There are some great Mingus stories on the Fran Leibowitz Netflix special.
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Double Bass mingus
- Thread starter olps
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There are great stories in this thread! One that I have heard is Mingus got angry and violent on the bandstand with Yussef Lateef in the band. Yussef was much bigger and the story goes that he just picked up Mingus and held him in the air while saying, "peace brother, peace" until he calmed down. . May or may not be true, but it is a fun one.
Vinny Golia told me this one once. The other layer he brought up was that this was around the time Lateef converted to Islam and came to the gig in his religious robes rather than black tie formal, as per Mingus' request. So that's why Mingus got angry at him.
That's true. I heard it from Bill Merchant, who helped Sue dispose of the estate.
In the early 1990s I once asked the late jazz drummer Floyd "Floogie" Williams if he knew Charles Mingus. Floyd looked me square in the eyes and said he was a very scary man. That kind of took me off guard, but this thread is shedding light corroborating what I was told.
Jaki Byard told me that he once came at him with a fire axe, too. Jaki said he used one of those old metal fire extinguishers to defend himself. He also seemed to think it was all bluster.
Famous pork pie solo on Mingus Mingus Ming ... (Atlantic) was Booker Ervin.
Famous pork pie on Columbia album (forget which one) was John Handy.
A bassist who I recently reconnected with told a Mingus story in response to hearing some of the more common ones. He said the he was playing at the Village Vanguard and between sets or after the gig or something, someone came up behind him and gave him a big bear hug and said "I've been hearing things about you and they're true!'
And that was his one brush with Mingus. He didn't dispute the more common stories, but told me that was his personal experience.
And that was his one brush with Mingus. He didn't dispute the more common stories, but told me that was his personal experience.
I heard a Mingus story from a friend:
My friend was a young musician, like high school, and he was convinced that his life was going to be in music, specifically jazz music. He was catching all the greats as they came through town. He met Mingus during a set break and walked up to him, introduced himself, and said something like "Mr. Mingus, I want to be a professional jazz musician. Do you have any advice?"
Mingus said "For chrissakes, kid, don't do it! Go do anything else! Be a banker, street sweeper, anything!" whereupon my friend said "But Mr. Mingus, I just have so much music inside me and I just have to let it out!" And Mingus gave him kind of a sad smile and said "Yeah, I know. Good luck, kid."
I think like Miles, Mingus was an enormously complicated person and can't be boiled down into a few spectacular anecdotes.
My friend was a young musician, like high school, and he was convinced that his life was going to be in music, specifically jazz music. He was catching all the greats as they came through town. He met Mingus during a set break and walked up to him, introduced himself, and said something like "Mr. Mingus, I want to be a professional jazz musician. Do you have any advice?"
Mingus said "For chrissakes, kid, don't do it! Go do anything else! Be a banker, street sweeper, anything!" whereupon my friend said "But Mr. Mingus, I just have so much music inside me and I just have to let it out!" And Mingus gave him kind of a sad smile and said "Yeah, I know. Good luck, kid."
I think like Miles, Mingus was an enormously complicated person and can't be boiled down into a few spectacular anecdotes.
I've told the long version of this story on talkbass before, but here's hopefully the short version:
Along with another guy with a car, I was tasked with taking Mingus and his band to the airport after playing at my school the previous evening. I met Mingus standing in the middle of the lobby. He became incensed after I told him that the other car hadn't arrived yet, yelling "airplanes don't wait!!"over and over. Thankfully the other car arrived and we commenced putting the luggage and instruments into the 2 cars. I thought since I was a bass student, I should carry Mingus's bass to my car. Mingus followed behind me to the back of the wagon whereupon he said: "bass player, right? I can tell by the way you carried the bass." So we had this marvelous one minute conversation. He asked whether I played German or French bow, told me to keep working with the bow, etc. even if I was playing only jazz, etc. His voice just softened right up.
From a bull to a pussycat in one 25 foot walk.
He also totaled my Ampeg B15 but that's in the long version!
Along with another guy with a car, I was tasked with taking Mingus and his band to the airport after playing at my school the previous evening. I met Mingus standing in the middle of the lobby. He became incensed after I told him that the other car hadn't arrived yet, yelling "airplanes don't wait!!"over and over. Thankfully the other car arrived and we commenced putting the luggage and instruments into the 2 cars. I thought since I was a bass student, I should carry Mingus's bass to my car. Mingus followed behind me to the back of the wagon whereupon he said: "bass player, right? I can tell by the way you carried the bass." So we had this marvelous one minute conversation. He asked whether I played German or French bow, told me to keep working with the bow, etc. even if I was playing only jazz, etc. His voice just softened right up.
From a bull to a pussycat in one 25 foot walk.
He also totaled my Ampeg B15 but that's in the long version!
I was at this concert. Saturday afternoon show, 1971. I was 16. Mingus came on after Ornette. Also on the Bill that afternoon: Freddie Hubbard, NY bass violin choir, and Eubie Blake AND Willie the Lion Smith. Incredible bills in those days!
This became the last year of the festival in Newport in the original site. Later during the night show, people who had been hanging out imbibing in the woods outside the fence all day decided to proclaim "music should be free" and so they tore down the fencing, bumrushing the stage. I think it was Dionne Warwick who somebody knocked down and grabbed the mic ... that evening the city fathers decided no mas and cancelled the rest of the festival.
My dad woke me up on Sunday morning witu the newspaper in his hands. I literally cried— on Sunday night I was to see Ray Charles, BB King, T bone walker and the Allman brothers.
But I really was crying because on Monday afternoon, I was to see Miles, Weather Report and Soft Machine in the same afternoon!
This became the last year of the festival in Newport in the original site. Later during the night show, people who had been hanging out imbibing in the woods outside the fence all day decided to proclaim "music should be free" and so they tore down the fencing, bumrushing the stage. I think it was Dionne Warwick who somebody knocked down and grabbed the mic ... that evening the city fathers decided no mas and cancelled the rest of the festival.
My dad woke me up on Sunday morning witu the newspaper in his hands. I literally cried— on Sunday night I was to see Ray Charles, BB King, T bone walker and the Allman brothers.
But I really was crying because on Monday afternoon, I was to see Miles, Weather Report and Soft Machine in the same afternoon!
