Beginning With Mingus

For me, as a teenager in the 1980s growing up in Northwestern Ontario, jazz began with Charles Mingus and for this, he holds a special place in my personal pantheon of jazz greats. My fondness for the bassist/composer is so strong that I would take him over Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and (ulp!) even Thelonious Monk.

(I am thankful that in the real world I will never have to make such a heart-wrenching desert island choice.)

I began with Mingus on my parent’s cheap record player, dropping the needle on the surprisingly pristine LP (which made me think my northern city was lacking jazz aficionados, which made it appeal all the more to my youthful rebellion. Yes, the voice of my youthful rebellion was Charles Mingus, not Megadeth or Metallica) and I was forever lost in the wonder of jazz music.

I had been borrowing LPs from Waverly Library on the north side of Thunder Bay, picking them up at random in an attempt to learn more about this music that so intrigued me. I would only hear jazz in random places, on TV, in movies, occasionally on public radio, but I never knew the names of the performers or the songs that I was hearing so I would just borrow a dozen LPs at a time, picking out the albums that caught my eye for one reason or another.

It should not come as a surprise that Mingus’ tri-fold three-LP compilation ‘Passions of a Man’, with its dramatic cover design, caught my eye.

The album leveled me. I had never heard anything like it and I was instantly enthralled.

How could I not be? How many musicians could compete with this collection of songs? Check out the track listing:

• Pithecanthropus Erectus
• Profile of Jackie
• Reincarnation of a Lovebird
• Haitian Fight Song
• Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting
• Cryin' Blues
• Devil Woman
• Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am
• Passions of a Woman Loved
• Duke Ellington's Sound of Love
• Better Git Hit In Your Soul
• Sue's Changes
• Canon
• Free Cell Block F,'Tis Nazi U.S.A
• Goodbye, Porkpie Hat
• Mingus on Mingus

Are the names themselves not evocative?

Free Cell Block F,'Tis Nazi U.S.A?
Haitian Fight Song?

Are you prepared for the beauty of Goodbye, Porkpie Hat?

How can anyone listen to the first 30 seconds of Pithecanthropus Erectus and not fall in love with the man’s music? How about the honk squeaking strangeness at 1:37? I could write a 1000 words on that song, and likely will in later posts.

I will force myself to stop here as I want to keep this introduction short and sweet but let me add, in a tender note, that I look forward to the time we will spend together on this random stroll in the world of jazz.