 taking the emotional framework of the blues, 00:18:47.420 --> 00:18:50.180 the call and response, the gospel feel, and he 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:52.920 was layering it with complex harmonies, intricate 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:55.799 polyphony, shifting tempos. He kept the feeling 00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:58.160 of traditional blues, but used it to carry the 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:00.140 weight of really sophisticated political and 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:02.440 psychological ideas. So as he's refining his 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:04.660 own sound, the jazz world is being ripped apart 00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:06.980 by the arrival of the avant -garde. Specifically 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:10.470 by Ornette Coleman. So how did Mingus, who was 00:19:10.470 --> 00:19:12.970 so rooted in tradition but also so experimental, 00:19:13.309 --> 00:19:16.609 react to Coleman's radical new sound? Well, his 00:19:16.609 --> 00:19:19.390 first reaction around 1960 was pretty skeptical. 00:19:19.769 --> 00:19:22.970 He famously said something like, if the freeform 00:19:22.970 --> 00:19:25.829 guys could play the same tune twice, then I would 00:19:25.829 --> 00:19:27.369 say they were playing something. He thought it 00:19:27.369 --> 00:19:29.750 was just random noise. He suspected it was more 00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:32.859 accidental than deliberate. But Mingus never, 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:36.279 ever ignored a challenge. And he responded in 00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:39.059 the most Mingusian way possible. He did. That 00:19:39.059 --> 00:19:42.309 very same year. he forms a new quartet. It's 00:19:42.309 --> 00:19:44.730 got Danny Richman, trumpeter Ted Kersen, and 00:19:44.730 --> 00:19:47.890 the brilliant Eric Dolphy. And crucially, it 00:19:47.890 --> 00:19:50.750 used the exact same instrumentation as Ornette 00:19:50.750 --> 00:19:53.369 Coleman's quartet. So it was him rising to the 00:19:53.369 --> 00:19:54.890 challenge. It was him saying, okay, you think 00:19:54.890 --> 00:19:56.990 this is the new standard? I can do it too, but 00:19:56.990 --> 00:19:59.210 I'll do it on my own terms. And that quartet 00:19:59.210 --> 00:20:01.609 recorded the album Charles Mingus Presents Charles 00:20:01.609 --> 00:20:04.349 Mingus. Which includes the definitive version 00:20:04.349 --> 00:20:06.690 of his political anthem. The one with the lyrics. 00:20:07.069 --> 00:20:11.430 Yes. Original Faubus Fables. See, Columbia Records 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:14.630 had censored the lyrics on the Mingus version. 00:20:16.230 --> 00:20:19.769 So Mingus used this new album on a more independent 00:20:19.769 --> 00:20:23.009 label to restore the explicit, damning political 00:20:23.009 --> 00:20:25.549 commentary he originally intended. Fast forward 00:20:25.549 --> 00:20:27.849 to 1963. This is where we get what many people 00:20:27.849 --> 00:20:30.549 call his single greatest achievement in orchestration. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.640 The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. It's a monolith 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:36.039 of a record. The sources call it one of the greatest 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.200 achievements in orchestration by any composer 00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:41.500 in jazz history. It's a massive six -part suite 00:20:41.500 --> 00:20:44.480 structured almost like a modern ballet. incredibly 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.720 dense and demanding. And the liner notes for 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:48.940 the album are just as unique as the music. It's 00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:51.000 an incredible act of self -exposure. Mingus asked 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.420 his own psychotherapist, Dr. Edmund Pollack, 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:56.200 to write the liner notes. Wow. And Dr. Pollack 00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:58.440 interprets the music as a reflection of Mingus's 00:20:58.440 --> 00:21:01.759 inner world, his struggles, his conflicts. It's 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:03.559 a level of vulnerability you just don't see, 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:05.700 especially from an artist with his tough reputation. 