The Multifaceted Mingus

 
’70s Mingus, with (L to R) John Foster, Roy Brooks, and Charles McPherson

“Charles Mingus was everything all at once: jazz, folk, dance, theater, label owner, brave Black man. In an era where the wrong opinions could get him killed or, at the very least, exiled from the music business, he expressed himself boldly, and exorcised strong emotions through the strings of his upright bass. His playing style was fierce, almost violent, as if the trauma of American racism was coming through it. Born 100 years ago on Friday along the United States-Mexico border, in a body that confounded easy racial categorization (one of his most memorable ballads is ’Self-Portrait in Three Colors’), Mingus lived, wrote and played bass in a state of agitated brilliance. ...”

 
Charles Mingus & Eric Dolphy

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