JAZZ WORKSHOP, INC.
LET MY CHILDREN HEAR MUSIC,
INC.
(The
Charles Mingus Institute)
484
West 43rd Street, 43-S, New York, NY 10036 http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com Contact:
Sue Mingus (212) 736-4749
Mingus Big Band Wins Grammy! Mingus High School Competition & Festival at Manhattan School of Music Mingus Orchestra Concert at St. Bart's
NEW YORK, February 15, 2011—On Sunday, February 13, 2011,
the 53rd Annual GRAMMY® Awards honored Mingus
Big Band Live at Jazz Standard as the “Best Large Jazz Ensemble
Album.”
Co-produced by Sue Mingus and Seth Abramson, Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard
marks the 10th Mingus Big Band recording, seven of which have been nominated
for Grammys. It is the first win for Mingus music, though legendary jazz
composer Charles Mingus (1922-1979) himself received a Grammy for the liner
notes on his album Let My Children Hear
Music and a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, and in 1999 the
album Mingus Dynasty (1959) was
inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
This concert celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of seminal
1959 albums Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Ah Um, and Blues & Politics, and was originally broadcast live on Toast Of The Nation from NPR Music,
produced by Mark Schramm, Thurston Briscoe and Becca Pulliam for WBGO under the
musical direction of Sue Mingus.
Saturday, February 19, 2011, this same team will record the
Mingus Orchestra live at St. Bartholomew’s Church for later broadcast on WBGO.
The concert will feature several Mingus compositions conducted by Gunther
Schuller with special guest harpist Edmar Castaneda. This concert is produced
by Let My Children Hear Music (The Charles Mingus Institute) and made possible
by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.
The Mingus Big Band also performs live in concert at Jazz
Standard this week from Friday, Feb 18 – Sunday, Feb 20, designed to correspond
with the 2011 Charles Mingus High School Competition at Manhattan School of
Music.
For a full calendar of weekend events: Mingus Orchestra at
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Mingus High School Competition at Manhattan School of
Music, and Mingus Big Band at Jazz Standard please visit http://mingusmingusmingus.com/JazzEducation/hscompschedule.html
By Jason Rabin "For the Manhattan School of Music, February means Mingus, Mingus, Mingus! In partnership with Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute, the school is hosting its 3rd annual Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival, February 18-21."
“It’s going to be a huge experience,” said Medfield junior Luke Rosenfeld, who plays piano in the jazz band. “Playing with the Mingus Big Band is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s not something you can just do every day.”
...
“The seniors were especially overjoyed because it’s their last year and some of them had been selected as part of the Essentially Ellington [high school jazz band] competition when they were freshmen,” he said. “The Mingus competition is very similar…and they got to play with [trumpeter] Wynton Marsalis and other phenomenal artists. We’ve been practicing Charles Mingus’s music for a few months now; we are very excited.”
During the master clinics, a member of the Mingus Big Band will work individually with students.
“Being taught by them is going to be huge,” said Rosenfeld, who has been playing piano for 10 years.
...
“The students have really grown to love Mingus’s music and have become passionate about it,” said Olsen. “It’s such a unique experience for these students to hang out and interact with these famous musicians in New York City and get to meet other inspired high-level musicians from around the country.”
Adam Linz, Combo director and a staunch advocate for the music of Charles Mingus, couldn't be happier. “The Mingus High School Competition is one of the most high profile jazz gatherings in the world...The music of Mingus somehow taps into the youth of America. I think it is the emphasis on energy and the band concept that draw young people to his music. It requires that you step up and be heard and not hide in a section. It also promotes individuality among the people that tackle it. The meek need not apply. So we are very excited to go to NYC and meet other young people from around the country that share our love for this man and his music! We are also excited to show everyone our commitment to Mingus in the lives of young people.”
Notes MacPhail President/Chief Operating Officer Paul Babcock, “This is a terrific opportunity for the students in the Dakota Combo. They have great passion and enthusiasm for playing jazz and especially have developed a great love for playing the music of Charles Mingus. It’s an honor have the Dakota Combo perform at the Mingus competition and be selected among the excellent high school jazz groups from across the country.”
"I'm absolutely thrilled,” said saxophonist Danny Hupp. “To be thrown into an environment where everyone has the same passion as you is exciting, but also somewhat terrifying. I honestly cannot wait."
Adds pianist Quentin Tschofen, “I'm really looking forward to the competition and workshops. What's particularly exciting is the opportunity to play jazz in New York among a lot of people who really love the art form…And now we need to rehearse!"
2011 MINGUS HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION FINALISTS The finalists (in alphabetical order by school) are:
BIG BAND CATEGORY Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble, Lexington, MA. Band Director: Ken Gable Jazz Ensemble I, Medfield High School, Medfield, MA. Band Director: Douglas Olsen Two O’Clock Jazz Band, Wellesley High School, Wellesley, MA. Band Director: Steven Scott
BIG BAND CATEGORY-Specialized Schools and Programs Jazz Elite, White Plains, NY. Band Director: Iantheia Calhoun Jazz House Big Band, Jazz House Kids, Montclair, NJ. Band Director: Julius Tolentino York College Blue Notes, New York, NY. Band Director: Tom Zlabinger
COMBO CATEGORY Lexington High School Jazz Combo, Lexington, MA. Band Director: Ken Gable Conceptual Sextet, Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, CA. Band Director: Max Kiesner Rivers Select 1 Combo, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
COMBO CATEGORY-Specialized Schools and Program Jazz Ensemble 4, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, CT. Band Director: Kris Allen Dakota Combo, MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, MN. Band Director: Adam Linz MSM Precollege Combo, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY. Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
NPR is rebroadcasting the Mingus Big Band from the Jazz Standard – the Grammy-nominated music – as the first JazzSet of 2011.
JazzSet airs on more than 100 stations nationwide and in Europe as well. Listeners should check with their stations for date and time of the broadcast(s).
On WBGO and wbgo.org, JazzSet featuring the MBB airs on Sun, Jan 2, at 6pm and on Wed, Jan 5, at 6:30pm.
Michael Bourne is the MC and the Grammy-nominated host is Dee Dee Bridgewater.
"Three NEA grants (American Masterpieces) for chamber music in 2010-2011 support projects devoted to the works of Charles Mingus, including the four-concert series at the MacPhail Center for Music. Presented as part of its annual Jazz Thursdays program, “Meditations and Revelations” is the brainchild of bassist/MacPhail jazz coordinator Adam Linz, a longtime devotee of the “one-man avant garde,” to quote John McDonough in his article about the MacPhail grant in this month’s issue of Chamber Music magazine. In explaining the rationale for presenting the music of Mingus live, Linz told McDonough, “It’s the ability to find spontaneity in music that’s fifty years old [and to] take it somewhere it hasn’t been. That’s the spirit of Mingus… You have a band that rehearses without charts and adds to the performance…we want to keep that spirit that it may all fall apart...."
article and photos by Andrea Canter
Pedro Costa Selects
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave., (212) 505-5181
Through Nov. 16
View Full Image
MOVIE2
Pedro Costa
Jeanne Balibar in Pedro Costa's 'Ne change rien.'
MOVIE2
MOVIE2
A rock star to cinematic aesthetes, Pedro Costa is more punk than Dutch provocateur Lars von Trier. With seemingly no more than a digital camera, some natural light and a subject (for instance, the Lisbon slum and its loquacious denizens in his celebrated Fontainhas Trilogy) the Portuguese filmmaker achieves something fascinating, hypnotic and mysterious—and, in its fearless chiaroscuro, an austere yet rapturous beauty. For two weeks, Mr. Costa will present his most recent film, "Ne change rein," a performance documentary starring French actress and singer Jeanne Balibar, alongside some of his favorite movies. He's included some elusive choices, such as Jean Eustache's obscured documentary debut "Numero Zero," Jean-Luc Godard's comic "Keep Your Right Up," Thomas Reichman's raw and bitter "Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968." Mr. Costa will discuss his films Friday evening, and will introduce various screenings throughout the series.
Appalachian’s Jazz Ensemble II performs Nov. 9
BOONE—Charles Mingus, Mark Taylor and Chris Culver are among the jazz composers whose work will be performed Nov. 9 by Appalachian State University’s Jazz Ensemble II.
The program begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.
Rod Berry, an instructor in the Hayes School of Music, directs the ensemble in performances of Lennie Niehaus’ “Absolutely Awesome,” Chris Culver’s “Mongo Mood,” Mark Taylor’s “Bebop ‘N’ Georgia” and “Not Yet Over the Hill,” Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and Mike Carubia’s “Buffalo Wings.”
"Every tune a classic, every player a master,
every tune sounding new, every player keeping the spirit
of Charles Mingus alive and swinging!" -Michael
Bourne, WBGO
"Crisp and crackling with life....the Mingus songbook
with fresh arrangements and top-notch musicianship."
-All About Jazz-New York
Mingus Awareness Project features Adam Larrabee Plays Money Jungle and Mingus Awareness Project Big Band directed by Doug Richards and will take place on Sunday, October 24, 2010, 7pm, at Richmond CenterStage’s Rhythm Hall.
"In 1999, the late jazzman reflected on his early musical career, Central Avenue, Charles Mingus and the fusion of the segregated musicians' unions."
RIP, Buddy Collette.
Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute),
Johnny Coles (trumpet on So Long Eric), Clifford Jordan
(tenor saxophone), Jaki Byard (piano), and Dannie Richmond
(drums), Charles Mingus (bass)
• Peggy's Blue Skylight (12:53) • Orange Was the
Color of her Dress, Then Blue Silk (11:38) • Meditations
on Integration (22:39) • Fables of Faubus (24:53)
• So Long Eric (28:50)
• Parkeriana (24:13)
Available on iTunes,
eMusic,
and Amazon.
Digital distribution by The Orchard.
more info: http://mingusmingusmingus.com/SueMingus/revenge.html
50 great moments in jazz: Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady: It's almost impossible to choose just one great moment from the legacy of this pioneering bassist and compositional genius....
Highlight: Oct. 16, 2010, the Mingus Repertory Ensembles — the Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty and Mingus Orchestra — perform the music of jazz legend Charles Mingus, with choreography by Danny Buraczeski.
WASHINGTON SQUARE MUSIC FESTIVAL ENDS 50th PARK SEASON WITH THE CHARLES MINGUS ORCHESTRA, A FREE JAZZ CONCERT
On Tuesday, July 27 at 8 pm in Washington Square,
the Charles Mingus Orchestra closes the Washington Square Music Festival’s 52nd season by performing works by the late Charles Mingus. The concert is free and celebrates a great American composer, who left his legacy in the worlds of both jazz and the civil rights struggle.
Seating is on a first-come, first served basis in front of the Holley Statue, in the northwest quadrant of the Square. The Festival is under the auspices of the Washington Square Association, Inc. Rainspace is St. Joseph’s Church, 371 Sixth Avenue.
Festival info: 212-252-3621 www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org
"Crisp and crackling with life....the Mingus songbook with fresh arrangements and top-notch musicianship." CD reviewed in July issue of All About Jazz-New York.
Mingus Big Band/Mingus Mondays
Jazz Standard 116 E. 27th St., (212) 576-2232 Mondays
Also being honored at the JJA Awards is Sue Mingus, the widow of the late bassist-composer, who has seen to it that her husband's music is more widely performed now than it was during the jazz iconoclast's lifetime. (Even the Django Reinhardt-inspired Hot Club of Detroit is playing "Nostalgia in Times Square" on their new album, "It's About That Time.") "Mingus Monday" has become a tradition at Jazz Standard.... The 14-piece big band, which features saxophonists Scott Robinson and Wayne Escoffery, is also represented by its 10th album, "Live at Jazz Standard," and demonstrates that, alongside Ellington and Monk, there's no composer more worthy than Mingus of being a one-man franchise.
We hope our mailing list subscribers will welcome our shift
from weekly to monthly emails. Many of you now get updates from
Facebook
and Twitter
(if not, please click on those links and join us!) so we'll
use this mailing list to send a monthly announcement of Mingus
news, events, and perhaps an occasional extra special announcement!
And of course our
website will remain your primary source for all things Mingus:
weekly Mingus band lineups and tour dates, educational events,
and links to Mingus music in all its manifestations throughout
the world.
Monday,
April 5, 2010 Mingus
Mondays at Jazz
Standard MINGUS
BIG BAND
SETS
AT 7:30 & 9:30 Trumpets
- Greg Gisbert
- Kenny Rampton
- Tatum Greenblatt
Saxophone
- Seamus Blake
- Mark Gross
- Craig Handy
(alto)
- Greg Tardy (tenor)
- Ronnie Cuber
Trombones
- Ku-umba Frank Lacy
- Andy Hunter
- Dave Taylor
Drums
- Donald Edwards
Bass
- Boris Kozlov
Piano
- David Kikoski
Doors
open an hour prior.
Jazz
Standard features tasty Blue Smoke BBQ. There is
never a minimum.
116 East 27th between Park and Lex in NYC 212-576-2232.
http://jazzstandard.com.
STUDENTS HALF PRICE ($12.50) SECOND SET.
Monday,
April 12, 2010
Mingus Mondays at Jazz
Standard
MINGUS
DYNASTY!
SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30
Alto saxophone: Craig
Handy
Tenor Saxophone: Seamus
Blake
Trumpet: Tatum Greenblatt
Trombone: Andy Hunter
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: David Kikoski
Drums: Donald Edwards
New
CD Release / Concert
Mon,
April 19, 2010 MINGUS
BIG BAND LIVE AT JAZZ STANDARD
CD Release Concert @ 7:30PM featuring works from Mingus
Big Band Live at Jazz Standard CD
including the rarely performed “New Now Know How” and
the seminal favorite “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” Line-up
includes Wayne Escoffery
& Abraham Burton
(tenor saxophone), Scott
Robinson & Doug
Yates (alto saxophone, flute), Lauren
Sevian (baritone saxophone), Conrad
Herwig, Ku-umba
Frank Lacy & Earl
McIntyre (trombones), Avishai
Cohen, Kenny
Rampton & Earl
Gardner (trumpets), Orrin
Evans (piano), Boris
Kozlov (bass), and Donald
Edwards (drums). Second set at 9:30PM.
“…every
tune a classic, every player a master, every tune sounding
new, every player keeping the spirit of Charles Mingus
alive and swinging!” –
Michael Bourne, WBGO
Monday, April 26, 2010
Mingus Mondays at Jazz
Standard
MINGUS
ORCHESTRA!
SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30
Alto/Flute/Soprano: Vincent
Herring
Tenor/Soprano/Flute: Scott
Robinson
Trombone: Ku-umba Frank
Lacy
Trumpet: Kenny Rampton
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Hans Glawischnig
Bassoon: Janet Grice
French Horn: John Clark
Guitar: Jack Wilkins
Bass Clarinet: Doug Yates
THE WINNING ENSEMBLES AND OUTSTANDING SOLOISTS ARE:
BIG BAND CATEGORY Adjudicators: Justin DiCioccio, Conrad Herwig and Boris Kozlov
BEST BIG BAND – REGULAR HIGH SCHOOL The Rivers Big Band, Philippe Crettien, Band Director The Rivers School; Weston, Massachusetts
BEST BIG BAND – SPECIALIZED SCHOOL Academy Big Band, Douglas Maher, Band Director Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts; Hartford, Connecticut
MINGUS SPIRIT AWARD The Mingus Spirit Award was given to the Rio Americano Combo from the Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California. Maxwell Kiesner, Band Director. Zach Giberson, alto saxophone; Zach Darf, tenor saxophone; Victor San Pedro, guitar; David Williams, piano; Nathan Swedlow, bass; Jarrett Tracy, drums
COMBO CATEGORY Adjudicators: Gunther Schuller, Vincent Herring and Andrew Homzy
BEST COMBO – REGULAR HIGH SCHOOL The Foxborough High School Jazz Quintet, Stephen C. Massey, Band Director Foxborough High School; Foxborough, Massachusetts Brendan Thomas, alto and tenor saxophones; Matt Muirhead, trumpet; Ian Ayers, guitar; Connor Schultze, Bass; and Christian Lyman, drums
BEST COMBO – SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL Manasia Improv Ensemble, Jeremy Manasia, Band Director Manhattan School of Music Precollege; New York, New York Elijah Shiffer, alto saxophone; Kevin Sun, tenor saxophone; Adam O’Farrill, trumpet; Luke Celenza, piano; Daryl Johns, bass; and Clint Mobley, drums
BEST ARRANGER Elijah Shiffer awarded “Outstanding Arranger” for his arrangement of Mingus’s Jelly Roll. Mr. Shiffer, from Mount Vernon, NY, attends the Manhattan School of Music Precollege.
OUTSTANDING SECTION The Saxophone Section from the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Big Band; Jeremy Manasia, Band Director Elijah Shiffer, David Kolchmeyer, alto sax; Kevin Sun, Miguel Rodriguez, tenor sax; and Michael Schramm, baritone sax
OUTSTANDING SOLOISTS Bass: Connor Schultze Foxborough High School, Foxborough, Massachusetts
Guitar: Victor San Pedro Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, California
Trombone: Tom Chalmers Trumpet: Ross Hoyt Bass: Henry Fraser The Rivers School, Weston, Massachusetts
Trumpet: Adam O’Farrill Piano: Luke Celenza Alto Sax: Elijah Shiffer Tenor Sax: Kevin Sun Bass: Daryl Johns Manhattan School of Music Precollege, New York, NY
Drums: Xavier Hill York College/CUNY, New York, NY
Piano: Mike Raleigh Boston Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts
Alto Sax: Elliot Scozzaro Kenmore East High School, Tonawanda, New York
Tenor Sax: Lomar Brown Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, Connecticut
Soprano Sax: Erik Stabnau Trombone: Nelson Campbell Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
The Charles Mingus High School Competition was open this year to high school jazz combos and big bands nationwide. (Last year’s competition, the first of its kind, was open to ensembles from the Northeast.) The goal of the competition is to provide an opportunity for high school music students to explore the enormously varied works of Charles Mingus and to find their own voices within the music. The finalists were chosen from high school jazz bands from across the country: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
In addition to the Charles Mingus High School Competition that took place on Sunday, the two-day Charles Mingus Festival included on Saturday, February 13, clinics given by members of the Mingus repertory bands, a student jam session, and a concert of Mingus’s music showcasing his blues and gospel roots. Performing the concert was the Mingus Orchestra, with Gunther Schuller and Harpist Edmar Castaneda, guest artist, given at New York City’s historic St. Bartholomew’s Church.
Charles Mingus, a virtuoso bassist, accomplished pianist and bandleader, is recognized as a major 20th-century composer, whose entire works have been acquired by the Library of Congress – a first for jazz, and a first for an African-American composer. He recorded more than 100 albums and composed more than 300 compositions, music that is still considered far ahead of its time, leaving behind the largest legacy of composition in American music after Duke Ellington. The Mingus Bands remain devoted to his vast repertoire and under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, play to critical acclaim throughout the world. Their critical and popular successes are a testament to the power of Mingus’s composition. The availability of his music through published arrangements, educational books, school courses, and workshops, coupled with the hugely successful Charles Mingus High School Competition, have extended the reach of his legacy.