00:21:06.059 --> 00:21:08.200 And at the same time, he releases a completely 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:10.819 different kind of album. Mingus plays piano. 00:21:11.289 --> 00:21:14.470 An unaccompanied solo piano album. Just to remind 00:21:14.470 --> 00:21:16.710 everyone that he was a formidable pianist and 00:21:16.710 --> 00:21:19.250 composer, not just a bassist and band leader. 00:21:19.549 --> 00:21:22.730 The range in that one year is just mind -boggling. 00:21:22.829 --> 00:21:25.069 But in the middle of all this success, there 00:21:25.069 --> 00:21:28.750 was one major catastrophic failure. The Town 00:21:28.750 --> 00:21:32.329 Hall Concert in October of 1962. A total train 00:21:32.329 --> 00:21:34.390 wreck. A complete disaster. It was supposed to 00:21:34.390 --> 00:21:36.630 be a live workshop and recording session for 00:21:36.630 --> 00:21:39.440 a huge new work. But the program was way too 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.319 ambitious. The musicians weren't ready. The music 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:44.740 was too complex. The whole thing just collapsed 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:47.099 under its own weight and it temporarily damaged 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:50.059 his reputation. That failure leads us directly 00:21:50.059 --> 00:21:52.700 into part five, The Angry Man of Jazz and the 00:21:52.700 --> 00:21:55.140 final chapter. We have to confront this persona 00:21:55.140 --> 00:21:57.980 that, for many people, overshadowed his genius. 00:21:58.220 --> 00:22:00.359 He absolutely earned the nickname the Angry Man 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.039 of Jazz. It wasn't just a mood. It was a consistent, 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:05.240 combustible part of his career. And these weren't 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.140 just little frustrations. They were full -blown 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:10.079 public outbursts. Directed at everyone. His musicians, 00:22:10.259 --> 00:22:12.700 his audiences. The examples are legendary. Give 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:16.319 us a few. Okay, so in 1965, he orders half his 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:18.519 band to go backstage in the middle of a performance 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.440 to practice. Because they weren't playing up 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:24.359 to his standard. No way. Yes. And when he'd get 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:26.599 a noisy, disrespectful crowd, he'd stop the music 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.660 and yell at them. He famously shouted, Isaac 00:22:29.660 --> 00:22:31.200 Stern doesn't have to put up with this shit. 00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:33.799 Which is so revealing. He's demanding that jazz 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:35.859 be treated with the same respect as classical 00:22:35.859 --> 00:22:39.700 music. Exactly. At another gig, he made his entire 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:42.700 band stop playing and just read books on stage 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:45.640 until the audience quieted down. And then there 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:47.900 was the physical destruction. The famous bass 00:22:47.900 --> 00:22:50.789 incident. At the Five Spot Cafe. He felt the 00:22:50.789 --> 00:22:53.089 audience was heckling him, so he picked up his 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:56.269 $20 ,000 double bass and smashed it to pieces 00:22:56.269 --> 00:22:58.450 on the stage. That's just, I mean, that's not 00:22:58.450 --> 00:23:00.549 just anger, that's a statement. The message was, 00:23:00.670 --> 00:23:03.150 disrespect the music and I will destroy the very 00:23:03.150 --> 00:23:05.789 means of making it. But the most damaging incident 00:23:05.789 --> 00:23:08.970 of all involved the great trombonist Jimmy Knepper. 00:23:09.549 --> 00:23:12.289 And it was centered around that failed town hall 00:23:12.289 --> 00:23:14.630 concert. The Knepper incident is just stark. 