Jazztodon artist of the week: Charles Mingus!
Born to mixed-race parents in Nogales, Ariz., Mingus grew up in Los Angeles. In a 1962 interview, Mingus notes he was light-skinned; he didn't fit in with the Black, white or Mexican kids at school. He played the trombone, then the cello, but switched to bass when he was 16 because, at the time, it was impossible for a Black man to find work playing classical music.
Mingus drew on traditions that ranged from ragtime to the avant-garde, and his compositions expressed an equally broad range of emotion.
"I can play a sad thing, you recognize it because you're used to that. I can play an angry tune, GRRRRR. I can play happy little ditties like I do with my baby, you know? It's all kinds of emotions to play in music but what I'm trying to play is very difficult because I'm trying to play the truth of what I am."
#jazz #charlesmingus #mingus