* * * * * Below is a listing of the participating schools and the repertoire that they played:
HIGH SCHOOL COMBOS Combo Category – Regular High Schools • Foxborough High School Jazz Quintet – Stephen C. Massy, Band Director Foxborough High School, Foxborough, Massachusetts Program: Moanin’; Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, arr. by group; So Long Eric, arr. by group • Rio Americano Combo – Maxwell Kiesner, Band Director Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, California Program: Fables of Faubus, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, O.P. arr. collectively by group • Rivers Select Combo – Philippe Crettien, Band Director The Rivers School, Weston, Massachusetts Program: Pithecanthropus Erectus, arr. Todd Chalmers; Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, arr. Henry Fraser, Elliot Berman; Better Get Hit in Your Soul, arr. by Colin Beagan, Ross Hoyt
Combo Category – Specialized High Schools • Eastman Youth Jazz Combo – Howard Potter, Band Director Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York Program: Fables of Faubus, Ecculsiastics, O.P. arr. collectively by group • Manasia Improv Ensemble – Jeremy Manasia, Band Director Manhattan School of Music Precollege, New York, New York Program: Peggy’s Blue Skylight, Jelly Roll, arr. by Elijah Shiffer, Pithecanthropus Erectus • York College Blue Notes – Tom Zlabinger, Band Director York College/CUNY, New York, New York Program: Slippers, Work Song, Pithecanthropus Erectus, arr. by group
BIG BAND CATEGORY Big Band Category – Regular High Schools • Boston Latin Big Band – Paul J. Pitts, Band Director Boston Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts Program: Nostalgia in Times Square, Sue’s Changes, Haitian Fight Song • Kenmore East High School Jazz Band – Phil Aguglia, Band Director Kenmore East High School, Tonawanda, New York Program: Fables of Faubus, Self-Portrait in Three Colors; Better Get Hit in Your Soul • Rivers Big Band – Philippe Crettien, Band Director The Rivers School, Weston, Massachusetts Program: Songs with Orange, Sue’s Changes, Haitian Fight Song
Big Band Category – Specialized High Schools • MSM Precollege Big Band – Jeremy Manasia, Band Director Manhattan School of Music Precollege, New York, NY Program: Better Get Hit in Your Soul, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Boogie Stop Shuffle • Academy Big Band – Douglas Maher, Band Director Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, Connecticut Program: Opus 4, Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love, GG Train • Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra – Howard Potter, Band Director Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York Program: Duke Ellington’s Sounds of Love, Jelly Roll, Haitian Fight Song
★ CHARLES MINGUS FESTIVAL (Saturday and Sunday) The centerpiece of this weekend affair, celebrating the music and memory of the bassist-composer Charles Mingus, is a free concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, featuring the Mingus Orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller, in a cathedral setting [St. Bart's]. At Manhattan School of Music on Sunday the Charles Mingus High School Competition culminates in early-evening performances by the MSM’s Mingus Jazz Combo (at 5:30 p.m.) and the professional-grade Mingus Dynasty Band (at 6). MSM 122nd and Broadway, msmnyc.edu / St. Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue at 51st Street, (212) 378-0248, stbarts.org; free. (Chinen) (details corrected)
"It seems only right that entry would be free to this weekend's tribute to Charles Mingus, who was inarguably one of jazz's most irrepressible figures. The second annual Charles Mingus Festival starts Saturday at 12:15 p.m. with "Mingus Movies," followed by a 2 p.m. rhythm, sax and brass clinic; a 3:30 p.m. jam session featuring high school musicians from all over the country; and a 7 p.m. Mingus Orchestra performance at St. Bartholomew's Church (325 Park Ave., at 50th Street). The party continues Sunday with a 10 a.m. competition among high school jazz combos, a 2:15 p.m. battle of high school big bands, a performance by the Mingus Dynasty at 6 p.m. and, finally, a 6:30 p.m. awards ceremony for the bands that played earlier in the day. Except for Saturday's concert, it all happens at Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Avenue, at East 122nd St.; 212-749-2802, mingusmingusmingus.com."
Yale Jazz Ensemble Concert To Feature Music Of Thad Jones, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington
On Campus
The Yale Jazz Ensemble, directed by Thomas C. Duffy, will present its winter concert on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m., in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. The program will feature charts by Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Phil Woods, Lester Young, Slide Hampton, and more. Admission is free and no tickets are required.
The Yale Jazz Ensemble is an 18 piece big band that performs a wide variety of music, from Yale's Benny Goodman archive to the newest and most progressive jazz compositions. The ensemble has performed extensively in the U.S. and internationally at such noted venues as New York's Village Vanguard and Iridium Jazz Clubs and London's Ronnie Scott's.
Call 203-432-4113 for more information.
WWMD? A gaggle of devotees of Charles Mingus, the legendary jazz bassist-composer-rights activist, will brainstorm and barnstorm in the Jazz Composers Workshop, which gets under way at about 7:30 p.m. in Central Park Grill, 2519 Main St. On hand will be Nelson Starr, John Werick, Michael McNeill, John Anderson, Joe Hochulski, Kelly Bucheger and Tim Clarke.
February 9, 2010
Jazz for Curious Listeners
Jazz on Film: Charles Mingus/Billie Holiday
7:00 – 8:30pm
Location: NJMIH Visitors Center
(104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C)
FREE | For more information: 212-348-8300
Hearing is one thing – seeing is another. What better to spend an evening that watching these two iconic figures in all of their originality and genius?
6-9pm Wednesday, January 27th on WKCR 89.9FM NY. "The Musician's Show."
Conrad Herwig will guest host
Mingus Big Band's Conrad Herwig LIVE on-air on WKCR Radio next Wednesday 6-9PM. He'll play his own music, recordings he has played on with the Mingus bands (such as the soon-to-be-released 2009 New Year's Eve concert at Jazz Standard, broadcast on NPR), and other music that has inspired him.
"Matt Muirhead, Foxboro High School Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band and other groups, leaves for California Saturday to play with an elite student jazz band as part of the 52nd annual Grammy awards celebration.
And from Feb. 12-15, Muirhead will be with a Foxboro High jazz quintet competing in the annual Charles Mingus Jazz Competition in New York City.
The 17-year-old, who began playing trumpet in fifth grade, enjoys all types of music but is heavily focused on jazz.
"Jazz provides a level of intimacy, democracy and interaction that you don't necessarily feel in other genres," said Muirhead.
Next month Muirhead and fellow FHS students Brendan Thomas, Ian Ayers, Christian Lyman and Connor Schultze will be traveling to New York City for the Feb. 12-15 Mingus competition at the Manhattan School of Music.
The student-directed band will be competing against finalists from The Rivers School in Weston and Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, Cal., playing the music of the legendary jazz pianist, bandleader and composer.
School music director Steve Massey said he's especially proud of Muirhead and the other students' accomplishment in entering and attaining a finalist position at the second annual Mingus competition. Students took the lead in suggesting a Foxboro entry and rehearsed on their own, beginning last summer, using their own arrangements.
MINGUS HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION FINALISTS ANNOUNCED The finalists (in alphabetical order) are:
BIG BAND CATEGORY-Regular Boston Latin Big Band. Boston Latin School, Boston, MA. Band Director: Paul J. Pitts Kenmore East High School Jazz Band, Tonawanda, NY. Band Director: Phil Aguglia Rivers Big Band, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
BIG BAND CATEGORY-Specialized Academy Big Band, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, CT. Band Director: Douglas Maher Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Howard Potter Manhattan School of Music Precollege Big Band, New York, NY. Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
COMBO CATEGORY-Regular Foxborough High School Jazz Quintet, Foxborough, MA. Director: Stephen C. Massey Rio Americano Combo, Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, CA. Band Director: Max Kiesner Rivers Select 1 Combo, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
COMBO CATEGORY-Specialized Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Howard Potter Manasia Improv Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY. Band Director: Jeremy Manasia York College Blue Notes, New York, NY. Band Director: Tom Zlabinger
*Nationwide Charles Mingus High School Competition
*Four-Day Festival Held in New York City February 12-15, 2010
*Mingus Gospel Concert at St. Bart’s
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 2, 2009 - New York, NY Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute, a New York City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to expanding and promoting the legacy of Charles Mingus, announces exciting lineup for Charles Mingus High School Competition and weekend festival.
This year’s Competition was expanded to include high school students nationwide and extend their New York experience beyond the Manhattan School of Music, where the Competition and clinics will be held. More activities were added for New York residents to make this a true festival celebrating Mingus music.
A full day of clinics and workshops will take place at the Manhattan School of Music on Saturday. There will be master classes for instruments and sections plus lectures and clinics in connection with Mingus music exploring themes such as “Thematic Development in Improvisation” and “Deconstructing Melody,” “The Blues at the Heart of Mingus, a special Band Director’s Workshop directed by Justin DiCioccio, and a student jam with Mingus musicians. Prominent educators and musicians who are deeply familiar with Mingus music will oversee these events.
On Saturday night there will be an extraordinary public concert of Mingus gospel music at the landmark St. Bartholomew’s (St. Bart’s) Church on Park Avenue and 50th Street. This unique event will not only return Mingus music to its blues & gospel church roots, but will feature the sort of instrumentation—harp, bassoon, French horn, bass clarinet (along with the more familiar trumpet, trombone and saxophones)—that illustrates Mingus’s long-time mission to open up the instrumental possibilities so children can be inspired to play in symphony orchestras as well as jazz bands. The concert will include such rousing numbers as “Better Get Hit In Your Soul,” “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting,” “Ecclusiastics,” “Consider Me, Oh Lord” (from a Langston Hughes collaboration), and much more. There will also be a reception for high school participants prior to the concert and opening remarks by Gunther Schuller.
On Sunday the daylong Mingus High School Competition will feature the battle between the top 12 big bands and combos from around the country and a concert by the MSM Mingus Combo. Monday the Mingus Big Band performs at Jazz Standard as part of its regular weekly residency.
All participants, whether finalists or not, are invited to attend all weekend events. The Competition provides an exceptional musical experience for its participants and an important addition to the many cultural attractions in New York City. It has already become a much-anticipated part of the national and local cultural landscape, celebrating New York as the arts capital of the world and Charles Mingus as one of our most significant artists.
Please call 212-736-4749 for more information.
Friday, Feb 12: TBA Saturday, Feb 13: Full day of clinics, master classes, and jams at Manhattan School of Music. Evening Mingus concert at St. Bartholomew's (St. Bart’s) Church bringing Mingus music back to its gospel & blues roots and featuring special instrumentation Sunday, Feb 14: Mingus High School Competition at Manhattan School of Music. Concert by MSM Mingus Combo Monday, Feb 15: Mingus Big Band at Jazz Standard
Thursday, Oct. 29th at 9 pm in Lotte Lehman Concert Hall.
"The jazz band will perform works by the larger-than-life bassist Charles Mingus, known for his virtuosic bass playing, perfectionist band leading, and prodigious composing. The choice of Mingus for the Halloween Spooktacular comes as no surprise; his dissonant compositions often reflect a tormented psyche."
"Solo performances like pianist David Kikoski’s and a head-twisting workout by baritone sax player Lauren Sevian pointed out the outfit’s ability to play with Mingus’s work. A whole set of that was full of heart-swelling instances of uplift."
Boosey & Hawkes proudly makes available for the first time Pithecanthropus Erectus, a groundbreaking piece for symphonic orchestra and jazz musicians by one of the most important figures in twentieth century American music - virtuoso bassist, accomplished composer, and bandleader, Charles Mingus.
Alvin Ailey choreographed an hour program called "The Mingus Dances" during a 1972 collaboration with the Robert Joffrey Ballet Company, in which Pithecanthropus Erectus was featured.
Please contact Adina Williams at Boosey & Hawkes for perusal scores and more information regarding this brand new work available from Boosey & Hawkes.
Pithecanthropus Erectus was Charles Mingus's breakthrough as a leader and composer.
The year was 1956. The defining moment was framed in no less than the historic Atlantic Studios in New York City, with the legendary producer Nesuhi Ertegün at the ready. From the start of the title cut, Mingus electrified with a 4-bar motif that would later be compared to John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme."
As an unrivalled master of the bass, Mingus also established himself with this masterwork as an extraordinarily rich composer.
9) Solo Dancer from The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Charles Mingus. My mind still fails to grasp the exact limits of Mingus’s greatness. During the time I was writing “The Noble Truths of Suffering”
(“Love and Obstacles”), I listened to a lot of Mingus. I would take my
dog for a walk before sleep on the beach near our house and would be
overwhelmed with the desire to dance. The dog would be racing up and
down the sand and I would be convulsing in the rhythms of Mingus. “The
Noble Truths of Suffering” has been labeled anti-American by some
patriotic readers. But all I have to submit to refute that charge is my
love for American music, as exemplified by Mingus and other jazz greats.
Asbury Shorts: An Evening of the World’s Best Short Films Mingus Dynasty Quintet
Thursday, August 06, 2009
From 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage
A dynamic evening of live music, celebrity guests, and elite
award-winning short films compiled from the past ten years.
Asbury Shorts,
New York City’s longest running exhibition of award-winning independent
short films presents “An Evening of the World’s Best Short Films,”
featuring live music, celebrity guests, and noteworthy, festival
award-winning short films compiled over the past ten years. Films to be
featured include: Super Powers – Best Short Film, 2007 Tribeca Film Festival; Yours Truly – voted best animated short film at over five international festivals; Gulp – Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner; Tanghi Argentini – Audience Prize, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival; plus other classic shorts.
The exceptional Mingus Dynasty Quintet is one of
the repertory bands whose mission is to carry on the works of Charles
Mingus, a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, renowned
bandleader, brilliant composer, longtime New York City resident and
uncompromising force of nature. He played and recorded with the leading
musicians of the 50s, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud
Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington. One of the few bassists to do so,
Mingus became a leader of musicians and was at the forefront of the
avant-garde. His sound is rhythmic, dynamic, totally unconventional and
utterly unmistakable.
"Ah Um casts quite a, um, shadow. It's damn near perfect,
opening with "Better Git It in Your Soul," one of the slammingest
statements of intent to ever spin at 33 1/3. The assembled cook at an
exuberant temperature, driven by Mingus' on-off-mike shouts of coarse,
exuberant joy. "Oh, yeah!" he barks at strategic intervals. (The
exclamation/trademark would later grace a '62 LP.) While Mingus
encourages, drummer Dannie Richmond commands, insistent behind the kit.
Tributes abound in the Lester Young eulogy "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,"
featuring John Handy's tenor sax aching through a spectral mist, the
Morton nod "Jelly Roll," and an "Open Letter to Duke" scrawled to Mr.
Ellington, whose "Mood Indigo" and "Things Ain't What They Used to Be"
were Mingus-stamped on Dynasty.
The famous "Fables of Faubus" has outpaced the legacy of its
name-checked target, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who in 1957 used
National Guardsmen to prevent a group of black students from entering
Little Rock High School then shut down the entire city's school system
for the 1958-59 academic year (great time for jazz, not so much for
America). The horn section sounds simultaneously scornful and amused,
with Mingus' defiant thumps mocking its gasbag subject. "Pussy Cat
Dues" enters a Basin Street bordello on Jimmy Knepper's trombone prowl;
Horace Parlan wiggles his ivory eyebrows, digging through his pockets
for cash."
"Mingus Ah Um sounds like the 20th Century: it is a self-portrait of a man who helped define the direction of post-bop jazz, commenting on the country that created him."
Mingus Dynasty is alive and kicking
By Jack Massarik, Evening Standard
07.07.09
Well played: Trumpeter Alexander Sipiagin does Mingus Dynasty
It's
exactly half a century since 1959, something of an annus mirabilis of
jazz, being the recording date of three seminal albums — Kind of Blue,
Giant Steps and Mingus Ah Um. Their progenitors, Miles Davis, John Coltrane
and Charles Mingus, are all long gone, but Mingus’s feisty widow, Sue,
keeps his music alive with a vengeance fuelled by the struggle to hear
it performed during his lifetime.
Listening to a brilliant
septet drawn from this orchestra last night, one was struck by how well
Mingus’s ensemble arrangements are now played, far more precisely than
when he was alive. His original soloists were superb but it has taken
50 loving years for section players to reel off his complex orchestral
visions. And how proud Charles would have been to find two Russians —
bassist Boris Kozlov and trumpeter Alexander Sipiagian —among them, a
living embodiment of his multi-racial dream.
Reincarnation of a Love Bird, Mingus’s salute to Charlie Parker,
drew impressive solos from Sipiagin and altoist Craig Handy. Goodbye
Pork Pie Hat, a classic requiem for Lester Young, inspired masterly
tenor-sax from London-born Wayne Escoffery and a powerful new vocal —
“he took him a white wife and some saw red/ enough to drive them from
their hotel bed” — by trombonist Frank Lacy.
A lesser-known
Mingus gem, GG Train, featured Donald Edwards, latest in a long line of
butt-kicking drummers dating back to the great Dannie Richmond. Give
yourself a treat and hear them.
"The festival will close with a special two-set performance
by Guilbeault's large ensemble doing rarely performed works by Charles Mingus such as Black Saint and the Sinner Lady at the Lion d'Or on June 27."
http://www.lofffestivaldejazz.com/programmation/27-20h.html
Mingus Monday Audience comments from past two weeks
Wed, Jun. 10 2009
Comments for the last two weeks of Mingus Bands @ Jazz Standard (not selective, this is ALL of the comments!)
06/01/09 - Big Band
"Incredibly fascinating"
"The jazz show inspired me to become a jazz musician. This is my 3rd time seeing it!"
"Until tonight I was a jazz hater but this I loved, particularly the piece they played for the first time"
"Having only learned Jazz history in school, this experience transcended the confines of a classroom. It was a collaboration that amounted to something far greater than the already extraordinary sum of its parts"
"Personally the most fantastic evening of jazz I've enjoyed and the food was good"
"Uplifting, inspirational and authentic. The real deal!"
"Moves you where you need to go!"
"It was fabulous! Really swings. Top notch musicians"
"Loved it!"
"It was amazing! I loved it."
"Mingus Lives!....at the Jazz Standard."
"Great! We loved it. Thanks for making great jazz available on Monday nights."
"It kicked - It's Mingus!"
"Great cooperation b/w players!"
"I loved the show, it's almost as if the music was telling a story.”
"Fantastic"
"Very good. Yes."
"First jazz show in new york. Amateur jazz fan and was blown away."
"Off the hook! Spectacular musicianship!"
"Good musicians and nice to see them having fun!"
"Excellento!"
06/08/09 - Dynasty
"Felt like Mingus was among us. Yes."
"loved it! And am eager to learn more. Thank you!"
"Classily redefined Mingus tunes with spellbinding solos that properly preserve his legacy"
"I feel like tasting a great burgundy, enjoining complexity, elegance in a perfect tune"
"SUPERB!! Thrill to see Sue Mingus"
"Great performance, strong and beautiful"
"Excellent musicians"
"Outstanding, P.S. Great Waitress!!"
"The supple, sinuous, sonorous, flavorings/ stylings of salient Mingus compositions were well rendered by this line-up."
"Really inspired me to pick up the upright bass guitar"
"Soothing to the senses"
"Mesmerizing"
"Fastastical! We love NY and the Jazz Standard. Great music, great service, great food!"
"Great Show. Love this club. It's our second time here, we'll be back."
"Loved it"
"great music especially the pianist!! A mix of small mellow jazz and quick paced jazz"
"Excellent performance, glad the band is perpetuating this great music"
"Excellent"
"Wonderful show! Awesome!"
"Very Good"
"Fabulous"
"Good show - want to hear Goodbye Porkpie Hat, maybe that is in second set. Musicians bring the important music of Mingus to life. It needs to be heard! Keep up the great work!"