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:18.730 It's unforgivable, really. On October 12, 1962, 00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:23.839 Backstage, Mingus assaulted him. They were arguing 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:26.059 over the incredibly difficult score for the concert. 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:28.720 And what happened? Mingus punched Knepper in 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:31.680 the mouth. It broke a tooth, and the injury permanently 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:34.500 ruined Knepper's embouchure. He lost the entire 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:36.819 top octave of his range on the trombone. It's 00:23:36.819 --> 00:23:39.740 a career -altering injury. Devastating. Mingus 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:41.980 was charged with assault, got a suspended sentence. 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:44.480 It's a horrific story. And yet, and this is what's 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:47.039 so complex about Mingus, Knepper later came back 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:50.880 to work with him. He did. In 1977, he even became 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:53.200 a cornerstone of the Mingus Dynasty band after 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:55.420 Mingus died. It just speaks to the gravitational 00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:57.940 pull of the music. Even those who he hurt were 00:23:57.940 --> 00:24:00.359 compelled to return to his genius. But the late 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:03.339 1960s were a really dark period for Mingus personally. 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:05.859 He was struggling with severe clinical depression. 00:24:06.180 --> 00:24:08.700 His creative output really decreased, especially 00:24:08.700 --> 00:24:11.059 for about five years after his great collaborator, 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:14.369 Eric Tolfey, died suddenly in 1964. And this 00:24:14.369 --> 00:24:16.670 all culminated in him being evicted from his 00:24:16.670 --> 00:24:20.490 home. In 1966, from his New York apartment. And 00:24:20.490 --> 00:24:22.829 the whole chaotic, painful episode was captured 00:24:22.829 --> 00:24:27.289 on film. In the 1968 documentary Mingus, Charlie 00:24:27.289 --> 00:24:30.130 Mingus, 1968. It's an incredibly raw film. It 00:24:30.130 --> 00:24:32.490 shows him composing, performing, talking about 00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:35.410 art and politics. But it also shows the eviction. 00:24:35.589 --> 00:24:38.089 It shows him being tender with his young daughter. 00:24:38.430 --> 00:24:41.529 And in one unforgettable scene, it shows him 00:24:41.529 --> 00:24:44.529 firing a shotgun indoors. Inside the apartment. 00:24:44.789 --> 00:24:46.930 Yeah. It just captures the genius and the domestic 00:24:46.930 --> 00:24:49.529 anarchy all at once. But he did have a brief 00:24:49.529 --> 00:24:52.250 creative resurgence in the 1970s before his final 00:24:52.250 --> 00:24:54.549 decline. He did. He got a teaching position at 00:24:54.549 --> 00:24:57.990 the University at Buffalo in 71. And in 1974, 00:24:58.289 --> 00:25:01.190 he formed a fantastic new quintet with Danny 00:25:01.190 --> 00:25:03.809 Richman, Don Poole on piano, and George Adams 00:25:03.809 --> 00:25:07.049 on sax. And they produced two really strong albums. 00:25:07.210 --> 00:25:09.869 Changes One and Changes Two. They proved he could 00:25:09.869 --> 00:25:12.900 still command this brilliant modern sound. But 00:25:12.900 --> 00:25:14.880 his health was failing fast. He developed motor 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:18.039 neuron disease. ALS. Which is just the cruelest 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.819 irony for a musician whose entire identity was 00:25:20.819 --> 00:25:22.859 rooted in the physical power and command of his 00:25:22.859 --> 00:25:24.759 instrument. His technique just declined until 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:27.819 he couldn't play at all. It's unimaginable. Yet, 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:30.420 even paralyzed, unable to physically perform, 00:25:30.779 --> 00:25:33.880 