Jazz Mafia

For this event, the Jazz Mafia will play music celebrating Charles Mingus! One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church-- choir and group singing-- and from "hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old." He studied double bass and composition in a formal way (five years with H. Rheinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with the legendary Lloyd Reese) while absorbing vernacular music from the great jazz masters, first-hand. His early professional experience, in the 40's, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton. From the 1960's until his death in 1979 at age 56, Mingus remained in the forefront of American music. Mingus Ah Um is a studio album which was released in October 1959 by Columbia Reords. I The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD calls this album "an extended tribute to ancestors" and awards it one of their rare crowns.