"Like Mingus! Classic but eclectic and full of surprises"
Jazz takes a giant leap with Bellevue Jazz Festival
The Bellevue Jazz Festival, with main stage acts Dianne Reeves, the Mingus Big Band, Kurt Elling, Mose Allison, Patricia Barber and Danilo Perez, takes place at Meydenbauer Center and other downtown Bellevue venues May 22-24, 2009.
"Saturday night, the festival featured the Mingus Big Band, musician for musician one of the most spirited and technically gifted bands in the country."
Opportunity for New York high school jazz students: Brass players needed for York College Summer Jazz Program
Mon, May. 18 2009
York College Summer Jazz Program '09 needs brass players!
From Tom Zlabinger:
"We held auditions for York College Summer Jazz Program '09 this weekend. Although we had a great turnout and I was very impressed by the musicianship, we are a little thin on brass, both trumpets and trombones. If you know anyone who would be interested in studying jazz performance and music theory this summer, please have them contact me. This is a scholarship program for NYC public high school sophomores and juniors. EVERYTHING is paid for by the city of New York: Tuition, books, MTA card, lunch voucher, music stand, metronome and more! It's a professional big band environment and students get private lessons!!! Lex Samu (trumpet) and John Yao (trombone) will be our instructors. Students earn 5-college credits upon completion. And the band has several gigs over the summer, including one at the Louis Armstrong House on Satchmo's birthday!! The dates of SJP '09 are June 29 - August 7, Monday - Thursday @ 9 - 3 p.m. and classes and rehearsals take place in the York College Performing Arts Center in Jamaica, Queens.
Students must be able to read music and have their own instrument. No jazz experience is necessary. Please circulate this to as many people as you can. Interested students should contact me directly. I will happily schedule a one-on-one audition. I will also hold a general audition in mid-June. The exact date will be announced this week once it is scheduled. I'll be sure to let you know. Just wanted to get the word out about the openings ASAP.
Thank you for your help! This summer's band is already going to be serious! Help me get some deserving brass players in there to join us for the ride!!!
"
Tom Zlabinger - www.myspace.com/tomzlabinger
Bass Player / Ethnomusicologist
Director, The York College Big Band, The Blue Notes, and The Summer Jazz Program
Department of Performing & Fine Arts - Music York College/CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11451
www.york.cuny.edu
"It took a brassy, all-star, 30-member band, including two bassists (!) to do justice to Charles Mingus' "Epitaph" at the 1989 concert of the same name finally available on Eagle Eye Media DVD (A). Reconstructed a decade after the legendary bassist/composer's death, the Gunther Schuller-conducted work opens in Mingus' most disruptive "third stream" vein. But it soon shifts into more accessible and synchronized territory. And it sure doesn't hurt that every solo (by the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Jerome Richardson, Randy Brecker, John Abercrombie and others) is an homage to Mingus' liberated genius."
On Thursday, May 7th, a group of musicians will gather at The Hideout
to celebrate the life and music of Charles Mingus, and to benefit the
Les Turner ALS Foundation
"Charles Mingus Hometown Jazz Festival" will be held this year April 17-19, 2009 again celebrating Charles' birthday, with a full range of jazz bands, artists, and events, including an educational component going into schools at all levels.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Jazz artists, from the high school level to the
internationally respected Mingus Big Band, will come together for the
inaugural Columbus State Jazz Festival Friday and Saturday, April 3-4,
at RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in downtown Columbus.
Spring New School Jazz Presents: Mingus Music America(2)
03/26/2009
8:00 p.m.
The second of two concerts in tribute to Charles Mingus features New School Jazz faculty Andy McKee. The band includes Andy McKee on bass, New School Jazz alumni Mike Moreno on guitar and Jason Marshall on baritone saxophone, Idris Muhammad on drums, Ivan Renta on tenor saxophone, and current New School Jazz student Ilana Worrell on vocals.
Location:
Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance Space, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 5th floor
Admission:
$10; free to all students and New School faculty, staff, and alumni with ID
A Zócalo/City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Event
Moderated by Oscar Garza, Senior Editor, Los Angeles Daily News
Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 7:30 pm
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027 Free parking in the lot at the bottom of the hill and in parking spaces surrounding the perimeter of the Barnsdall Art Park. Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
From his first concert piece, written when he
was 17, to his expansive, 19-movement, 4,000-measure opus “Epitaph,”
which he claimed to have written for his tombstone, Charles Mingus
built a remarkable legacy as a jazz bassist, band leader, and composer.
His body of work is second only to Duke Ellington’s in size, and
arguably matches it in quality, combining innovation with mastery,
spontaneity with precise orchestration, tuneful melodies with pulsing
rhythms and inimitable flurries of sound. Mingus, who grew up in Watts,
was also a teacher to many musicians at his Jazz Workshop, an activist
for racial equality, and a performer praised for his passion and
lambasted for his temper. Thirty years after his death, Zócalo hosts a
panel of Mingus experts, friends and fellow musicians to discuss the
life and continuing legacy of the jazz great.
1959
was the seismic year jazz broke away from complex bebop music to new
forms, allowing soloists unprecedented freedom to explore and express.
It was also a pivotal year for America; the nation was finding its
groove, enjoying undreamt of freedom and wealth, social, racial and
upheavals were just around the corner, and jazz was ahead of the curve.
Four major jazz albums were made, each a high water mark for the
artists and a powerful reflection of the times. Each opened up dramatic
new possibilities for jazz which continue to be felt: Miles Davis, Kind
Of Blue; Dave Brubeck, Time Out; Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um; and
Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come.
Rarely seen archive performances help vibrantly bring the era to
life and explore what made these albums vital both in 1959 and the 50
years since. The programme contains interviews with Lou Reed, Dave
Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Joe Morello
(Brubeck's drummer) and Jimmy Cobb (the only surviving member of Miles'
band), along with a host of jazz movers and shakers from the 50s and
beyond.
Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus: 2009 also
marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the mercurial
bandleader-composer, who had the budget at Columbia to double his
two-horn front-line for the big sound of "Better Git It In Your Soul"
and "Fables Of Faubus", and homages to jazz greats Ellington ("Open
Letter To Duke"), Morton ("Jelly Roll"), recently deceased Lester Young
("Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"), and Mingus himself ("Self-Portrait in Three
Colors"). The film noir quality of this album -- considered to
be one of the five truly essential Mingus LPs -- predates a certain
vein of film music later popularized by Henry Mancini. Liner notes for
the 2009 edition of Mingus Ah Um are written by three-time Grammy Award-winning producer-annotator Michael Cuscuna.
Wed 3/26: Andy McKee, Vic Juris, Idris Muhammad,
Becca Stevens & Ivan Renta at The New School for Jazz
& Contemporary Music. 8:00pm. “Mingus Ah Um.” $10;
free for students, faculty, staff & alumni. Arnhold Hall, 55 W.
13th St., 5th Floor. www.newschool.edu/jazz
8. Mingus Dynasty featuring John Handy, May 3, 7 p.m., Palace of the Fine Arts Theatre. Oakland-raised John Handy was already one of the most innovative young altoists on the scene when he joined the volatile bassist-composer Charles Mingus in 1959. Five decades later, the searing saxophone solos he contributed to the classic albums "Mingus Ah Um," "Blues and Roots" and "Mingus Dynasty" still sound fresh and bracing. Handy hasn't revisited the Mingus book much, which makes his collaboration with the talent-laden seven-piece combo Mingus Dynasty an exceptional event.
The Mingus Big Band on Monday evening filled the Macau Cultural Centre's (CCM) Grand Auditorium with invigorating jazz extravaganza and was acclaimed by the audience for their performance of the legendary bass player and composer tunes.
The jazzier rhythmic and humour of the late Charles Mingus lyrics enveloped the jazz lovers and surprised the mere curious ones. Lauded as “the best jazz orchestra in the world” by the Washington Post, the Mingus Big Band performed for the first time at CCM, being a highlight programme for its 10th anniversary celebrations.
The Mingus Big Band is a very well known New York institution and six-Grammy nominated artist, which held residencies in some of the best jazz clubs in the United States, and toured extensively abroad to Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong.
In last night concert, they played old and new arrangements creating a spirited blend of the lush harmonies and boisterous blues sections, interwoven ensemble passages and sudden tempo shifts and showed brawling, muscular, hard-swinging, bluesy way Mingus loved to play in an authentic homage concert to the most important jazz figures in 20th century American music.
Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born in Arizona in 1922, the American, with Asian influences, studied double bass and composition in a formal way, while absorbing vernacular music from the great jazz masters in the likes of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. He died in 1979 from a nervous disease and left more than 300 masterpieces.
"Of all the jazz widows of great masters my hat has long been off to Sue Mingus for the tireless way she has gone about maintaining and upholding the legacy of Charles Mingus and his music. The Mingus Big Band is currently enjoying a Monday night residency at the Jazz Standard, a club which among other things enjoys hands-down the best menu and cooking of any jazz club in Manhattan. Among her many efforts Sue Mingus has been quite clever about doing more than just ensuring gigs for the Mingus Big Band, Orchestra, and Dynasty; she has always stayed one step ahead of the game by seeking fresh approaches to their presentations. For example this year they’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of three important Mingus records: "Blues and Roots", "Ah Um", and "Dynasty". So the band is performing music pretty much exclusively from those three sessions — though they did veer off into some slightly more obscure Mingus from his "Baron Mingus" days for a vocal selection — and the results are bracingly fresh as always.
Nominal co-leadership of the band appears to be shared by bassist Boris Kozlov, who performs on Charles’ famed lion’s head bass, and tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, who also share the various intros. Among other marvelous moments on this particular evening were excursions into such Mingus lore as "My Jelly Roll Soul" and "GG Train", tunes that have not been often performed otherwise. Among the stalwarts in the big band on that particular Monday were saxophonists Vincent Herring, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall, and Donny McCaslin; trumpeters Randy Brecker, Kenny Rampton, and former VJO trumpeter Earl Gardner (still one of the best lead trumpeters on the planet), trombonists Frank Lacy (who contributed one of his customary humorous vocal turns) and Andy Hunter, Donald Edwards on drums, and the bracingly fresh Orrin Evans on piano, who injected some wicked clave into one of his turns. When a band boasts such sturdy soloists it can be difficult for each to get a proper turn, but indeed each did as the set was very skillfully arranged."
Winners announced for First Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition
Thu, Feb. 26 2009
WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR THE FIRST ANNUAL CHARLES MINGUS HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ BAND COMPETITION Sue Mingus and Justin DiCioccio, Producers HELD AT MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009
5 Combos and 5 Big Bands Hailing from High Schools in the North East competed for top honors
The FIRST Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition was part of a 3-Day Mingus Summit held February 20-22 at MSM
New York City – Sue Mingus, Director of Let My Children Hear Music and Justin DiCioccio, Assistant Dean and Chair of Manhattan School of Music’s Jazz Arts Program, announced the winners of the 1st Annual Charles Mingus High School Jazz Band Competition in an awards ceremony held at the conclusion of the all-day competition that took place at Manhattan School of Music on Sunday, February 22. In presenting the awards, Justin DiCioccio commented, “The playing by all, in both the combos and big bands, was magnificent today.” Sue Mingus said, “All of the adjudicators were astonished with the musicianship heard today. Everyone who performed was wonderful.” Awards were given in two categories -- for Jazz Combo and for Big Band.
The winners are:
Combo Category Adjudicators: Justin DiCioccio, Conrad Herwig and Vincent Herring
Best Combo Winner, Non-specialized High School – King Philip Regional High School Jazz Combo 1 Wrentham, Massachusetts; Band Directors: Peter Levesque and Peter Tileston
Winner, Performing Arts High School – Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo New York, New York; Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
Outstanding Combo Rhythm Section Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Jazz Ensemble 3, Hartford, CT Band Directors: Kris Allen and Jimmy Greene Rhythm Section: Terrance Shider, piano; Alec Beloin, guitar; Matt Dwonszyk, bass; Jimmy McBride and Mike Allegue, drums
Best Arrangement Elijah Shiffer, Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo for Fables of Faubus
Outstanding Soloists
Trumpet: Adam O’Farrill Vocalist: Martina DaSilva LaGuardia High School Jazz Quintet, New York, NY; Band Director: Kevin Blancq
Trombone: Chris Palmer Bass: Gina Giacalone King Philip Regional High School Jazz Combo 1, Wrentham, MA Band Directors: Peter Levesque and Peter Tileston
Alto Sax: Elijah Shiffer Tenor Sax: Kevin Sun Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo, New York, NY Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
Piano: Terrance Shider Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Jazz Ensemble 3 Hartford, CT; Band Directors: Kris Allen and Jimmy Greene
Tenor Sax: Casey Berman The Rivers School, Rivers Select 1 Combo, Weston, MA Band Director: Philippe Crettien
Big Band Category Adjudicators: Gunther Schuller, Boris Kozlov and Donny McCaslin
Best Big Band Winner, Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester, New York; Band Director: Howard Potter
Best Rhythm Section LaGuardia Senior Jazz Band, New York, NY; Band Director: Kevin Blancq Max Coburn, piano; Oliver Marsh, piano; Noam Londy, guitar; Joseph Endozo, guitar; Joanna Sternberg, bass; Harry Rubin-Falcone, bass; Zack O’Farrill, drums; Clint Mobley, drums
Best Trumpet Section Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble, Lexington, MA; Band Director: Jeffrey Leonard Evan Marcantonio, Nick Singer, Christian Ulmer, and Mikko Silliman, trumpets Photo by Brian Hatton
Outstanding Soloists
Tenor Sax: Nick Lippa Gates Chili High School Jazz Ensemble, Rochester, NY Band Director: Christopher Oldfield
Trombone: Tom Chalmers Rivers Big Band, The Rivers School, Weston, MA; Band Director: Philippe Crettien
Trumpet: Ivan Rosenberg Bass: Joanne Sternberg Vibes: Clint Mobley LaGuardia Senior High Jazz Band, New York, NY; Band Director: Kevin Blancq
Piano: Josh Condon Guitar: Gabe Condon Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester , NY; Band Director: Howard Potter
Tenor Sax: Nathan Katz Piano: Steven Feifke Drums: John Cho Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble, Lexington, MA Band Director: Jeffrey Leonard
The 1st Annual Charles Mingus High School Jazz Band Competition was open to high school jazz combos and big bands hailing from the North East: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Some 60 submissions were received for the first round of pre-screening CDs, with five combos selected and five big bands chosen to compete in Sunday’s competition. The goal of the competition is to provide an opportunity for high school music students to explore the enormously varied works of Charles Mingus, and to find their own individual voices within the music. The competing high school jazz combos and big bands and the Mingus tunes they performed, are listed at the end of the press release.
The 2009-10 Charles Mingus High School Jazz Band Competition will be expanded to high schools nationwide. For information, contact Sue Mingus at Let My Children Hear Music, 484 West 43rd Street, 43-S, New York, NY 10036, (212) 736 - 4749, (212) 736-6149, fax, or visit www.mingusmingusmingus.com/JazzEducation.
In addition to the 1st Annual Charles Mingus High School Jazz Band Competition, the Mingus Summit included on Friday, February 20th, a keynote address given by Gunther Schuller, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Justin DiCioccio with Vincent Herring, Conrad Herwig, Andy McKee, Sue Mingus and Gunther Schuller, discussing “Mingus Music in the 21st Century.’ On Saturday, February 21, the Manhattan School of Music Charles Mingus Student Jazz Ensemble, consisting of Remy Le Boeuf, alto saxophone; Samuel Ryder, tenor saxophone; Jonathan Barnes, trumpet; Craig Davis, piano; Ruben Samama, bass and Will Clark, joined by Saxophonist Steve Slagle performed. Sunday afternoon also showcased performances by the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra conducted by Justin DiCioccio and the Mingus Dynasty Band with Boris Kozlov, on Charles Mingus’s lionhead bass; Vincent Herring, alto sax; Donny McCaslin, tenor sax; Alex Sipiagin, trumpet; Conrad Herwig, trombone; Helen Sung, piano and Justin Faulkner, drums (from the Girard Academic Music program in Philadelphia).
Charles Mingus is recognized as a major 20th-century composer, whose entire works have been acquired by the Library of Congress – a first for jazz, and a first for an African-American composer. Mingus left behind the largest legacy of composition in American music after Duke Ellington. The Mingus Bands remain devoted to this vast repertoire and under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, play to critical acclaim throughout the world.
(Listed below are the competing high schools and repertoire played)
Combo Category
LaGuardia High School Jazz Quintet• , New York, NY Band Director: Kevin Blancq Program: O.P. (arr. /Adam O’Farrill); Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (arr. /Kevin Blancq); and Fables of Faubus (arr. /Adam O’Farrill)
King Philip Regional High School Jazz Combo 1• , Wrentham, MA. Band Directors: Peter Levesque and Peter Tileston Program: Pithecanthropus Erectus (arr. /Pete Levesque); Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (arr. /Pete Levesque); and Better Get Hit in Your Soul (arr. /Pete Levesque)
Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo• , New York, NY Band Director: Jeremy Manasia Program: Fables of Faubus (arr. /Elijah Shiffer); Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (arr. /Jeremy Manasia); and Better Get Hit in Your Soul
Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Jazz Ensemble 3,• Hartford, CT Band Directors: Kris Allen and Jimmy Greene Program: Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (arr. /Kris Allen); Pithecanthropus Erectus (arr. /Kris Allen); and O.P. (arr. /Kris Allen)
The Rivers School, Rivers Select 1 Combo• , Weston, MA Band Director: Philippe Crettien Program: Sue’s Changes; Jelly Roll and Boogie Stop Shuffle
Big Band Category
Rivers Big Band• , The Rivers School, Weston, MA Band Director: Philippe Crettien Program: Opus 4 (arr. /Boris Kozlov); Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (arr. / Sy Johnson) and Fables of Faubus (arr. / Steve Slagle)
Gates Chili High School Jazz Ensemble• , Rochester, NY Band Director: Christopher Oldfield Program: Moanin’ (arr. /Andrew Homzy); Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (arr. /Andrew Homzy); and Nostalgia in Times Square (arr. /Sy Johnson)
LaGuardia Senior Jazz Band• , New York, NY Band Director: Kevin Blancq Program: Nostalgia in Times Square (arr. /Ronnie Cuber); Goodbye Porkpie Hat (arr. /Sy Johnson); and Moanin’ (arr. /Sy Johnson)
Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, • Rochester, NY Band Director: Howard Potter Program: Moanin’ (arr. /Sy Johnson); Sue’s Changes (arr. /Sy Johnson) and Gunslinging Bird (arr. /Steve Slagle)
Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble,• Lexington, MA Band Director: Jeffrey Leonard Program: Pedal Point Blues (arr. /John Stubblefield); Goodbye Porkpie Hat (arr. /Sy Johnson); and Nostalgia in Times Square (arr. /Ronnie Cuber)
This weekend is the First Annual Mingus High School Competition (on Sunday) and exciting 3-day Mingus Summit, all held at Manhattan School of Music at 122nd and Broadway. (directions)
Then check out the amazing lineup we have for the Mingus Dynasty at
Jazz Standard on Monday. We hope you can join us for all or part of it!