he kept composing. He kept supervising recordings 00:25:33.880 --> 00:25:36.799 from his wheelchair. His final project was that 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:38.900 famous collaboration with Joni Mitchell. The 00:25:38.900 --> 00:25:41.079 album Mingus. It was released after he died in 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:44.740 1979. Mitchell wrote lyrics for his final compositions, 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.160 including a really haunting version of Goodbye 00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:50.299 Pork Pie Hat. It was this beautiful cross -genre 00:25:50.299 --> 00:25:53.259 testament to his enduring power as a composer. 00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:56.359 Charles Mingus died on January 5th, 1979. He 00:25:56.359 --> 00:25:59.299 was only 56. And his final request was, well, 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:02.019 it was as unique as he was. His ashes were scattered 00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:04.599 in the Ganges River in India. A fitting end, 00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:06.579 I think, for a man whose music always blurred 00:26:06.579 --> 00:26:08.500 the lines between the sacred and the profane. 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:11.440 That brings us to part six, legacy and enduring 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:13.519 influence. And to really get the scale of his 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:15.420 genius, we have to go back to that disastrous 00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:18.599 1962 Town Hall concert. Because that failure 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:21.640 contained his true magnum opus, the sprawling 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:24.579 two -hour epic known as Epitaph. After that concert, 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:26.859 the music was considered unplayable. The scores 00:26:26.859 --> 00:26:29.619 were just scattered and lost for decades. It's 00:26:29.619 --> 00:26:31.380 hard to even wrap your head around the scale 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:35.220 of it. The sources confirm it's 4 ,235 measures 00:26:35.220 --> 00:26:38.609 long. It takes two hours to perform. It's one 00:26:38.609 --> 00:26:40.789 of the longest jazz compositions ever written. 00:26:40.970 --> 00:26:43.789 So how was this masterpiece recovered? It's an 00:26:43.789 --> 00:26:46.089 incredible story. A musicologist named Andrew 00:26:46.089 --> 00:26:50.509 Homsey spent years, literally years, painstakingly 00:26:50.509 --> 00:26:53.750 tracking down all the chaotic, handwritten scores 00:26:53.750 --> 00:26:56.690 and parts that Mingus left behind. He had to 00:26:56.690 --> 00:26:58.930 piece it all together like a giant puzzle. And 00:26:58.930 --> 00:27:01.849 when was it finally performed? Not until 1989, 00:27:02.309 --> 00:27:06.730 a full decade after Mingus died. It was premiered 00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:08.990 by a 30 -piece orchestra conducted by Gunther 00:27:08.990 --> 00:27:11.309 Schuller, the same man who'd recorded his pre 00:27:11.309 --> 00:27:13.950 -Bird compositions 30 years earlier. That's amazing. 00:27:14.109 --> 00:27:16.170 The fact that his most ambitious work wasn't 00:27:16.170 --> 00:27:18.509 heard until after his death perfectly symbolizes 00:27:18.509 --> 00:27:21.089 his whole career, always ahead of his time. And 00:27:21.089 --> 00:27:23.529 thankfully, his music is kept alive today through 00:27:23.529 --> 00:27:26.009 what you could call the Mingus Enterprise. Right. 00:27:26.509 --> 00:27:29.049 His widow, Sue Graham Mingus, manages the Mingus 00:27:29.049 --> 00:27:31.470 Big Band, the Mingus Dynasty, and the Mingus 00:27:31.470 --> 00:27:33.849 Orchestra. They ensure his complex charts are 00:27:33.849 --> 00:27:36.009 constantly being performed and reinterpreted, 00:27:36.009 --> 00:27:38.410 keeping that spirit of the jazz workshop alive. 00:27:38.690 --> 00:27:41.089 And his compositions attract people from outside 00:27:41.089 --> 00:27:43.630 of jazz, too. Oh, absolutely. The sophistication 00:27:43.630 --> 00:27:45.210 of his melodies. I mean, you have artists like 00:27:45.210 --> 00:27:47.509 Elvis Costello writing lyrics for his tunes. 