Word: mingus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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DIED. Charles Mingus, 56, virtuoso bassist and composer whose emotional, free-floating music helped shape modern jazz; of a heart attack after suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease); in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Raised in the Watts district of Los Angeles, Mingus began studying bass in high school, later played with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker before forming his own combo in New York in the mid-'50s. Influenced strongly by blues and gospel, he began writing music that highlighted the bass as a solo instrument and featured contorted harmonies and quick-changing rhythms with...
...ability to play three instruments simultaneously; of as yet undetermined causes; in Bloomington, Ind. Kirk played the manzello (a quasi-saxophone), the stritch (a horn resembling a dented blunderbuss) and the tenor sax together, combining themes of Brazilian Composer Villa-Lobos, Atonalist Arnold Schonberg and Bassist Charlie Mingus...
...Mingus, Carter's senior, was one of the '60s bassists who brought the bass into maturity as a jazz instrument, pioneering its use for improvisation, rather than solely rhythm. Mingus remains the most famous of these bassists, and is one of the few bass players now receiving acclaim for original composition...
...true, as a friend of mine contends, that a Mingus album gracing your record collection makes people think you're cool, then the 1974 recording "Changes Two" is no mean buy; you get instant coolness and some great Mingus, captured during one of his milder periods. A collection of Mingus recordings entitled "The Art Of Charles Mingus" provides a good introduction to his work from...
...Carter has remained content to work within the wide limits that Mingus and his early contemporaries established. Even early in his career, Carter was indebted to Mingus for giving the bass a major role in jazz improvisation. And yet, he did not follow Mingus into the avant-grade line of jazz; he did not abandon the classic role of the bass as a rhythm instrument...