MINGUS SUMMIT AND HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, Feb 20, 2009 7:30pm-9pm MINGUS SUMMIT Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC Greenfield Hall Keynote Address by Gunther Schuller (Pulitzer Prize-winning Composer/Conductor).Panel Discussion
moderated by Justin DiCioccio (Manhattan School of Music Jazz
Director), with Schuller, Vincent Herring (saxophonist/educator),
Conrad Herwig (trombonist/Professor Jazz Studies, Rutgers), Andy McKee
(bassist/ Director Mingus Ensemble, New School University), and Sue
Mingus (President of Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus
Institute, and creator of the Mingus repertory bands). Free and open to
the public.
SATURDAY, Feb 21, 2009 7:30pm-9:30pm MINGUS SUMMIT Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC John C Borden AuditoriumPerformance by Manhattan School of Music Combo,
featuring guest soloist and director Steve Slagle from the Mingus Big
Band and Remy Le Boeuf, alto saxophone; Samuel Ryder, tenor saxophone;
Jonathan Barnes, trumpet; Craig Davis, piano;
Robert Samama, bass; and Will Clark, drums. Free and open to the public.
SUNDAY, Feb 22, 2009 10am-7pm MINGUS HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC John C Borden Auditorium Free and open to the public.
Adjudicators
for the Competition: Conrad Herwig, Gunther Schuller, Boris Kozlov,
Vincent Herring, Justin DiCioccio, and Donny McCaslin.
10am-11:30am COMBO COMPETITION
- LaGuardia High School Jazz Quintet, New York, NY. Band Director: Kevin Blancq - King Phillip Regional High School Jazz Combo 1, Wrentham, MA. Band Directors: Peter Levesque and Peter Tileson - Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo, New York, NY. Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
11:30am-11:45am SHORT BREAK 11:45am-12:45pm COMBO COMPETITION continued
- Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Jazz Ensemble 3, Hartford, CT. Band Directors: Kris Allen and Jimmy Greene - The Rivers School, Rivers Select 1 Combo, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
12:45pm-2pm LUNCH BREAK 2pm-3:30pm BIG BAND COMPETITION
- Gates Chili High School Jazz Ensemble, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Christopher Oldfield - Rivers Big Band, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien - LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, Senior Jazz Band, New York, NY. Band Director: Kevin Blancq
3:30pm-3:45pm SHORT BREAK 3:45pm-5pm BIG BAND COMPETITION continued
- Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Howard Potter - Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble, Lexington, MA. Band Director, Jeffrey Leonard
5pm PERFORMANCE by the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Justin DiCioccio, just back from conducting orchestra at the Grammy awards!
5:30pm PERFORMANCE by Mingus Dynasty
featuring Boris Kozlov (playing Charles Mingus’ lionhead bass), Vincent
Herring, Conrad Herwig, Donny McCaslin, Justin Faulkner (high school
drummer from Girard Academic Music Program in Philadelphia), Alex
Sipiagin, and Helen Sung.
Alto - flute: Vincent Herring
Tenor Saxophone: Seamus Blake
Trumpet: Alex Sipiagin
Trombone: Ku-umba Frank Lacy
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: David Kikoski
Drums: Jeff "Tain" Watts
SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum. 116 East 27th between Park and Lex in NYC 212-576-2232. http://jazzstandard.com
Participating in the first annual competition is both an honor, and history lesson. Besides being a jazz great — Mingus’ entire works have been acquired by the Library of Congress — many of his pieces were inspired by the Civil Rights movement of his day.
“Most of his music is really interesting to listen to because it’s so well written,” said Dan Montgomery, a sophomore bassist. “It speaks to a lot of people.”
The evening will feature a 50th anniversary celebration of the great "Blues & Roots" recording released February 9, 1959, on Atlantic Records! Randy Brecker, who will perform in the Mingus Big Band's trumpet section, remembers buying this album for $3.98 at the local record store in Philadelphia when he was 13 years old, his first introduction to Mingus!
Trumpets - Randy Brecker - Kenny Rampton - Earl Gardner
Saxophone - Vincent Herring - Wayne Escoffery - Donny McCaslin - Abraham Burton - Jason Marshall
Trombones: - Ku-umba Frank Lacy - Andy Hunter - Earl McIntyre
Drums: Donald Edwards Bass: Boris Kozlov Piano: Orrin Evans
SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum. 116 East 27th between Park and Lex in NYC 212-576-2232. http://jazzstandard.com
Drop the needle on Charles Mingus' bluesy call to prayer on "Better Git It In Your Soul" and Legacy's decision to include Ah Um in its vinyl series comes into sharp focus. There's simply no better way to hear the 1959 Columbia masterpiece than on 12" vinyl and, while it may be hard to detect the business logic behind the series, the meticulous remastering by Allan Tucker makes clear the aesthetic motive.
Tufts University’s Granoff Music Center Presents
A Performance By Diane Richardson: Celebrating the music of Charles Mingus
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8:00 pm. FREE.
Contact: Sue Mingus Let My Children Hear Music http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/JazzEducation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Finalists announced for the First Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition
New York, NY – January 15, 2009 – Sue Mingus of Let My Children Hear Music and Justin DiCioccio of The Manhattan School of Music are pleased to announce the finalists in the First Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition.
The finalists (in alphabetical order) are:
BIG BAND CATEGORY
Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Howard Potter
Gates Chili High School Jazz Ensemble, Rochester, NY. Band Director: Christopher Oldfield
LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, Senior Jazz Band, New York, NY. Band Director: Kevin Blancq
Lexington High School Jazz Ensemble, Lexington, MA. Band Director, Jeffrey Leonard
Rivers Big Band, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
COMBO CATEGORY
Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Jazz Ensemble 3, Hartford, CT. Band Directors: Kris Allen and Jimmy Greene
King Phillip Regional High School Jazz Combo 1, Wrentham, MA. Band Directors: Peter Levesque and Peter Tileson
LaGuardia High School Jazz Quintet, New York, NY. Band Director: Kevin Blancq
Manhattan School of Music Precollege Combo, New York, NY. Band Director: Jeremy Manasia
The Rivers School, Rivers Select 1 Combo, Weston, MA. Band Director: Philippe Crettien
The Mingus High School Competition will take place on February 22, 2009, as the final event of the three-day Mingus Summit at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. All events are free and open to the public. Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Best Big Band, Best Combo, Outstanding Soloists, Outstanding Big Band Section, and Outstanding Combo Arrangement. We are also pleased to announce the surprise news that two scholarships to Manhattan School of Music will be awarded at the Competition.
Next year’s Competition will be open to high schools nationwide. Details will be announced soon in order to allow plenty of time in the spring and summer for preparation.
Our adjudicators were impressed by the high quality of the submissions and thrilled to hear Mingus music played with such heart and commitment. We are all very excited to see Mingus energy thriving and inspiring these young musicians.
Sue Mingus Justin DiCioccio
MINGUS SUMMIT AND HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, Feb 20, 2009 7:30pm-9pm MINGUS SUMMIT Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC Greenfield Hall Keynote Address by Gunther Schuller (Pulitzer Prize-winning Composer/Conductor). Panel Discussion moderated by Justin DiCioccio (Manhattan School of Music Jazz Director), with Schuller, Vincent Herring (saxophonist/educator), Conrad Herwig (trombonist/Professor Jazz Studies, Rutgers), Andy McKee (bassist/ Director Mingus Ensemble, New School University), and Sue Mingus (President of Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute, and creator of the Mingus repertory bands). Free and open to the public.
SATURDAY, Feb 21, 2009 7:30pm-9:30pm MINGUS SUMMIT Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC John C Borden Auditorium Performance by Manhattan School of Music Combo, featuring guest soloist and director Steve Slagle from the Mingus Big Band. Free and open to the public.
SUNDAY, Feb 22, 2009 10am-7pm MINGUS HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION Manhattan School of Music 122nd Street & Broadway, NYC John C Borden Auditorium Free and open to the public.
Adjudicators for the Competition: Conrad Herwig, Gunther Schuller, Boris Kozlov, Vincent Herring, Justin DiCioccio, and Donny McCaslin.
10am-11:30am COMBO COMPETITION – 3 bands 11:30am-11:45am SHORT BREAK 11:45am-12:45pm COMBO COMPETITION – 2 bands 12:45pm-2pm LUNCH BREAK 2pm-3:30pm BIG BAND COMPETITION – 3 bands 3:30pm-3:45pm SHORT BREAK 3:45pm-5pm BIG BAND COMPETITION – 2 bands
5pm PERFORMANCE by the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Justin DiCioccio.
5:30pm PERFORMANCE by Mingus Dynasty featuring Boris Kozlov (playing Charles Mingus’ lionhead bass), Vincent Herring, Conrad Herwig, Donny McCaslin, Justin Faulkner (high school drummer from Girard Academic Music Program in Philadelphia), Alex Sipiagin, and Helen Sung.
6pm-7pm AWARDS ceremony and goodbyes.
MONDAY, February 23 SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30 MINGUS DYNASTY Jazz Standard 116 East 27th btw Park & Lex New York, NY 212-576-2232 Alto/flute: Vincent Herring, Tenor Saxophone: Seamus Blake, Trumpet: Alex Sipiagin, Trombone: Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Bass: Boris Kozlov, Piano: David Kikoski, Drums: Jeff "Tain" Watts.
The year in local music and dance 2008: simply stunning
By Susan L. Peña Reading Eagle Correspondent
"1. The Mingus Big Band, presented by the Kutztown University Performing Artists Series, Jan. 30. It would be difficult to find a better band, and its devotion to performing the brilliant works of Charles Mingus makes it a national treasure."
Charles Mingus,
the unstoppable jazz bassist and composer, died in January 1979. So
this stand, teetering on the cusp of 30 Years Later, doubles as a
commemoration. But as with any Mingus tribute, the music — carried out
by the sturdiest of repertory groups, with guests like the trombonist
Ku-umba Frank Lacy and the trumpeter Randy Brecker — will foster
revelry. (Barbecue is likely to help on that front, too.)
At 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, ticketweb.com.
The first set is $125, including a three-course meal and gratuity; the
second is $195, including a three-course meal, gratuity and Champagne
toast."
"One of several bands entrusted with the daunting task of preserving Charles Mingus’s raucous, bighearted legacy, the ten-piece Mingus Orchestra has all the depth and muscle needed to render the master bassist-composer’s tempestuous fantasias."
Happy Holidays from the Mingus Bands
Thu, Dec. 25 2008
Click on image above or Youtube link below to view video greeting!
Holiday Greetings-Lineup for Mingus Dynasty Monday, Dec 15
Thu, Dec. 11 2008
Click on image above or Youtube link below to view video greeting!
Alto saxophone • Mark Gross Tenor Saxophone • Seamus Blake Trumpet • Sean Jones Trombone • Andy Hunter Bass • Boris Kozlov Piano • David Kikoski Drums • Jeff "Tain" Watts
SETS AT 7:30 & 9:30. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum. 116 East 27th between Park and Lex in NYC 212-576-2232. http://jazzstandard.com
NEW YEAR'S EVE December 31
MAKE IT A MINGUS NEW YEAR! Make plans now! MINGUS BIG BAND will be ringing in the New Year at Jazz Standard with this amazing lineup:
Trumpets: Randy Brecker, Kenny Rampton, Earl Gardner Saxophones: Vincent Herring, Wayne Escoffery, Abraham Burton, Doug Yates, Lauren Sevian Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Earl McIntyre Drums: Jeff "Tain" Watts Bass: Boris Kozlov Piano: David Kikoski
We
will be kicking off our year-long 50th anniversary celebration of
Mingus' legendary albums "MINGUS AH UM," "MINGUS DYNASTY," and "BLUES
AND ROOTS."
WBGO/NPR is also broadcasting the music nationwide
from 11pm to 12:15am so you can still join us even if you can't make it
to New York City.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. 116 East 27th between Park and Lex in NYC 212-576-2232. http://jazzstandard.com
TICKETS FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE ARE ON SALE NOW, AND AVAILABLE ONLY ON TICKETWEB
The December issue of Jazz Times has an article by Nat Hentoff in which he highlights recent Mingus activities that are expanding the cultural and educational impact of Mingus music throughout the world including the upcoming Mingus High School Competition, the publication of new charts, the Simply Mingus series, and the touring bands that frequently include clinics and workshops. He also issues a rallying cry to additional institutions to embrace the canon.
"....The combo played for three lunch periods while also recording tracks for a compact disc they will use to enter an upcoming Charles Mingus competition.
The students were so absorbed in their playing that when the third period finished, they thought they had only played for two.
A live audience helps their performance and a live audience with people who wanted to listen was even better. "You get a different vibe," said teacher Brian Messier. They wanted that energy captured on the recording.
The combo, which featured a trumpet, tenor saxophone, guitar, base guitar and drums, launched into the Mingus tunes "Better Get Hit in Your Soul" and "Pithecanthropus Erectus...."
Includes audio for "A Chair In The Sky" from "Mingus" (1979), an album that showcases Ms. Mitchell's experimental side as she collaborates with jazz great Charles Mingus
From Bill Kirchner:
"Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the "Jazz From The Archives" series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3).
Sy Johnson (b. 1930) is a Renaissance Man of jazz. He's a gifted arranger-composer, pianist, singer, writer, photographer, educator, and raconteur.
We'll hear examples of Johnson's arrangements for Charles Mingus, the Lee Konitz Nonet, and the current Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra.
The show will air this Sunday, November 23, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Standard Time.
NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wbgo.org. http://www.jazzsuite.com/"
"These
aren't just words from Charles Mingus. He didn't always manage to make
things simple, but one of the many amazing things about Mingus Ah Um
is that he took this incredibly challenging jazz, in perhaps its
creative heyday, and made it as easy as pop music. That's not to say
that he dummied it down. He didn't. He did exactly what he said, made
the the complicated awesomely simple. What that means is that it's as
easy as a pop record, but the ride is as fascinating and wild as
Mingus' later more "difficult" albums. Pop stars of the day, like
Sinatra or Nat King Cole, were pleasant, easy to digest artists while
guys like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were pushing the limits of
music as it was known at the time. Mingus Ah Um doesn't split
the difference between those two schools, but rather fully accomplishes
the goals of both, something that may not have happened again in
popular music until Revolver and Sgt. Pepper almost
a decade later. It set a standard for pop music to explore, to be
avant-garde, and rock music in particular owes a tremendous debt to
that spirit.
As great as Mingus Ah Um is, I've only
ever heard it on CD until now. Legacy Recordings has re-issued this
classic on 180 gram vinyl and it's like hearing the album for the first
time. Its already abundant warmth is warmer and the sound more natural.
If you own the CD, this is the perfect time to pick up the vinyl and really hear it the way it was meant to be heard."
"The Mingus Big Band, one of three rotating groups that makes up this weekly celebration of the music of Charles Mingus, cannot be contained on the intimate stage of the Jazz Standard, forcing some of their lead brass players into the audience. The 14-piece ensemble fills the room with loud and forceful melodies that swing so hard they erupt into inspired improv. It's a fitting tribute to the prolific avant-garde composer, and his widow, Sue, is often present to provide context to important works. The band has many friends — including the Late Show with David Letterman's Paul Shaffer who recently sat in on piano."
– Chris Kompanek
“Hommage à Nesuhi” (Rhino Handmade)—The late record executive Nesuhi Ertegün may not have possessed the celebrity of his younger brother, Ahmet, but his visionary production work for Atlantic Records with John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ray Charles, Hank Crawford, and others made him a behind-the-scenes legend. This five-disk tribute was the last project completed by Joel Dorn, the producer who followed Ertegün at Atlantic and who died late last year.
"If President-elect Barack Obama wants to make a bold cultural statement—one that resonates deeply with his autobiography and with the legacy of his adopted hometown, Chicago—there's a compelling way to do it:
Teach the White House to swing (again).
That's what President Jimmy Carter did in spring 1978, casting the unique brilliance of a presidential spotlight on a distinctly American art form. Carter convened a galaxy of jazz luminaries at the White House, to spectacular effect. Eubie Blake (at 95), Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Teddy Wilson, Max Roach, Louie Bellson and other giants performed jubilantly on the White House South Lawn, basking in the kind of official recognition jazz richly deserves but rarely receives. Anyone who follows jazz never will forget the sight of a wheelchair-bound Charles Mingus, a musical icon then and now, weeping openly as President Carter praised him at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave...."
Paul Shaffer from Late Show with David Letterman stopped by to hear the Mingus Big Band at the Jazz Standard on Monday night, November 10th, and found himself performing an entire set at the piano, instead! He soloed on a brand new arrangement of "New Now Know How" and swung magnificently on "Song with Orange." Here are some photos! (Below with trumpet player Lew Soloff.)
Obama fever has been bubbling up for months, of course, including in the largely progressive realms of jazz across the land and here in the jazz Mecca of N.Y.C. Buzzes of anticipation could be felt the night before in clubland here. Monday night is hardly an "off" night in New York: It is when big bands and special projects take up residencies, including the ongoing presence of official Mingus bands, most recently in the vibe-filled basement of the Jazz Standard. (While there, check out the savory BBQ from the host eatery, Smoke.) Great to know that Charles Mingus's unique songbook and spirit is alive and well in the city where his creative fire raged. During last Monday's set by the seven-piece Mingus Dynastyband—featuring tenor player Seamus Blake, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, Kuumba Frank Lacy, etc.—alto saxist Craig Handy greeted us with, "Welcome to the Jazz Standard, on the night before the world changes. Hopefully, when we go to Europe on tour, they won't throw tomatoes at us anymore." The band launched into one of Mingus's politically barbed chestnuts, "Fables of Faubus."
By Dean Christesen
The 2nd Annual Mingus Awareness Project in Richmond this evening seemed to be, to say the very least, an absolute success on all levels.
Thursday, December 4
Ken Schaphorst conducts NEC Jazz Orchestra: Music of Charles Mingus
Ken Schaphorst directs the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of music by Charles Mingus. Program will include many of Mingus's most beloved compositions, including Boogie Stop Shuffle, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Sue's Changes, Children’s Hour of Dream, and The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife are Some Jive-Ass Slippers.
The NEC Jazz Orchestra was named Best College Big Band in the 2004 Downbeat Student Music Awards, and performs original music and traditional big band repertoire under the direction of Ken Schaphorst and guest artists.
Free
NEC’s Jordan Hall
8pm
Mingus Orchestra at Jazz Standard tonight and tomorrow, Mingus Big Band all weekend
Wed, Oct. 8 2008
IT'S HERE! MINGUS AT JAZZ STANDARD in NYC.
Monday, October 6 MINGUS MONDAYS kicks off with a full week of Mingus, with all three bands and special guests.
Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an extra 11:30 set on Fridays and Saturdays. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum.
★ MINGUS DYNASTY AND ORCHESTRA (Monday through Thursday) After a long residency at Iridium, the Mingus repertory juggernaut has settled in at the Jazz Standard for a spell. Monday and Tuesday will feature the Mingus Dynasty, a seven-piece band that includes the saxophonists Craig Handy and Seamus Blake. On Wednesday and Thursday the Mingus Orchestra, an ensemble with some unusual timbres — like French horn, bass clarinet and bassoon — holds court. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25 and $30. (Chinen)
JAZZ STANDARD
116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232)—Charles Mingus’s widow, Sue Mingus, keeps the music of the master bassist alive with the Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band. They’ll be here on Mondays, with rotating weekly appearances. To settle in (they were in residence at Iridium in recent years), the groups are spending a few days at a time onstage. Last week belonged to the Mingus Dynasty. On Oct. 8-9, the Mingus Orchestra, which focusses on his compositions, takes over. Oct. 10-12: The Mingus Big Band is in the house. Oct. 13: Mingus Mondays get rolling in earnest with the Mingus Dynasty.
