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Charles Mingus: Mingus Dynasty

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In May 1960, “Columbia” label released “Mingus Dynasty”, the 18th Charles Mingus album. It was recorded in November 1959, at “CBS 30th Street Studio” in New York City, and was produced by Teo Macero. In 1999, the album was inducted in the “Grammy Hall of Fame”.

Personnel:

  • Charles Mingus – bass
  • John Handy – alto sax
  • Booker Ervin – tenor sax
  • Benny Golson – tenor sax
  • Jerome Richardson – baritone sax, flute
  • Richard Williams – trumpet
  • Don Ellis – trumpet
  • Jimmy Knepper – trombone
  • Roland Hanna – piano
  • Nico Bunink – piano
  • Dannie Richmond – drums
  • Teddy Charles – vibes
  • Maurice Brown – cello
  • Seymour Barab – cello
  • Honi Gordon – vocals

Track listing:

All tracks by Charles Mingus, except where noted.                         

  1. Slop
  2. Diane
  3. Song with Orange
  4. Gunslinging Bird (originally titled If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats) 
  5. Things Ain’t What They Used to Be – Mercer Ellington
  6. Far Wells, Mill Valley
  7. New Now Know How
  8. Mood Indigo – Barney Bigard, Duke Ellington
  9. Put Me in That Dungeon

Charles Mingus

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On January 5, 1977, Charles Mingus Jr. Died aged 57. He was musician (bass), composer and bandleader, regarded as one of the most creative and influential Jazz artists of all times.

For his work and contribution to the modern music, Mingus has received many awards including:

  • “Guggenheim Fellowship” (1971).
  • Inducted in the “Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame” (1971).
  • “National Endowment for the Arts” provided grants for a Mingus nonprofit called “Let My Children Hear Music” which cataloged all of Mingus’s works (1988)
  • “The Library of Congress” acquired Mingus’s collected papers in what they described as “the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library’s history.(1993)]
  • “The United States Postal Service” issued a stamp in his honor (1995).
  • Posthumously awarded the “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award” (1997)
  • Album “Mingus Dynasty”(1959) inducted in the “Grammy Hall of Fame” (1999)
  • Inducted in the “Jazz at Lincoln Center”, Nesuhi Ertegun “Jazz Hall of Fame” (2005)

Mingus has recorded and performed with some of the most important musicians of the modern music, including: Illinois Jacquet, Dinah Washington, Wilbert Baranco, Ivie Anderson, Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, Billy Taylor, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach,  Bud Powell, Paul Bley, Teo Macero, Oscar Pettiford,  Ada Moore,  Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Hazel Scott, John Mehegan,  Thad Jones, John Dennis, Ralph Sharon, Miles Davis, Teddy Charles, The Metronome All-Stars, Jimmy Knepper, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Max Roach and Eric Dolphy.