00:27:48.049 --> 00:27:51.029 It just proves the music operates on this universal 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:53.940 level. We also have to circle back to his autobiography, 00:27:54.059 --> 00:27:56.519 Beneath the Underdog. It's not a normal memoir. 00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:59.180 It's this chaotic stream of consciousness book. 00:27:59.779 --> 00:28:02.339 And yeah, it's full of sensational claims affairs, 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:05.140 I suppose his career as a pimp, that definitely 00:28:05.140 --> 00:28:08.390 fueled his wild legend. But its real value is 00:28:08.390 --> 00:28:11.690 as a window into his mind. Exactly. It's an essential 00:28:11.690 --> 00:28:14.009 source for understanding his psyche, his radical 00:28:14.009 --> 00:28:17.009 views on race, the trauma he endured. It makes 00:28:17.009 --> 00:28:19.069 it clear that the man, the trauma, and the fury 00:28:19.069 --> 00:28:22.150 are completely inseparable from the art. And 00:28:22.150 --> 00:28:24.509 finally, the academic and historical worlds have 00:28:24.509 --> 00:28:26.950 formally recognized his importance. Massively. 00:28:27.190 --> 00:28:29.130 Gunther Schuller argued that Mingus should be 00:28:29.130 --> 00:28:31.130 ranked among the most important American composers, 00:28:31.329 --> 00:28:34.059 period. not just jazz composers. And then in 00:28:34.059 --> 00:28:36.619 1993, the Library of Congress. They acquired 00:28:36.619 --> 00:28:38.680 his entire collection. All of it. The scores, 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:41.640 recordings, letters. And they called it the most 00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:43.640 important acquisition of a manuscript collection 00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:46.980 relating to jazz in the library's history. A 00:28:46.980 --> 00:28:49.380 huge formal endorsement of his significance. 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:51.910 It all comes full circle. To recap the honors. 00:28:52.170 --> 00:28:54.690 The Guggenheim Fellowship, Downbeat Jazz Hall 00:28:54.690 --> 00:28:58.109 of Fame, a U .S. Postal Stamp, a Grammy Lifetime 00:28:58.109 --> 00:29:01.170 Achievement Award. The list goes on. His contribution 00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:04.950 was just monumental. He was this demanding, volatile 00:29:04.950 --> 00:29:07.970 genius who used collective improvisation and 00:29:07.970 --> 00:29:10.309 his deep understanding of his musicians to create 00:29:10.309 --> 00:29:13.390 art that was hot, soulful, and deeply political. 00:29:13.809 --> 00:29:16.509 He's considered the true heir to Duke Ellington. 00:29:16.650 --> 00:29:19.630 And Ellington himself saw it. He once said Mingus 00:29:19.630 --> 00:29:21.950 reminded him of Young Duke, citing their shared 00:29:21.950 --> 00:29:24.750 organizational genius. Mingus just took that 00:29:24.750 --> 00:29:27.190 genius and fused it with his own uncompromising, 00:29:27.190 --> 00:29:30.210 often violent fury. The result was art that was 00:29:30.210 --> 00:29:32.630 never polished, but always painfully honest. 00:29:32.869 --> 00:29:34.730 So what does this all mean for you, the listener? 00:29:34.910 --> 00:29:36.930 We've charted the volatility, the fights, the 00:29:36.930 --> 00:29:39.390 firings, the smash bass, the sheer turbulence 00:29:39.390 --> 00:29:41.970 of his creative process. It really raises this 00:29:41.970 --> 00:29:43.809 fundamental question about art and the artist. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:47.119 Given Mingus's extreme volatility, the chaos 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:50.910 he inflicted on people. Does the raw, unflinching 00:29:50.910 --> 00:29:53.329 emotion you hear in his greatest music somehow 00:29:53.329 --> 00:29:56.630 justify all of that? Or is the immense, messy 00:29:56.630 --> 00:29:59.589 complexity of his difficult life simply inseparable 00:29:59.589 --> 00:30:02.130 from the complexity of his groundbreaking art? 00:30:02.269 --> 00:30:04.289 We'd encourage you to go explore the sprawling 00:30:04.289 --> 00:30:06.890 magnificence of Epitaph or go back to Mingus 00:30:06.890 --> 00:30:10.450 and really contemplate that duality of genius 00:30:10.450 --> 00:30:12.750 and fury. Thank you for joining us on this deep 00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:14.849 dive into the singular world of Charles Mingus. 00:30:14.970 --> 00:30:15.849 We'll catch you next time.