Trumpet: Alex Sipiagin Trombone: Conrad Herwig Tenor Sax: Wayne Escoffery Alto Sax: Vincent Herring
Mingus Big Band in LA Oct 3 & 4
Fri, Oct. 3 2008
Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4: MINGUS BIG BAND in L.A. as part of the celebrations for the new Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center in Watts. The band will be playing at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, and the Warner Grand in San Pedro. More info on the Tour page.
Trumpets: Greg Gisbert, Sean Jones, Lew Soloff Saxophones: Seamus Blake, Mark Gross, Jaleel Shaw, Jason Marshall, Scott Robinson Trombones: Clark Gayton, Conrad Herwig, Earl McIntyre Drums: Justin Faulkner Bass: Andy McKee Piano: Kenny Drew, Jr.
...In addition to the Watts Towers Drum and Jazz Festivals, there will be three major Jazz concerts focusing on the music of Charles Mingus. Two concerts, one at the Madrid Theater in the San Fernando Valley, and the other at the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro in the southern tip of the City, will feature the music of the Charles Mingus Big Band. The final concert is envisioned as a gala tribute and will take place at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in the Mid City/Leimert Park community. It will feature LA-based, nationally recognized musicians who played with, or were deeply influenced by, Mr. Mingus....
"It's hard to describe the sound of a 14-piece jazz orchestra playing the work of Charles Mingus … it was just sensational, the crowd went wild, and Marcus Johnson was also probably the best I've ever heard him."
MINGUS BIG BAND Sat, Sept 13 at Silver Springs, MD. October 3, 4 in L. A. & MINGUS MONDAYS at Jazz Standard
Trumpets: Tatum Greenblatt, Alex Sipiagin, Lew Soloff
Saxophones: Seamus Blake, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall, Scott Robinson, Jaleel Shaw Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Earl McIntyre
Drums: Donald Edwards Bass: Dwayne Burno
Piano: David Kikoski
Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4: MINGUS BIG BAND in L.A. as part of the celebrations for the new Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center in Watts. The band will be playing at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, and the Warner Grand in San Pedro. More info on the Tour page.
Trumpets: Greg Gisbert, Sean Jones, Lew Soloff Saxophones: Seamus Blake, Mark Gross, Jaleel Shaw, Jason Marshall, Scott Robinson Trombones: Clark Gayton, Conrad Herwig, Earl McIntyre Drums: Justin Faulkner Bass: Andy McKee Piano: Kenny Drew, Jr.
MINGUS MONDAYS kicks
off with a full week of Mingus October 6-13, with all three bands and
special guests, and then every Monday featuring alternating bands.
Mingus Dynasty, Orchestra & Big Band Establish A New Long-Term Residency At NYC’s Foremost Jazz Club
Outstanding Musicians From Across the Generations Fill the Ranks of Three Great Bands
Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an extra 11:30 set on Fridays and Saturdays. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum.
Come celebrate our new Jazz Standard residency starting Monday, October 6th.
"A new youth arts center in Watts run by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs will have its grand opening later this month during a weekend when two festivals will be happening. Named after the famous jazz musician and past local resident, the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center will expand space for youth arts programs. The new building, which is next to the Watts Towers Arts Center, will bring more classroom space expanding the department's educational classes that give children a safe and creative atmosphere for individual expression with guidance and direction from professional artists."
All that and a pork pie hat: Fifth annual Silver Spring Jazz Festival
by Chris Slattery
..."Sue Graham Mingus says the Mingus music is a perfect fit for a festival focused on young performers, local talent and community togetherness.
"This music has enormous energy," she says. "It really demands that individual musicians come in and play themselves, tell who they are. There are lots of open spaces."
The Mingus oeuvre of more than 300 compositions can be challenging, and rewarding, for musicians and listeners alike. The score of his orchestral masterpiece "Epitaph" is 500 pages, and there's a whole sub-genre known as "Simply Mingus" that's recommended for students. But Sue Graham Mingus wants her husband's legacy to include his sense of fun and wonder – and empathy.
"Charles appreciated the idea of risk and surprises," she says.
"That's what we associate with jazz. You take risks, and stumble sometimes, and recover. We thrive on the unpredictability and excitement."
PDF of This release Media Contact: Theresa Mullen, 646.747.7217, tmullen [at] ushgnyc.com
MINGUS MOVES! TO JAZZ STANDARD IN OCTOBER • ANNOUNCING MINGUS MONDAYS AT JAZZ STANDARD • MINGUS DYNASTY, ORCHESTRA & BIG BAND ESTABLISH A NEW LONG-TERM RESIDENCY AT NEW YORK’S FOREMOST JAZZ CLUB • OUTSTANDING MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS THE GENERATIONS FILL THE RANKS OF THREE GREAT BANDS
NEW YORK CITY/AUGUST 28 — Jazz Standard and Sue Mingus announced today a new home for the music of legendary jazz composer/bassist/band leader Charles Mingus. Beginning with a gala week of performances in October, the Mingus organization will begin its long-term residency at Jazz Standard with alternating weekly appearances by Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band. Monday nights at Jazz Standard, beginning October 6, 2008, will be known as “Mingus Mondays”.
The new extended engagement kicks off October 6-7 with performances by Mingus Dynasty – the original Charles Mingus legacy group, formed by Sue Mingus from among his most valuable sidemen shortly after their leader’s death in 1979. Although lineups are still being confirmed at press time, recent editions of Mingus Dynasty have included saxophonists Craig Handy, Seamus Blake, and Jaleel Shaw; trombonists Conrad Herwig and Ku-umba Frank Lacy; and pianists Orrin Evans and David Kikoski, with the redoubtable Boris Kozlov (bass) and Adam Cruz (drums) holding down the rhythm section.
The excitement continues October 8-9 with the Mingus Orchestra. Sue Mingus assembled the Mingus Orchestra in 1999 to focus on Charles Mingus’ compositions, with less emphasis on extended soloing. The Orchestra’s distinctive sound emerges from an expanded repertoire and a diverse instrumentation that may include bassoon, bass clarinet, French horn, and guitar. From October 10-12, the Mingus Big Band will hold forth at Jazz Standard. Writing in The New York Times, Jon Pareles hailed the Big Band for having “revived Charles Mingus’ repertory and the brawling, muscular, hard-swinging, bluesy way he wanted it played.”
"We are delighted and honored to have Jazz Standard chosen by Sue Mingus as the new home for this timeless music,” said Seth Abramson, artistic director for Jazz Standard. “The genius of Charles Mingus’ compositions and arrangements is matched by the talent and enthusiasm of the players in each of these three outstanding bands.”
Trumpets: Tatum Greenblatt, Kenny Rampton, Lew Soloff
Saxophone: Seamus Blake, Abraham Burton, Mark Gross, Jason Marshall,
Donny McCaslin Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Earl McIntyre
Drums: Donald Edwards Bass: Dwayne Burno
Piano: Helen Sung
2 sets 8:30 and 10:30
This is the final night of the Mingus residency at Iridium. We thank you for supporting a great four-year run!
Sue Mingus announces, next month: MINGUS MONDAYS AT JAZZ STANDARD!
MINGUS MONDAYS kicks
off with a full week of Mingus October 6-13, with all three bands and
special guests, and then every Monday featuring alternating bands. Mingus Dynasty, Orchestra & Big Band Establish A New Long-Term Residency At NYC’s Foremost Jazz Club Outstanding Musicians From Across the Generations Fill the Ranks of Three Great Bands
Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an extra 11:30 set on Fridays and Saturdays. Doors open an hour prior.
Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum.
Please join us for our final night at Iridium Tuesday, September 2nd. Come celebrate our new Jazz Standard residency starting Monday, October 6th.
"mingus is an advanced music theory and notation package for Python. It can be used to play around with music theory, to build editors, educational tools and other applications that need to process music. It can also be used to create sheet music with LilyPond."
Saturday, August 16, 2008 Gibson Baldwin Jazz Fest at Whole Food on Bowery. 5:30pm Sue Mingus will sign copies of her book Tonight at Noon while Mingus Epitaph and Orchestra member Jack Wilkins performs with Carl Barry. 95 East Houston St. FREE.
Tuesday, August
19th, 2008 8:30
and 10:30Mingus Dynasty
at Iridium. 51st and B'way. Alto saxophone Mark Gross Tenor Saxophone Wayne Escoffery Trumpet Kenny Rampton Trombone Conrad Herwig Bass Ugonna Okegwo Piano Orrin Evans Drums Donald Edwards
Tuesday, August
12th, 20088:30
and 10:30 Mingus
Dynasty at Iridium. 51st and B'way.
Alto saxophone Jaleel Shaw
Tenor Saxophone Wayne Escoffery
Trumpet Alex Sipiagin
Trombone Andy Hunter
Bass Boris Kozlov
Piano Helen Sung
Drums Donald Edwards
Tuesday, August
19th, 2008 8:30
and 10:30Mingus Dynasty
at Iridium. 51st and B'way. Alto saxophone Mark Gross Tenor Saxophone Wayne Escoffery Trumpet Kenny Rampton Trombone Conrad Herwig Bass Ugonna Okegwo Piano Orrin Evans Drums Donald Edwards
...while none of the participants had played with the master, they delivered his 1950s-through-1970s works with the kind of verve, spark and precision that he demanded, and that anyone who had heard him live would recognize, and regale in....
....Jazz legend Charles Mingus abandoned his monumental masterpiece, "Epitaph," after one aborted performance. But the rediscovered score has been completed and performed by new generations. National Public Radio is streaming the full, 2½-hour piece for 31 musicians, plus an hourlong special and background story, free at www.npr.org/music. Also new there this week is a 2½-hour concert from Tom Waits' "Glitter & Doom" summer tour.
Mingus Orchestra at Washington Square Park NYC and Dynasty at Iridium Tues 7/29/08
Mon, Jul. 28 2008
LIVE MINGUS PERFORMANCES:
Tuesday, July 29, 8 pm Charles Mingus Orchestraat Washington Square Park in NYC. FREE! Lineup Craig Handy, alto saxophone/clarinet/flute/soprano sax Donny McCaslin, tenor saxophone/soprano sax Conrad Herwig, trombone Kenny Rampton, trumpet Donald Edwards, drums Boris Kozlov, bass Janet Grice, bassoon John Clark, French horn David Gilmore, guitar Doug Yates, bass clarinet
Also Tuesday, July 29 Mingus Dynasty will be playing at Iridium
(51st and B'way) in New York City
Alto saxophone Mark Gross
Tenor Saxophone Wayne Escoffery
Trumpet Tatum Greenblatt
Trombone Andy Hunter
Bass Dwayne Burno
Piano Helen Sung
Drums Quincy Davis
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced
for students both sets.
Tuesday,
July 15 Mingus
Dynasty at Iridium
(51st and B'way) in New York City Lineup Trumpet: Alex Sipiagan
Alto Saxophone: Craig Handy Tenor Saxophone: Brandon Wright Trombones: Andy Hunter
Drums: Adam Cruz
Bass: Brad Jones
Piano: David Kikoski TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced
for students both sets.
Tuesday, July 29, 8 pm Washington Square Park Charles Mingus Orchestra in NYC. FREE! Lineup Craig Handy, alto saxophone/clarinet/flute/soprano sax Donny McCaslin, tenor saxophone/soprano sax Conrad Herwig, trombone Kenny Rampton, trumpet Donald Edwards, drums Boris Kozlov, bass Janet Grice, bassoon Bobby Rouch, French horn David Gilmore, guitar Doug Yates, bass clarinet
JOHN HANDY QUINTET (Friday through Sunday)
From NYT:
"Best known for his work with Charles Mingus and Randy Weston in the late 1950s, John Handy is still a musician of flexible means; here he plays alto saxophone, clarinet, oboe and saxello. Craig Handy (not related) joins him on tenor saxophone; their top-flight rhythm section consists of Helen Sung on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 set Friday and Saturday, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $30; $25 on Sunday."
Line-ups: Dynasty at Iridium 7/8/08 and Orchestra in Washington Square Park 7/29/08
Lineup Trumpet: Kenny Rampton
Alto Saxophone: Tia Fuller Tenor Saxophone: Wayne Escoffery Trombones: Jonathan Arons
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: David Kikoski
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced
for students both sets.
Tuesday, July 29, 8 pm Washington Square Park Charles Mingus Orchestra in NYC. FREE! Lineup Craig Handy, alto saxophone/clarinet/flute/soprano sax Donny McCaslin, tenor saxophone/soprano sax Conrad Herwig, trombone Kenny Rampton, trumpet Donald Edwards, drums Boris Kozlov, bass Janet Grice, bassoon Bobby Rouch, French horn David Gilmore, guitar Doug Yates, bass clarinet
Dynasty lineup 6/24/08, Cornell wins Jazz Journalists Assn Award
Lineup Trumpet: Alex Sipiagin
Alto Saxophone: Craig Handy
Tenor Saxophone: Abraham Burton Trombones: Ku-umba Frank Lacy
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: Helen Sung
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced
for students both sets.
Shadows. 1959. USA. Written and directed by John Cassavetes. Music by Shafi Hadi, Charles Mingus. With Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd. Cassavetes's vital, poignant, and humorous story of interracial romance and "passing"—often hailed as an American counterpart to Godard's Breathless (also 1959)—shattered cinematic conventions with its improvisational acting, jumpy editing, and handheld camerawork in the streets, coffee shops, late-night parties, and sculpture gardens of New York City. 87 min.
Friday, July 4, 2008, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Sunday, July 6, 2008, 2:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Mingus Big Band 6/10 and 6/17 at Iridium, 6/18 at Clifford Brown Festival
Mon, Jun. 9 2008
Mingus
music heats up in the summertime! Some old favorites rejoin the mix, and this
Tuesday we have both Strickland brothers in the band at the same time! Plus, for the next few weeks at Iridium we'll be preparing for the Clifford Brown festival, so we'll be featuring some material from Epitaph, and a Clifford Brown tune the band will perform in his honor.
PERFORMANCE DATES:
Tuesday,
June 10 Mingus
Big Band at
Iridium
(51st and B'way) in New York City
Lineup Trumpets: Alex Sipiagin, Earl Gardner, Kenny Rampton
Saxophone: Marcus Strickland, Mark Gross, Donny McCaslin, Abraham
Burton, Lauren Sevian
Trombones: Conrad Herwig , Clark Gayton, Earl McIntyre
Drums: E.J. Strickland
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: Bruce Barth
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced for students both sets.
Tuesday,
June 17
Mingus Big Band at
Iridium
(51st and B'way) in New York City
Lineup Trumpets: Jack Walrath, Earl Gardner, Tatum Greenblatt
Saxophone: Wayne Escoffery, Craig Handy, Donny McCaslin, Abraham Burton,
Lauren Sevian
Trombones: Clark Gayton, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Dave Taylor
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Joe Martin
Piano: Orrin Evans
TWO
SETS 8:30 AND 10:30.
$25/half-priced for students both sets.
Wednesday,
June 18 The Mingus Big Band performs at the FREE Clifford
Brown Jazz Festival at Rodney Square
in Wilmington, DE.
Lineup
Trumpets: Greg Gisbert, Earl Gardner, Alex
Sipiagin
Saxophones: Wayne Escoffery, Craig Handy,
Seamus Blake, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall
Trombones: Clark Gayton, Ku-umba Frank Lacy,
Earl McIntyre
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: Orrin Evans
Tuesday, June 3 Mingus Dynasty at Iridium (51st and B'way) in New York City
Lineup Alto saxophone - Craig Handy, Tenor Saxophone - Donny McCaslin, Trumpet - Kenny Rampton, Trombone - Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Bass - Boris Kozlov, Piano - Helen Sung, Drums - Donald Edwards
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced for students both sets.
Wednesday,
June 18 The Mingus Big Band performs at the FREE Clifford Brown Jazz Festival at Rodney Square in Wilmington, DE.
Lineup Trumpets: Greg Gisbert, Earl Gardner, Alex Sipiagin
Saxophones: Wayne Escoffery, Craig Handy, Seamus Blake, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall
Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Earl McIntyre
Drums: Donald Edwards
Bass: Boris Kozlov
Piano: Orrin Evans
52. Charles Mingus, “Mingus at the Bohemia (Debut, 1955).
53. Charles Mingus, “Mingus Ah Um” (Columbia, 1959).
54. Charles Mingus Sextet, “Cornell 1964” (Blue Note, 2007).
Dynasty line-up for Iridium and Barack Obama Fundraiser.
Tue, May. 20 2008
Mingus Dynasty Tonight, May 20 at Iridium in New York City Lineup:
Alto saxophone · Craig Handy, Tenor Saxophone · Seamus Blake, Trumpet ·
Kenny Rampton, Trombone · Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Bass · Boris Kozlov,
Piano · David Kikoski, Drums · Adam Cruz TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30.
Wednesday, May 21 The Mingus Dynasty was asked to perform at a swanky fundraiser for Barack Obama
at the brand new HUDSON TERRACE 621 W. 46th at 11th Ave. Event is from 7-11pm, Dynasty plays at 9pm (Also on the bill before the Dynasty, the Ahn Trio, and Hilary McRae.)Tickets are available here. Lineup: Wayne Escoffery, Tatum Greenblatt, Jaleel Shaw, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Boris Kozlov, Helen Sung, and E.J. Strickland.
Tuesday, May 27 at Iridium in New York City Lineup: Mark Gross, Wayne Escoffery, Kenny Rampton, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Boris Kozlov, David Kikoski, Donald Edwards. TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30.
Reissue of the Year
* Cornell 1964, Charles Mingus Sextet (Blue Note)
Large Ensemble of the Year (9+ pieces)
* Mingus Big Band
The Awards will be celebrated Wednesday, June 18, at a cocktail reception 3 to 6 pm at the Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St., NYC).
Finalists, honored for excellence in jazz and jazz journalism, will be voted upon by professional members of the JJA toward selection of a representative recipient (aka “winner").
TUES, APRIL 22 MINGUS BIRTHDAY As testament to to power of Mingus music to attract the greatest musicians playing today, two outstanding Mingus Big Bands are both celebrating Mingus birthday on April 22nd, coast to coast.
IN NEW YORK: April 22 Mingus Birthday Celebration at Iridium in New York City Lineup: Trumpets: Lew Soloff, Earl Gardner, Kenny Rampton Saxophone: Marcus Strickland, Jaleel Shaw, Vincent Herring, Scott Robinson, Ronnie Cuber Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Clark Gayton, Dave Taylor Drums: Gene Jackson Bass: Boris Kozlov Piano: George Colligan TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. MAKE RESERVATIONS AT IRIDIUM 212-582-2121. Preceded by a performance by the Yale Jazz Ensemble at 6:30 pm, no cover. IN SF April 22-April 27 Mingus Big Band at Yoshi's in San Francisco and Oakland Lineup: Trumpet: Alex Sipiagin, Vitaly Golovnev, Greg Gisbert Saxophone: Craig Handy, Wayne Escoffery, Mark Gross, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall Trombones: Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Andy Hunter, Earl McIntyre Drums: Donald Edwards Bass: Ugonna Okegwo Piano: Kenny Drew Jr.
Worldwide web and radio: WKCR will host its annual 24-hour Mingus RADIO broadcast
And Sirius
celebrates the birth of Charles Mingus with music curated by his widow
Sue Mingus. Every hour, throughout the day, listeners will hear a
Mingus tune and Sue Mingus will explain the significance of each one. Tuesday, April 22, starting at 6 am to 12 midnight ET.
A jazz festival will be held over two weekends in Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico in a joint effort to honor the late Charles Mingus. Mingus, who played and composed for most of the jazz greats, was born in Nogales, Ariz., and died in Mexico, and this is the second time the two communities, known collectively as Ambos Nogales, have worked together to hold a jazz festival in Mingus’s honor.
By Andrea Canter
Mingus Big Band Birthday Celebration, Coast to Coast on April 22nd
Every Tuesday night, one of the Mingus legacy bands takes over the bandstand at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan to celebrate and promote the music of legendary bassist Charles Mingus. On April 22nd, the Mingus Big Band further honors the 86th birthday of a man of divergent, often controversial tastes and a singular mission to create music. The celebration will not be limited to the Iridium, however, as a second edition of the Mingus Big Band will perform at Yoshi’s in San Francisco as well on April 22nd, then move to across the Bay to Oakland, April 24-27. Additional Mingus celebrations will be broadcast on Radio WKCR and Sirius.
The Yale Jazz Ensemble, led by Music Director David M. Brandenburg, will open for the Mingus Big Band on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, Charles Mingus' birthday, at 6:30 pm at the Iridium Jazz Club (1650 Broadway at 51st Street).
The Ensemble will be joined by special guest Niko Higgins, saxophone. There is a $10 minimum with no cover charge. (There is an additional charge to stay for the Mingus Big Band.) Call (212) 582-2121 or visit iridiumjazzclub.com for more information.
Founded in 1991, the Mingus Big Band performs the music of legendary composer and bassist Charles Mingus. Under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, the group tours widely in the United States and abroad, and has recorded nine albums, six of which have been nominated for GRAMMY Awards. Since 2004, the Mingus Big Band has performed every Tuesday night at the Iridium Jazz Club, which has been hailed by New York Magazine as “New York's Best Jazz Club".
Niko Higgins is a saxophonist and composer who lives in New York City where he leads the Niko Higgins Ensemble. His two albums, “Inbetween" (2003) and “From Eye to Ear" (2006), are released by Engine Studios.
The Yale Jazz Ensemble (YJE) is an eighteen-piece big band that performs a wide variety of music, from Yale's Benny Goodman archive to the newest and most progressive jazz compositions. The Ensemble has performed extensively in the United States and internationally at such venues as New York's Village Vanguard and London's Ronnie Scott's. The YJE has performed with or opened for The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jimmy Owens, and Branford Marsalis.
Mingus Birthday events April 22, 2008
Tue, Apr. 8 2008
Two Mingus Big Bands play coast to cost.
Also,
WKCR hosts its annual 24-hour Mingus broadcast
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr/
Sirius celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month Mingus on Mingus Sirius celebrates the birth of Charles Mingus with music curated by his widow Sue Mingus. Every hour, throughout the day, listeners will hear a Mingus tune and Sue Mingus will explain the significance of each one. Tuesday, April 22, starting at 6 am to 12 midnight ET.
The New York Canon: Books From Norman Mailer to Rem Koolhaas, 26 works of lapidary New Yorkitude. By Sam Anderson
CHARLES MINGUS, BENEATH THE UNDERDOG, 1971
Charles Mingus was categorically uncategorizable: white, black, Asian; bassist, bandleader, composer; L.A., New York. He always insisted that his music was not jazz: It was Mingus music. This whacked-out half-fictional memoir (cf. his early experiences as a pimp) is not autobiography: It’s Mingus writing. It makes today’s fictioneering memoirists look like stenographers, and vacuum-seals the mid-century scene’s flavor more potently than mere fact ever could.
Trumpets: Alex Sipiagin, Tatum Greenblatt, Kenny Rampton
Saxophone: Wayne Escoffery, Steve Slagle, Mark Gross, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall
Trombones: Conrad Herwig, Andy Hunter, Earl McIntyre
Drums: Gene Jackson
Bass: John Benitez
Piano: Orrin Evans
Friday, April 11, 2008, 2:00 - 3:45
Abstract:
"Mingus, Cassavetes, and the Politics of Improv"
“Jazz is orgasm, it is the music of orgasm, good orgasm and bad, and so it spoke across a nation… it spoke in no matter what laundered popular way of instantaneous existential states to which some whites could respond, it was indeed a communication of art because it said, ’I feel this, and now you do too.’” -- Norman Mailer, “The White Negro”
Norman Mailer’s remarks in his controversial 1957 essay speak to a collision and melding of the races in popular culture that we still witness today. Yet nowhere are Mailer’s themes embodied more fully than in John Cassavetes’ seminal independent film of the same year, Shadows, which featured an original score by Charles Mingus. This lecture examines the complex and explosive collaboration of Cassavetes and Mingus, two of the United States’ leading improvisational artists, at a pivotal moment in the history of independent cinema, jazz, and race relations.
Through an integration of film clips, texts, and still photographs, this presentation examines connections between the film’s loose narrative—of three mixed-race siblings living day-to-day in mid-50s New York bohemia--and the film’s revolutionary making, which in many ways inverted the plot. In Mingus’s score, which Cassavetes edited severely, one finds the truest expression of the film’s exploration of cultural identity. The score encapsulates Cassavetes’ 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 in turn, the underbelly of race relations in 1950s America.
Two sets at 8:30 and 10:30
at Iridium, 51st and Broadway.
Alto Saxophone
Mark Gross Tenor Saxophone
Donny McCaslin
Trumpet
Ryan Kisor Trombone
Andy Hunter
Bass
Boris Kozlov
Piano
George Colligan
Drums
Gene Jackson
Mingus and Monk
Show #2526
Explore the music Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk, New Sounds-style. From Cuban percussionist Anga to the Massachusetts big band Either/Orchestra, from ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers to avant-garde composer George Crumb, the echoes of Monk and Mingus can be heard in a wide variety of new settings. We'll sample a few of the more unusual renditions of their classic tunes for this New Sounds program.
...Kozak said he didn't think there has been much of a focus on Mingus at the University.
"I've always admired his music," Kozak said. "It's a great opportunity for students to see what Mingus was about."
Kozak also said Mingus' music is important because students who want to be diverse jazz musicians need to be willing to understand and play all types of genres.
Kozak said he was proud of the Jazz Ensemble and, "They did a fantastic job. I'm super happy."
Some students who attended the concert said they enjoyed Mingus' music.
"The soloists were really fun and energetic. They make you excited to be there. You can tell they're having fun," said Meredith Reaves, a sophomore majoring in music education.
"I liked the selection of music. He's a great composer," said Margaret Dixon, a junior majoring in music performance.
...Simply put, the Mingus Big Band is a wonder and an anomaly. During a time when the few surviving big bands, like the Count Basie Orchestra and Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, tour the world like beautiful museum treasures, the Mingus Band has taken a musical legacy and transformed it into a creative force that generates a contemporary originality and vitality all its own. They are an important part of the current jazz scene and a constant reminder that jazz—big band jazz, at that—is not merely entertainment but a powerful art form and means of expression. Kudos to this band, to Sue Mingus, and to the extraordinary and tragic man whose spirit pervades it all—the late, great Charles Mingus.
...It takes a certain musician to play the demanding, eccentric works of Mingus, the late jazz bassist and composer. The Mingus Big Band, under the offstage direction of Sue Mingus, Charles' widow, has 14 such musicians, all world class, spanning several generations. It is perhaps the most racially integrated large ensemble operating today.
The group's weekly gig at Iridium in New York has given it an extraordinary solidity and sense of daring. Heavy snow couldn't keep the Philly audience away."
...the Mingus group, with its unstoppable rhythm section in bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards, set the evening's agenda.
Philly pianist Orrin Evans landed improvisatory bull's-eyes on the opening "Haitian Fight Song" and the closing "Pedal Point Blues." Alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, a Philly-born rising star, followed the formidable trombonist Conrad Herwig on "Ysabel's Table Dance," steering the piece into choppier waters.
"Children's Hour of Dream," a movement from the through-composed epic Epitaph, offered a window into Mingus' Third Stream writing, nearly classical in character.
Fri, Feb 22 Kimmel Center Philadelphia, PA
Arrive early for a pre-show artist chat with Sue Mingus at 6:30pm in the Merck Arts Education Center in Philadelphia. Sat, Feb 23 Elmhurst College Jazz Festival Elmhurst, IL
Trumpets: Lew Soloff, Kenny Rampton, Earl Gardner in PA, Alex Sipiagin in IL
Saxophones: Seamus Blake, Craig Handy, Jaleel Shaw, Vincent Herring, Jason Marshall Trombones: Andy Hunter, Conrad Herwig, Earl McIntyre Drums: Donald Edwards Bass: Boris Kozlov Piano: Orrin Evans
MINGUS BIG BAND performs
Sat, Mar 8 & Sun, Mar 9 Carnaval Miami in Coral Gables, FL
THE LYRIC CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF NEW YORK PRESENTS ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF MUSIC: PROGRAMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
FEBRUARY 27, 2008 7.30pm Kosciuscko Foundation
AUSTRIA AND BEYOND
David Taylor and Friends
"To the Distant Beloved"
A Journey from Schubert to Mingus
DAVID TAYLOR, Bass Trombone
ADAM HOLZMAN AND MICHAEL HOLOBER, Piano and Keyboards
BELLE EHRESMANN, Beat Box
On February 27, 2008, the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York is pleased to present bass trombone virtuoso David Taylor and Friends in a special autobiographical concert entitled "To the Distant Beloved." The program, another of the Lyric's special CHAMZZ offerings, follows Taylor's musical explorations from Brooklyn to Vienna in a unique blend of jazz and classical repertoire.
The musical range of award-winning musician David Taylor extends from Bachian piety to Yiddish irony, from the idealism of Charles Ives to the hipster nihilism of Lenny Bruce. Inspired by his travels, and his exploration of jazz while at Juilliard, Taylor's music represents the spirit of improvisation and risk as opposed to conservatory notions of perfection.
The program will showcase the unique sounds of the relatively unknown bass trombone, which Taylor calls a "darkly sparkling instrument." Taylor has put together a suite of Schubert songs and French music by Ravel, Milhaud, and others. He has also developed a suite combining the music of the Vienna Secession, such as Berg and Schoenberg, with the jazz of Mingus and Carla Brey. Called "A Belle E Golden Hue," it celebrates his parents' devoted marriage of sixty years.
Taylor will be joined by Adam Holzman and Michael Holober on piano and keyboards, and Belle Ehresmann on beat box.
In this, as in all concerts at the Lyric, the musicians will speak about the history and background of the music during the evening. And also, as always, a light reception with the artists will follow the concert.
Reception with artists following concert
included in ticket price $45
Student Tickets $15
For tickets call Ticket Central:
(212) 279-4200
The Lyric Chamber Music Society of NY | 20 West 64th Street, Suite 27H | New York | NY | 10023
Jean Shepherd as master of ceremonies...
...Among the highlights of the evening will be a new composition by bass virtuoso Charlie Mingus called “Tia Juana Table Dance.” An authentic Flamenco dancer will accompany the number, which is based on Spanish Flamenco and jazz rhythms. Critic Barry Ulanov said of Mingus “Here is a man who thinks and feels with unending resources both of musical technique and imagination. In other words, an artist.”
Happy Birthday, John Handy!
"In Part 2 of our interview with alto saxophonist John Handy, he discusses a unique aspect of his sound, the origins of Charles Mingus’ Lester Young tribute “Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” the night Mingus made a scene listening to him play, the Mingus gig that resulted in the live album Jazz Portraits."
MINGUS BIG BAND AND ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY GUNTHER SCHULLER Damrosch Park, August 26th
Charles Mingus named "Musician of the Year"
and
Unearthed gem: Mingus at Cornell
Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 (Blue Note). The clear winner is this live two-disc concert from long-lost tapes of Mingus' most boisterous band in its merriest mood. Regarded as a run-through of the (now-legendary) Town Hall concert a few weeks hence, and the European tour that followed, the session has its wayward moments, but it's jammed with zest and virtuosity. It starts with a head-spinning Jaki Byard piano solo on "Play MediaATFW You" (the initials standing for Art Tatum/Fats Waller), segues to Mingus plucking a soulful bass solo on "Sophisticated Lady," then moves into a string of original tunes—Mingus classics ("Play MediaFaubus Fables," "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk," "So Long, Eric"), some of them played for the first time in public here. Horn solos by Play MediaEric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, and Johnny Coles sizzle throughout. Drummer Danny Richmond plays near his peak, too. The discs aren't as revelatory as Monk and Coltrane's unearthed Carnegie Hall tapes of 1957, which topped this list (and many others) in 2005, but they'll do. (Better still, in some ways, is the "Jazz Icons" DVD, Charles Mingus: Live in '64, which lets you watch this same band, playing the same music, much of it a bit more tightly, a few weeks later in Europe.)
Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: "Cornell 1964" (Blue Note). Newly discovered, this is sheer gold -- historic performances by one of the very finest ensembles Mingus ever led. Best of all, there is extraordinary playing -- on alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute -- from Dolphy, who died 12 weeks after the gig at age 36.
-DON HECKMAN
CHARLES MINGUS SEXTET WITH ERIC DOLPHY, CORNELL 1964 (Blue Note). This was, quite simply, one of the greatest aggregations of instrumental intensity ever to gather for one magical year. And this concert, which took place before the group's legendary (and, some might say, ill-fated) European tour, exhibits a high-spiritedness and keenness of interplay that exceeds even the recordings from that earlier tour.
Gene Seymour
CHARLES MINGUS SEXTET: ‘CORNELL 1964’ (Blue Note). A time capsule that reveals an irrepressible Mingus, on bass and vocals, propelling a short-lived band with both Eric Dolphy and Clifford Jordan on saxophones. Nothing, not even musty sound quality, can diminish the manic ebullience captured here.
NPR
Artist: Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy
Album: Cornell 1964
The recently unearthed concert by Charles Mingus’ group featuring Eric Dolphy is similarly relevatory – it’s a lusty blowing-session blast from an aggregate that ranks among Mingus’ best. Anchored by the unshakeable drummer Dannie Richmond, this sextet barrels through everything from early piano jazz to the stemwinding wheedles of the avant-garde to a seventeen-minute throwdown on Billy Strayhorn’s theme for the Ellington Orchestra, “Take the A Train.” Dolphy was at his most peak in 1964 – he recorded his classic Out To Lunch the same year – and this band, with Mingus interjecting constantly, keeps up with the saxophonist’s every crazy detour.
Charles Mingus Sextet, “Cornell 1964” (Blue Note)—It’s tough to go wrong when it comes to live recordings of the Mingus band, especially the incarnation that featured the resident geniuses Eric Dolphy and Jaki Byard, as well as the underappreciated Johnny Coles and Clifford Jordan. Still, this newly unearthed concert is notable for the ebullience of its often irascible leader.
-Steve Futterman
On this frequently brilliant and warmly recorded concert from March 18, 1964, Charles Mingus reasserts his intense genius. His bass playing, sprightly yet forceful, fast yet tempered, is a wonder to behold. Yet it’s almost impossible to take your attention off everyone else. Jaki Byard, perhaps the most underappreciated pianist in the history of jazz, plays with a flourishing grace that feels like dancing on water. Dannie Richmond’s drumming pays attention to ride, hi-hat, snare, tom, and kick with equal focus, and provides an equal level of striking and skittering. Then there’s Clifford Jordan and Johnny Coles, whose sax and tumpet, respectively, blow and bleat with a tendentious ease usually reserved for Coltrane and Miles. Never mind that they have to play next to Eric Dolphy, whose work on the bass clarinet and flute are mind-blowing. And never mind that nobody knew this concert was recorded, nor that anyone but the people there even knew it existed.
-Tal Rosenberg
"...And that's a part of what made the sextet so special-- it was a band full of distinctive instrumentalists who together made something on the borderline of magic. This set captures them at their finest, still caught in the adventure of learning, but sure enough to make every note count."
Newport Showcases The Many Sides Of Jazz
By CHUCK OBUCHOWSKI
"....One of the septet's most captivating soloists was young tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, a New Haven native and University of Hartford grad. The rising star also contributed significantly to a performance by The Mingus Orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller.
This unique salute focused on rarely performed Charles Mingus compositions with particularly complex structures. The Schuller's well-rehearsed 10-member orchestra not only brought these difficult charts to life but did so with such passion and conviction that this hour-long program became a musical highlight of Saturday's festival.
Bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz and hornist John Clark were among the outstanding soloists in the ensemble, and the unique instrumentation of the orchestra - which also included Jack Wilkins on guitar and Douglas Yates on bass clarinet - added to the beauty of these pieces.
Included in the orchestra's set were two pieces written by the bassist/bandleader while he was still a teenager, as well as "Todo Modo," Mingus' last extended composition, written in 1976 as a film score......"
★ CHARLES MINGUS ORCHESTRA (Tuesday) The must-have jazz release of the summer is “Cornell 1964” (Blue Note), a new recording of a short-lived Charles Mingus sextet that was discovered not long ago by the bassist’s widow, Sue Mingus. This fine repertory orchestra, another byproduct of Ms. Mingus’s vigilant stewardship, will perform at least one song from the recording in this free outdoor concert. At 8 p.m., Washington Square Park, southeast quadrant, Greenwich Village, (212) 252-3621, washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org; free. (Chinen)
Tijuana Moods Reissued
Tue, Jul. 10 2007
SONY's reissue of Tijuana Moods was reviewed in the July issue of Paste Magazine, page 95.
Larry Blumenfeld's review of "Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: Cornell 1964" appeared on the Reuters newswire today! CD release date is July 17, 2007.
Charles Mingus has been nominated as a finalist for a 2007 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award in the category of: Jazz Reissue Of The Year, Single CD for "Music Written for Monterey 1965 Not Heard: At UCLA 1965."
This CD was released on SueMingusMusic/Sunnyside Records in September of 2006 and made numerous critics "best of" lists.
Members of the JJA are currently voting on these nominees and others in 41 categories celebrating excellence in jazz music, production, presentation and print, broadcast and photographic journalism. For information on previous Jazz Awards, and to view complete list of this years nominees, go to
http://www.Jazzhouse.org website of the Jazz Journalists Association.
The 11th annual JJA Awards winners will be announced the last week of June.
FREE Summer Concerts in NYC
Tue, Jun. 5 2007
All three Mingus ensembles will perform free concerts in New York this summer:
Mingus Dynasty
Wednesday, June 27 at Madison Square Park
7:00 p.m.
Mingus Orchestra
Tuesday, July 31 at Washington Square Park
8:00 p.m.
The Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra conducted by Gunther Schuller
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Lincoln Center Out of Doors
8:00 p.m.
See you there!
Sue Mingus @ Brooklyn Public Library Thursday
Tue, Jun. 5 2007
The Brooklyn Public Library's (BPL) annual Summer Reading Program kicks off on Thursday, June 7 at Central Library with "A Jazzy Summer Reading" featuring readings of autobiographies. Musician and jazz composer Paquito D'Rivera reads from his autobiography, A Sax Life, and Sue Mingus, widow of legendary composer, bassist and bandleader, Charles Mingus, reads from her memoir, Tonight at Noon: A Love Story, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year.
Location: Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Second Floor Meeting Room. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
www.mingusmingusmingus.com
Review of Mingus Big Band at Bath:
"From the first unaccompanied notes of Lauren Sevian’s baritone saxophone it was clear that the Mingus Big Band was in powerful, energetic form, both as the highlight of this year’s Jazz Weekend at the Bath International Music Festival and at the midpoint of their current British tour.
Once Sevian’s growling sax established a crisp ostinato, the band roared in behind her, willing the audience to be swept along in the tide of its commitment to Charles Mingus’s music. His composition Moanin’ included an extended solo from Sevian, and also a brilliant trumpet outing for Ryan Kisor, with a repetitive choppy descending phrase that corkscrewed through the valves against the pounding rhythm of the band.
...
His closing trio piece, Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love, with Kozlov bowing high into the cello register, showed that the band is not all bombast and derring-do, but is also capable of the melancholy reflection that was also an integral part of Mingus’s musical world.
...
Excerpts from [Epitaph], notably Children’s Hour Dream, showing the range of Mingus’s writing, from Stravinsky-like voicings to jagged jazzy chording, were the most powerful pieces by what is currently the world’s most on-form jazz big band. If it is this good in concert, it’ll blow the roof off Ronnie Scott’s club when it winds up there tonight."
Though Charles Mingus long has been revered as a fearlessly iconoclastic musician, listeners cannot take his full measure until they've heard his "Epitaph."
....
To hear "Epitaph" in its entirety, in a single evening, is to re-evaluate Mingus' stature as composer and innovator.
For though Mingus remains justly admired for tunes such as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," the scale of his ambition and breadth of his achievement in "Epitaph" place him at the pinnacle of American composition. For starters, several movements in "Epitaph" are so daringly conceived and eloquently articulated that they stand on their own as brilliantly realized works.
The highlight of this Symphony Center jazz season occurred Friday evening: Charles Mingus' "Epitaph," played by a 31-piece band conducted by Gunther Schuller. Mingus intended this 2½-hour composition to be monumental, and it surely was. Its many contrary, simultaneous events approached Charles Ives' wildest creations, while its harmonic richness and variety of sonic effects approached Duke Ellington, and it included enough melodies to stuff several Mahler symphonies.
Yet "Epitaph" turns out to be a perfect title since it defines Mingus as an original synthesis of the past, present and future of music -- reaching out to the radical avant-garde with wandering dissonances worthy of Charles Ives; looking back to gospel, Jelly Roll Morton, Vernon Duke, bebop, Mingus's own greatest hits ("Better Get It In Your Soul"), and above all, Ellington. The screaming sonorities in the brass recall Stan Kenton and hardly anyone else in jazz, and Mingus took Ellington's use of plunger-mutes to new vistas of wild expression. There are solo opportunities for strangers to jazz like the oboe and bassoon (the latter wielded brilliantly by Michael Rabinowitz in "Wolverine Blues").
..."To me, regardless of what instrument he played, Mingus was one of the great jazz artists," McBride says. "And I'm going to have his music featured as long as I'm around to do anything about it."
For Schuller and Sue Mingus, the performances are a culmination of years of work and dedication.
"There's no telling how Charles would have done this, if he were here," says Mingus. "It would have been different, I'm sure. Probably different every night. He never looked back."
And that capacity for constant change and variation, believes Schuller, is part of the great, unpredictable beauty of "Epitaph" in performance.
"This work covers every possible kind of mood and character and expression that one can have in music," says Schuller. "It's a summary kind of work. And it reflects exactly the complexity of Mingus as a person. He was as gentle as a baby at times. At the other end of the spectrum, he could be as violent as a volcano. And it's all in 'Epitaph.' "
A composition that, as it turns out, might more accurately be titled "Legacy."
"This is one of the great pieces in the history of jazz," Schuller says. "Nobody else wrote a 19-movement piece lasting 2½ hours and ranging from simple blues to the most extravagantly complex Ivesian or Stravinksian kind of music. Not even Ellington did anything this ambitious."
Top live show
Charles Mingus’s Epitaph conducted by Gunther Schuller
Rose Theater; Wed 25
It seems bizarre to think of Charles Mingus as an unsung composer, but that’s precisely what he was in his lifetime. The bassist’s outsize ambitions were evident as early as the ’50s—see the extended work “Pithecanthropus Erectus”—but several of his more public career pitfalls are proof that imagining expansive music is one thing, getting it properly written down and performed is something else entirely. Epitaph, an epic score that didn’t premiere until a full decade after Mingus’s death in 1979, is a prime example: He’d shelved it after performing sections at the infamously messy (and recorded) Town Hall concert in 1962, but when Mingus’s widow, Sue, discovered the manuscript in the ’80s, she was astonished to find upwards of 500 pages.
Famed music scholar Gunther Schuller was given the task of streamlining Epitaph for consumption in 1989; he’s on hand again for the flagship concert in this week’s celebration of the 85th anniversary of Mingus’s birth. It’ll be interesting to compare sections with music performed by any one of the Mingus repertory groups at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola this week. The Mingus Dynasty (Sun 22), a septet, is closest to the classic bands that the bassist led in his lifetime, while the Mingus Orchestra (Thu 19) adds muted symphonic colors to the mix. The beefy, popular Mingus Big Band (Fri 20, Sat 21) has long been a nightlife institution. Schuller’s 30-piece ensemble will try to bring it all together. — K. Leander Williams
On April 27, composer/arranger/conductor Gunther Schuller will lead the New York-based Epitaph Orchestra through Mingus' most ambitious work, the 130-minute Epitaph. Assembled from notes and scores found after the composer's death in 1979, the piece, written for a 30-piece group, incorporates the many sides of Mingus, mixing sections of through-composed music with plenty of space for improvisation as well as familiar tunes, including Better Git It In Your Soul and Peggy's Blue Skylight.
Any concertgoers expecting two hours of stuffed-shirt, ``serious music'' will be disappointed, because the 18-part suite is filled with the boisterous, lively spirit and sense of freedom that imbued all of Mingus' music. The concert is also special because it is one of only four the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra is scheduled to perform this year.
Bill Cosby To Host Epitaph
Tue, Apr. 10 2007
Bill Cosby will host the New York premiere of Epitaph at Lincoln Center on April 25th. Cosby originally hosted Mingus's “comeback concert” at Carnegie Hall in 1972. (A recording, Charles Mingus & Friends in Concert, was made of the concert for 22 musicians). A life-long jazz fan and supporter, Cosby featured Mingus music in his series, "The Cosby Mysteries."
Mingus Birthday Broadcasts
Sunday, Apr. 22 2007
In honor of Charles Mingus's birthday - April 22 - jazz radio stations throughout the country are playing Mingus music. Check your local listings! Highlights include:
- WKCR (88.9FM) in New York: 24 hours of Mingus music, part of the station's Birthday Broadcast tradition. 12AM through 12PM. Primarily hosted by Phil Schaap. - Sirius Satellite Radio: Pure Jazz (Channel 72)celebrates the birth of Mingus with a day of music curated by Sue Mingus. Every hour Sirius will play a Mingus tune chosen by Sue, who will discuss each one. Starting at 10AM EST.
- XM Satellite Radio: Real Jazz (Channel XM 70) plays Mingus music every other hour from 8AM to 8PM EST
Mingus Dynasty Tonight-March 22-at the Cutting Room NYC. $15
The Cutting Room 19 West 24th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue on the north side of the street.
Two sets 9 & 11.
With:
Orrin Evans, Alex Sipiagin, Wayne Escoffrey, Andy Hunter, Boris Kozlov, Johnathan Blake, Craig Handy
In the March issue of Bon Appetit columnist Eric Steinman includes Mingus's Atlantic box set, Passions of a Man in his playlist of "music to cook by." The box set, which runs a total of five hours, 27 minutes, is best, writes Steinman, for braising meat.
"Braising meat is all about the subtle manipulation of heat and time. This boxed set is a library of captivating jazz masterpieces to play throughout the day."
The list, which also includes Bob Dylan, Kronos Quartet and Missy Elliot, can be viewed at http://www.epicurious.com/bonappetit/features/music_playlist
"Charles Mingus’s legacy is in fantastic shape thanks to the Mingus Big Band, a ghost orchestra that continues to remind audiences how much his robust music picked up speed when he arrived from the West Coast in the mid-’50s."
Mingus music opens VU fest
February 14, 2007
By DIANE KRIEGER SPIVAK Post-Tribune
Known to many as the best jazz orchestra in the world, the Mingus Big Band will headline the 22nd annual Valparaiso University Jazz Fest this spring.
The band, which highlights the work of musician and composer Charles Mingus, will culminate the week-long festival with performances at 7 and 9:30 p.m. April 14.
Music Written For Monterey 1965 Not Heard...
Played In Its Entirety At UCLA
2 CD Set / SSC3041
Released 40 years ago but unavailable on CD until
today, the title immediately announces the trials and tribulations that
led to this extraordinary concert, summing up its original intent "music
written for Monterey"), the failure of that event ("not played') and the
triumphant closing chapter ("performed at UCLA') which premiered a
large body of compositions Mingus had been working on all year for the
Monterey Jazz Festival, that found its true audience at a college concert
the following week.
Thirty years ago, in late December, 1976, Charles
Mingus performed a series of concerts in Tokyo with his quintet. In 2005,
also in December, another Mingus band rounded out a week at Tokyo's
famous Blue Note Club with a live recording on New Year's Eve. Trumpet
player Jack Walrath was on hand for borth events, linking past and
present. The current 14-piece ensemble, the Mingus Big Band, is the legacy group that carries Mingus's
voice into the future.
"Rewarding genuine rarity over lavish repackaging, the Circle voted Charles Mingus's unruly but worth-it Live at UCLA (CME/Sunnyside) the year's best reissue."
27 years ago today, at the age of 56, Charles Mingus passed away in Cuernevaca, Mexico. Not far away, "fifty-six sperm whales swam through the shallow coastal water of Baja in northwest Mexico, landed like a monstrous tidal wave, and perished on the beach....The following day, Mingus and the whales were consumed by fire: Mingus inside a crematorium on the outskirts of Mexico City and the whales in funeral pyres along the coast." (from Tonight at Noon by Sue Mingus)
New York, NY: On New Year's Eve The Mingus Dynasty with special guest vocalist Renee Manning will perform at one of New York's finest restaurants, Per Se, in the Time Warner Building overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park. For reservations, please call 212-823-9335.
JazzUkes, of Ukulele Noir, plays Goodbye Pork Pie Hat on Ukulele
Take the giant steps: Hitting a jazz club makes New York sound memorable
By David French, Globe Correspondent | December 10, 2006
Tuesdays here are perhaps the best regular night of jazz in New York. The Mingus Big Band rocks the house with Charles Mingus's uproarious, soulful, swinging compositions. Iridium is near Times Square, a short walk from many midtown hotels, and books some of the best musicians in the world.
Big Friendly Jazz Orchestra (Takasago High School Jazz Band), played Mingus at Japan Student Jazz Festival 2006.
Last week at Merkin Hall, the Mingus Orchestra with Gunther Schuller inspired two standing ovations and gave Merkin their first encore of their season! Everyone present agreed that the music was magical and marvelously executed! The Mingus Orchestra goes conductor-less TONIGHT at Iridium. This may be the last chance to catch them for several weeks as we bring the Mingus Big Band and the Dynasty into rotation for the holidays.
Three French awards for new release "Music Written For Monterey 1965 Not Heard...Played In Its Entirety At UCLA"
Tue, Dec. 5 2006
Music Written For Monterey 1965 Not Heard...
Played In Its Entirety At UCLA
Choc of Jazzman magazine
Prix Django Reinhardt
Prix de l'Academie du Jazz
Archive from NOVEMBER 27
Gore Vidal talks about his new memoir, "Point-to-Point Navigation" in an interview in early November at WBAI; Sue Mingus previews an upcoming concert of the Mingus Orchestra performing Gunther Schuller's arrangements of Mingus's "Noon Night," "Half Mast Inhibition," and "Taurus in the Arena of Life." Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer.
Sue Mingus starts at 45 minutes. Podcast
Tuesday, Dec 5th 9:00 pm Music of Charles Mingus, directed by Andy McKee
Mingus Big Band bassist Andy McKee leads students in a Mingus program.
The New School
55 West 13th St., Fifth Floor
Gunther Schuller's Many Musical Hats
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, author, and scholar Gunther Schuller talks about his remarkable six-decade-long career in music--including his new arrangement of a work by Charles Mingus.
You can also download it as mp3.
"Mingus Lives: there are no fewer than three legacy bands...
each is represented on "I Am Three," a rousing album issued last year...and they all take turns holding down a Tuesday night engagement at the Iridium Jazz Club. And on Thursday at Merkin Hall, the upstart of the bunch-the Mingus Orchestra, a 10-piece chamber ensemble complete with French horn and bassoon - will come under the figurative baton of Gunther Schuller..... The evening should present an intriguing argument about Mingus the composer, through the prism of the Third Stream jazz-classical hybrid that Mr. Schuller has promulgated over the years." Nate Chinen New York Times
November 30th GUNTHER SCHULLER conducts THE MINGUS ORCHESTRA at Merkin Hall: 81st Birthday Celebration. Be sure to check out a full 40-minute interview with Gunther Schuller on WNYC’S "Leonard Lopate Show" on Thursday, 11/30 at 1pm-2pm. 93.9fm/am 820
A 15-foot stainless steel sculpture by the artist Hans Van de Bovenkamp is on exhibit at the Yellow Bird Gallery in Newburgh, New York through November 12th. The artist titled the work, which was completed in 2005, "Ode to Charles Mingus."
For an image, visit the Yellow Bird Gallery's website.
A Massing of Mingus - The Live Music Report by Dave Barnes. Charles Mingus remains with us in substance and style through the ensembles that carry forward his musical legacy. The 14-piece Mingus Big Band featured at the Toronto Jazz Festival is based in New York City and gets to pick the very best of local musicians, some 40 in all that rotate through the chairs to keep the momentum.
Opening with a rousing version of "E's Flat, Ah's Flat Too" we wasted no time in launching into some serious and extended solos. First up was Lauren Sevian giving us a blistering baritone sax solo taking time to dip into the delicious lower register of this instrument. No chance to breathe because trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy is front and centre with an attack, energy and invention that has to be seen to be believed. It is hard to believe that a trombone slide can be manipulated that fast. Alex Sipiagin on trumpet immediately took control and led us to unexpected territory spun out of thin air. George Colligan's forceful and authoritative piano gave over to a ferociously fast journey around the drum kit with Johnathan Blake. A few minutes into the set and already you had to have your wits about you to follow the action....
The August 2006 issue of Bass Player magazine features an article about Mingus's famous "Lion's head" bass, and has plenty of fine things to say about the Mingus Big Band and "I Am Three," as well as a brief history of the instrument, which was made in Germany in the 1920s. Check out the full story at Bass Player Magazine:
The current keepers of the historic Impulse! catalog have released numerous single- disc compilations of its greatest artists, among them Charles Mingus, to coincide with Ashley Kahn's book, "The House That Trane Built" (Norton), a new book about the ascension of the jazz record label.
The Mingus compilation is a well thought-out sampler of the bassist-composer-bandleader's tenure with the label - The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady, Mingus Plays Piano, and Pre-Bird, to name just three - were recorded for Impulse!.
There's also a four-CD "soundtrack" to the book of the same name - on that, only one Mingus track appears - "Theme For Lester Young," off the Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus recording.
Concert Review: Toronto Star
Fri, Jun. 30 2006
Mingus Big Band Live at Nathan Philips Square
June 24, 2006
The 14-piece Mingus Big Band ran through a six pack that pretty much covered the tempestuous bassist's major stylistic twists and turns.
Beginning with a superb rendition of "E's Flat and Ah's Flat Too," a driving hard-bop blues, the band moved into the modal, rhythmically shifting jazz waltz "Meditations." A faithful reading of "Baby Take a Chance with Me" followed, featuring the soulful vocal work of trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy.
Equally strong were the squeaking, squawking "Birdcalls," which Mingus wrote for Charlie Parker, and "Sweet Sucker Dance," featuring the work of tenorman, Seamus Blake, the band's lone Canadian.
But the high point was the finale, "Haitian Fight Song," the polyrhythmic Mingus signature built on a simple four-note bass line and double-tongued, double-triplet trombone melody, and featuring some of the most unusual sounds - but appropriate - ever coaxed from a tuba.
Complex, multidimensional compositions from a complex, multidimensional artist who seems only now to be getting the recognition he deserved before he died in 1979.
- Robert Wright, Toronto Star
The UK-newspaper The Observer's monthly OMM (Observer Music Monthly) lists its top 50 music books of all time, and Charles Mingus's Beneath the Underdog is voted #9. Canongate publishes the edition in the UK, and here in the states, Vintage.
Senator Hagel, Jazz Fan
Fri, Jun. 9 2006
According to an article appearing in yesterday's Financial Times of London, Chuck Hagel, senator from Nebraska, invoked the words of "jazz bassist Charlie Mingus" when he launched a recent Senate banking committee hearing into the role of hedge funds in the US economy.
"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple - awesomely simple - that's creativity," he quoted Mingus as saying. Then he added some words of his own: "Suffice it to say, we're looking for creativity from our witnesses today".
The Senator from Nebraska isn't the first to invoke that particular quote.
Costello-McPartland at Tanglewood
Fri, May. 5 2006
The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced the addition of Elvis Costello to the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival line-up. Costello will be the special guest of Marian McPartland for a live taping of her NPR program, “Piano Jazz." McPartland and Costello will perform Saturday, September 2, at 3:00 pm at Ozawa Hall. According to Costello, duo will perform the Mingus ballad "Self-Portrait in Three Colors."
The Mingus Big Band was nominated in the Best Big Band category by the Jazz Journalists Association. The 10th annual Jazz Journalists Awards will be held on June 19 at B.B. King's Club.
In other categories, two MBB members were nominated in their respective instrumental categories: Ronnie Cuber (baritone saxophone) and Conrad Herwig (trombone).
Mary Harron's new film (released April 2006) about the life of risque pinup model Bettie Page (starring Gretchen Mol) is packed with musical gems - including Charles Mingus's "Love Chant." The tune was originally released on 1956's Atlantic recording Pithecanterous Erectus, and is now included on the CD soundtrack, along with tracks by Julie London, Patsy Cline, Jeri Southern, Esquival, Artie Shaw, Art Pepper and Hank Ballard.
Dynasty on Location: Mexico City & Cuernavaca
Fri, May. 5 2006
Documentary filmmaker Regis Trigano ("Arakimentary" and "Strange Fruit") will film the Mingus Dynasty performing concerts in Mexico City and in Cuernavaca, June 8 - 12, as well as scenes from Sue Mingus's memoir, "Tonight at Noon," which take place in Mexico. Trigano is currently working on a film about Sue Mingus and the Mingus repertory bands.
Makor 's Jazz On Film series during this year's JVC Jazz Festival includes screenings of "Mingus"(1968) Directed by Thomas Reichman (58 minutes) and "Other Voices - The Meditations of Charles Mingus " (1964) - footage provided courtesy of the CBC (29 minutes).
Andrew Homzy, professor of Jazz Studies at Concordia University and author of the book "More Than a Fakebook: The Music Of Charles Mingus," will introduce the films, and there will be a post-screening discussion with Sue Mingus.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $15. Makor is located at 35 West 67th St., New York.
Purchase Information
Call: Makor Charge 212-601-1000
In person at: Steinhardt Building
35 West 67th St.
Hours: Mon-Thu 9am-10pm, Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 7pm-12am (event nights only), Sun 9am-10pm.
Elvis Costello's new album, "My Flame Burns Blue," released earlier this spring on Universal with the Metropole Orchestra, opens with a lively performance of Charles Mingus's "Hora Decubitus." Costello put lyrics to the tune when he first performed with the Charles Mingus Orchestra in 2001. The eclectic set includes new material to Costello as well as reinterpretations of his classics like "Almost Blue," "Watching the Detectives" and "Clubland" - the latter arranged by Sy Johnson. (Johnson also arranged "Almost Ideal Eyes"). Elvis will perform with the Metropole Orchestra on Friday, May 12 at BAM.
In a review entitled "Touched by Fire," Washington Post book reviewer Sara Sklaroff discusses Jeffrey A. Kottler's new book, "Divine Madness - Ten Stories of Creative Struggle" -- a book concerned with "the fine line between genius and madness." Among other 20th and 2lst century artists, she says, the portrait of Charles MIngus, was "one of the most gripping." Publisher: Jossey-Bass. 311 pp. $24.95
On June 23 and 24, Sue Mingus and Boris Koslov will visit with Tina Marsh and the Creative Opportunity Orchestra in Austin, Texas. CreOp, as the outfit is called, formed in 1980 by a group of professional musicians to perform original jazz and improvisational music in a large-band format. They will perform a concert of Mingus Music, with several arrangements by Boris Koslov. In a related event, Sue Mingus will read from her memoir, "Tonight at Noon." Check back for more information on times and locations.
Mingus Birthday Broadcasts
Sat, Apr. 22 2006
In honor of Charles Mingus's birthday - April 22 - jazz radio stations throughout the country are playing Mingus music. Check your local listings!
Highlights include:
- WKCR (88.9FM) in New York: 24 hours of Mingus music, part of the station's Birthday Broadcast tradition. 12AM through 12PM. Primarily hosted by Phil Schaap.
- XM Satellite Radio: Real Jazz (Channel XM 70) plays Mingus music every other hour from 8AM to 8PM EST.
- Sirius Satellite Radio: Pure Jazz (Channel 72) celebrates the birth of Mingus with a day of music curated by Sue Mingus. Every hour Sirius will play a Mingus tune chosen by Sue, who will discuss each one. Starting at 10AM EST.
Mingus Dynasty at Sweet Rhythm TONIGHT
Thu, Mar. 23 2006
The 7-piece Mingus Dynasty will perform two sets at Sweet Rhythm on tonight, Thursday, March 23. Sets are at 9:00 and 11:00 and features among the line up Boris Koslov, bass; Craig Handy and Seamus Blake, saxophones; Donald Edwards, drums, Alex Sipiagin, trumpet; Orrin Evans, piano; and Luis Bonilla, trombone.
New MBB and Legacy recordings
Mon, Feb. 13 2006
The Mingus Big Band made a live recording at the Blue Note in Tokyo, New Year's Eve, Dec. 3lst, 2005-06. This recording, together with the Charles Mingus live album,"Music Written for Monterey, Not Played, Performed at UCLA, l965" --which has never before appeared on CD -- will be
issued simultaneously in September 2006 on the SueMingusMusic label, distributed by
Sunnyside and Universal Music. Together, these two albums offer an opportunity to hear
Charles Mingus performing his own music live in l965, as well as today's musicians
carrying his huge legacy of composition into the future.
Calling All Cats
Mon, Feb. 13 2006
Calling All Cats
It has come to our attention, thanks to the many Friends of Mingus, that a slew of Johnny-come lately cats are peddling cat toilet training books all over the Internet. Now, these authors, whether they know it or not, obviously drew inspiration from Nightlife, Charles Mingus's cat. Says Sue: "We know of no photos prior to Nightlife's breakthrough in 1958 of cats using toilets and invite anyone to prove us wrong."
Indeed, the Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program, a fold-out brochure, was distributed as a bonus to subscribers of Sue's Changes magazine in 1972. The manual can be viewed on the Mingus website, in the "In His Own Words" pages.
MBB in Iowa, Minnesota Feb. 18-21
Mon, Feb. 13 2006
Fans in the mid-west still have time to catch a few Mingus Big Band performances:
Saturday, Feb. 18 at the College of St. Benedict, in St. Joseph, Minnesota (about two
hours west of Minneapolis. In the afternoon, members of the Mingus Big Band will participate in a school clinic in which students will perform Charles Mingus’s “Haitian Fight Song.”
On Sunday, Feb. 19 the band will perform two sets at the Dakota Jazz Club in St. Paul; and Tuesday, Feb. 21 members of the band will appear on “Good Morning, Iowa,” a television show in the morning. In the afternoon, they will participate in an afternoon clinic at the University of Iowa, in which students will perform three Mingus compositions, including “Pinky: Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon.” In the evening, the Mingus Big Band will perform a concert at Hancher Auditorium at the University.
Note: An acclaimed first novel by Dean Bakopoulos (Harvast/Harcourt) entitled, “Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon,” after Mingus’s composition, has just been issued in paperback and recently singled out in the New York Times.
Mingus Music in Film and on Campus
Mon, Feb. 13 2006
Two documentary filmmakers have relied heavily on the music of Charles Mingus's 1959
Blues and Roots recording to augment their films. One, entitled "Venice West and the LA
Scene" by director Mary Kerr, will screen at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from March 7
– July 17, 2006 to coincide with the museum's major exhibit of California artists.
The film gives a many-sided history of this particular scene of artists and poets that
emerged in the early 1960s. Another film, entitled "East of Paradise" by director Lech
Kowalski, can currently be seen on French-German channel Arte. The film is in two parts;
the first is about the filmmaker's mother as a prisoner in a Russian Gulag; the second
part is about the director's experiences living in New York's Lower East Side in the
1970s and 80s. The director is known for earlier films about the Sex Pistols and Johnny
Thunders.
On TV, the popular show Cold Case used a version of "Haitian Fight Song" to accompany a
scene in episode #51 entitled "Committed." The episode first aired in October 2005, and
is in reruns this spring. The same episode also used songs by Thelonious Monk and Julie
London.
A musicologist and doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center of the City University of
New York, Jennifer Griffith, has presented a dissertation on the music of Mingus as it
relates to New Orleans jazz and to Jelly Roll Morton. Griffith makes the case that
Mingus's work represents innovations within the tradition that provide a link between
early practices of collective improvisation in New Orleans and the avant-garde players
of the 1960s. Griffith traces the legacy of Morton and how his music served Mingus in
"making meaning of his own experience as a musician, and a black American, as well as
making his mark in the history of jazz."
Also fresh off the academic press is David Yaffe's Fascinating Rhythm: Reading Jazz In
American Writing, just published by Princeton University Press. Yaffe, an English prof
at Syracuse and pop culture critic, was spotted grooving to the Big Band at Iridium
during IAJE week. And we didn't count, but there were quite a few references to Mingus
in the index of Fascinating Rhythm.
"Epitaph" To Be Performed in 2007
Tue, Jan. 31 2006
"Epitaph," Charles Mingus's two-hour masterwork for 31 musicians, will be performed on May 16, 2007 at the Walt Disney Center in Los Angeles, California. Other performances are currently underway, including one on the east coast the New Brunswick State Theater. The concerts will coincide with what would have been the protean bassist, composer and bandleader's 85th birthday.
Epitaph was first performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in 1989. It has not been performed in the United States since the early 1990s - again at Wolf Trap, Tanglewood, the Hollywood Bowl, San Francisco Symphony Hall, Cleveland Symphony Hall, and Chicago Symphony Hall, to name a few concert halls. It has been performed in all major capitals of Europe. In the
intervening years, missing sections of Epitaph have been located and would be premiered at the performances in 2007.
Epitaph is the longest and most richly colored of jazz compositions. It lasts just over two hours, and includes a suite of 18 sections, and will be conducted by Gunther Schuller. The orchestra is an expanded big band of reed instruments
(including bassoon and contrabass clarinet along with saxophones), brasses (trumpets and trombones plus tuba) and rhythm section (two pianos, two basses, guitar, drums, percussion and vibraphone). The 1989 premiere was recorded by Columbia Records (now Sony) at Lincoln Center, and televised by British Channel 4 and subsequently released on video. It got incredible reviews everywhere and was called the "greatest jazz event of the decade" by the New York Times.
The time is right to return this major work to visibility, says Sue Mingus, especially as the vast Mingus repertory becomes more familiar to American audiences through mainstream media including movie and television soundtracks, concert performances, and as a documentary subject - in fact, two documentaries about the repetory bands, are in the works by two different filmmakers.
IAJE Performance Set List
Sat, Jan. 14 2006
The Mingus Big Band, Orchestra, and Dynasty took the stage in the Metropolitan Ballroom in the Sheraton Hotel at 11:00 p.m. on Friday the 13th, as part of the annual IAJE conference. The performances, directed by Craig Handy, started with the Dynasty on "Pithecanterous Erectus" and "Devil Woman," with Ku-umba Frank Lacy on vocals; followed by the Orchestra, "Chill of Death," and "Todo Modo" (with Lacy conducting); ending with the Big Band, performing Boris Koslov's new arrangement of "Opus Four," and the late John Stubblefield's arrangement of "Song With Orange." The musicians on stage were an all-star line up combination: long-time members (Andy McKee, Conrad Herwig, Ronnie Cuber) to relative newcomers (Sean Jones, Jaleel Shaw, Abraham Burton) and included George Colligan, Donald Edwards, Wayne Escoffery, Michael Rabinowitz, Alex Sipiagin, Eddie "Doc" Henderson, Kenny Rampton, Dave Taylor, Doug Yates, Freddie Bryant, and Bobby Rouch. The performance by all three ensembles highlighted to perfection Gunther Schuller's description of Mingus at a panel discussion earlier in the day: "Mingus," says Schuller, "is a composer in the true sense of the word. You cannot have more musical diversity than this."
Mingus Panel Discussion, Performance at IAJE A Success
Sat, Jan. 14 2006
All three ensembles played to a packed house of about 1,800 people in the Sheraton's
Metropolitan Ballroom at the IAJE conference on Friday, Jan. 13. The performance showcased Mingus's repertoire and perfectly complimented the Mingus Legacy panel discussion with Gunther Schuller, Andrew Homzy, Boris Koslov and Sue Mingus (Nat Hentoff, originally scheduled, was unable to attend at the last minute).
The group discussed the new series of charts arranged by Andrew Homzy entitled Simply Mingus™ targeted for the middle-and-high school jazz bands, recently released by Hal Leonard. The intent of the charts is to make Mingus's music - so often described as challenging - accessible to young musicians who may not be ready for the more advanced Mingus Big Band charts. Schuller talked about Mingus as a "composer in the true sense of the word -- conceiving music in an original form," and Koslov talked about his own experience with arranging Mingus music (one of which was performed by the BigBand later that evening, "Opus Four.")
A transcript of the panel discussion and recording of the concert is available from the International Association of Jazz Educators through their website, www.iaje.og. Simply Mingus, as well as other Mingus charts and fake books, can be purchased from the Hal Leonard website, www.halleonard.com, or through Amazon. Hal Leonard will offer two new Mingus Big Band charts this year – “Opus Four” and “Song With Orange,” both of which were performed at the IAJE concert.
Two More Mingus Events at IAJE Added
Mon, Jan. 9 2006
Two Mingus events have been added just before the Mingus Legacy panel discussion takes place on Friday, January 13. From 3:15-3:45 p.m. there will be a CD signing for Grammy award nominated "I Am Three" at the Tower Records pavillion on the third floor of the Hilton. Following the CD signing, Sue Mingus and Nat Hentoff will visit the WBGO broadcast booth from 4-4:30 p.m. where they will share their memories of Charles Mingus.
Then, at 5:00 p.m., the panel discussion between Hentoff, Gunther Schuller and Andrew Homzy on the Legacy of Charles Mingus takes place at the Sheraton. Wrapping up the days events, the Mingus Big Band, Orchestra, and Dynasty perform in the evening concert series at the Metropolitan Ballroom in the Sheraton.
Simply Mingus™ Series for Jazz Ensembles On Sale!
Fri, Jan. 6 2006
The first three charts in the new Simply Mingus™ Series for Jazz Ensemble - "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," "Boogie Stop Shuffle," and "Fables of Faubus" - are hot off the press and available through the Hal Leonard company for $50.00 each. The charts will also be available at the annual IAJE conference in New York, January 11-14th. The Simply Mingus™ series is developed by Andrew Homzy, a professor of music at Concordia University in Montreal. For more information, visit our Jazz Education section of this website.
"I Am Three" Nominated for Grammy Award
Mon, Dec. 12 2005
"I Am Three" has been nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. "I Am Three" was released in June on the SueMingusMusic/Sunnyside label in the U.S. and through Universal Music Jazz France in September. It is the first of the eight repertoire recordings to feature all three ensembles currently performing live: the Mingus Big Band, the Mingus Orchestra, and the Mingus Dynasty. "I Am Three" will be competing with label-mate Dave Holland Big Band, the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, the Bill Holman Band, and the Chris Walden Big Band. The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m.
Jazz Workshop to Launch "Simply Mingus" Educational Series
Tue, Nov. 8 2005
New York, NY: Jazz Workshop, Inc. will launch "Simply Mingus," a new educational series that includes special arrangements for high school and college students. The new series will serve as a companion piece to the existing arrangements currently available from the Mingus Big Band peforming books. Plans include upcoming competitions, workshops, and music clinics conducted by Mingus educators, arrangers and performers.
The first charts will include "Boogie Stop Shuffle," "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and "Fables of Faubus." The new arrangements are by Andrew Homzy and will be published by Hal Leonard. They will presented for the first time at the IAJE conference in January 2006. For more information about this series, please visit the "Jazz Education" section of our website, or contact Jazz Workshop at 212-736-4749.
Mingus Bands, Experts To Appear at IAJE Conference
Tue, Nov. 8 2005
New York, NY: The three working Mingus Bands - Mingus Big Band, Mingus Orchestra, and Mingus Dynasty - will perform at the 33rd annual International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conference on Friday, January 13th, 2006 in the Hilton Ballroom. The concert is scheduled for 11:00 p.m. and will follow an earlier panel discussion on the influence and importance of Charles Mingus as composer & force in the world of jazz. Panel members include composer/conductor Gunther Schuller; journalist/educator Nat Hentoff; educator/musicologist Andrew Homzy; Sue Mingus and musicians from the bands. For more information about attending the conference, please visit the IAJE website at www.iaje.org.
Two New Mingus Recordings Available:
Thu, Nov. 3 2005
"Don't Be Afraid...LCJO and Charles Mingus" joins the "I Am Three" cd featuring the three Mingus repertory bands. New York, NY: For its second project taking on the masterpieces of jazz composition (the first being John Coltrane's A Love Supreme), the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra selected the music of Charles Mingus. Don't Be Afraid... The Music of Charles Mingus (Palmetto Records, 2005) takes its title from "Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid Too," and features six Mingus compositions, including extended works "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady," "Meditations on Integration," and "Los Mariachis."
LCJO trombonist and part-time Mingus Big Band member Ron Westray arranged the music for the recording. Other musicians who have performed with the MBB on this recording include trumpter Ryan Kisor and trombonist Andre Hayward. Pick up a copy of this release in addition to the MBB/Orchestra/Dynasty's "I Am Three," released in June 2005 on Sunnyside.
New Years Eve with Mingus Dynasty at "Per Se"!
Tue, Nov. 1 2005
New York, NY: On New Year's Eve The Mingus Dynasty will perform three sets at one of New York's finest restaurants, "Per Se", in the Time Warner Building overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park. Vocalist Renee Manning will join the Dynasty on this exclusive bill which features Randy Brecker on trumpet and Saturday Night Live band's Alex Foster on saxophone. Per Se was in the news recently as the recipient of one of the rare three-star ratings from the French restaurant guide, Michelin.
For information or reservations, please call 212-823-9335.
SueMingusMusic Plans Second Release
Thu, Oct. 27 2005
New York, NY: SueMingusMusic/Universal Jazz France is planning to reissue for the first time on CD Charles Mingus's "Music Written For Monterey, Not Played, Performed At UCLA 1965." Originally issued as a limited edition on the Charles Mingus Enterprises label, the scheduled release date is April, 2006, and will feature orginal Mingus artwork, photographs, and new liner notes.
Mingus Big Band Rings in New Year in Tokyo
Thu, Oct. 6 2005
Tokyo, Japan: The Mingus Big Band will perform at the premier jazz venue in Toyko, the Blue Note, from December 26 through 31st, including New Year's Eve. For information or reservations, call 03-5485-0088 or visit the Blue Note website at www.bluenote.net . The Blue Note Toyko is celebrating its 17th Anniversary!
Mingus Inducted into Jazz Hall of Fame
Fri, Sep. 9 2005
New York, NY: Jazz at Lincoln Center inducted Charles Mingus into the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame in a private ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. This was the second year of the ceremonies. Sue Mingus attended the event with Sunnyside Records president, Francois Zalacain. Also inducted were Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, Johnny Hodes, Jo Jones, King Oliver, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, and Fats Waller. A 58-person international voting panel, which includes musicians, scholars and educators from 17 countries, was charged with nominating and selecting these definitive jazz artists. Each year, criteria for nomination into the hall include excellence and the significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of jazz. The Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame was named by Jazz at Lincoln Center Board member Ahmet Ertegun and his wife, Mica, in honor of his late brother and Atlantic Records partner, Nesuhi Ertegun. Charles Mingus recorded many of his most well-known compositions, including "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting," "Haitian Fight Song," and "Moanin" when Nesuhi headed Atlantic's jazz department. Albums from this period, which have been reissued on Rhino, include Blues and Roots, Oh Yeah, and The Clown.
Construction on the Charles Mingus Arts Center in Watts to Begin
Fri, Jul. 15 2005
Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles Board of Public Works finally awarded a contract to start construction on the Charles Mingus/Watts Junior Arts Center. The initial ceremony was held in February 2003 by the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles. The $2.7 million project calls for the construction of the center at 10624 Graham Avenue in the Watts community. When completed, the two-story facility will feature classrooms, a show gallery and administrative offices. Construction is expected to take approximately a year and half to complete. The Junior Arts Center will provide educational opportunities and present exhibitions on a regular basis to showcase the creative talents of young people in the community. Click here to read an excerpt Mingus's autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, about his connection to the Watts Towers, and legendary artist Simon Rodia.
THREE WISHES:
An Intimate Look at Jazz Giants
is that he took this incredibly challenging jazz, in perhaps its
creative heyday, and made it as easy as pop music. That's not to say
that he dummied it down. He didn't. He did exactly what he said, made
the the complicated awesomely simple. What that means is that it's as
easy as a pop record, but the ride is as fascinating and wild as
Mingus' later more "difficult" albums. Pop stars of the day, like
Sinatra or Nat King Cole, were pleasant, easy to digest artists while
guys like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were pushing the limits of
music as it was known at the time. Mingus Ah Um doesn't split
the difference between those two schools, but rather fully accomplishes
the goals of both, something that may not have happened again in
popular music until Revolver and Sgt. Pepper almost
a decade later. It set a standard for pop music to explore, to be
avant-garde, and rock music in particular owes a tremendous debt to
that spirit.
