Charlie Mingus

[vidgil]

I'll have to copy and paste this from Wiki. I think @Beanz would like Charles Mingus, being such a tough guy!

As respected as Mingus was for his musical talents, he was sometimes feared for his occasionally violent onstage temper, which was at times directed at members of his band, and other times aimed at the audience.[22] He was physically large, prone to obesity (especially in his later years), and was by all accounts often intimidating and frightening when expressing anger or displeasure. Mingus was prone to clinical depression. He tended to have brief periods of extreme creative activity, intermixed with fairly long periods of greatly decreased output.

When confronted with a nightclub audience talking and clinking ice in their glasses while he performed, Mingus stopped his band and loudly chastised the audience, stating "Isaac Stern doesn't have to put up with this shit."[23] Mingus reportedly destroyed a $20,000 bass in response to audience heckling at New York's Five Spot.[24]

Guitarist and singer Jackie Paris was a first-hand witness to Mingus's irascibility. Paris recalls his time in the Jazz Workshop: "He chased everybody off the stand except [drummer] Paul Motian and me... The three of us just wailed on the blues for about an hour and a half before he called the other cats back."[25]

On October 12, 1962, Mingus punched Jimmy Knepper in the mouth while the two men were working together at Mingus's apartment on a score for his upcoming concert at New York Town Hall and Knepper refused to take on more work. The blow from Mingus broke off a crowned tooth and its underlying stub.[26] According to Knepper, this ruined his embouchure and resulted in the permanent loss of the top octave of his range on the trombone – a significant handicap for any professional trombonist. This attack temporarily ended their working relationship and Knepper was unable to perform at the concert. Charged with assault, Mingus appeared in court in January 1963 and was given a suspended sentence. Knepper did again work with Mingus in 1977 and played extensively with the Mingus Dynasty, formed after Mingus's death in 1979.[27]

In 1966, Mingus was evicted from his apartment at 5 Great Jones Street in New York City for nonpayment of rent, captured in the 1968 documentary film Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968, directed by Thomas Reichman. The film also features Mingus performing in clubs and in the apartment, firing a .410 shotgun indoors, composing at the piano, playing with and taking care of his young daughter Caroline, and discussing love, art, politics, and the music school he had hoped to create.[28]

[vidgil]

Oh wow someone posted the documentary on Vimeo. This is a cool little watch, 60 mins cinema verite style. Mingus is a mad man, he's getting kicked out of his apartment, he's talking about the mafia killing Kennedy, and he's firing off his rifle in his apartment hahaha

[brocktonblockbust]

Oh wow someone posted the documentary on Vimeo. This is a cool little watch, 60 mins cinema verite style. Mingus is a mad man, he's getting kicked out of his apartment, he's talking about the mafia killing Kennedy, and he's firing off his rifle in his apartment hahaha

Are you Jon Hanser? I'll just ask once vidgil

[brocktonblockbust]

I will say though without the slightest nuance of pretentiousness that to see those clash and sex pistols videos in a thread about Charles Mingus ---that great man Charles Mingus--- approaches blasphemy!

[Beanz]

I will say though without the slightest nuance of pretentiousness that to see those clash and sex pistols videos in a thread about Charles Mingus ---that great man Charles Mingus--- approaches blasphemy!

BWAHAHA!

What are you some kind of musical fundamentalist? You going to tell us what we can read and when and where it is appropriate to read it next?

[Beanz]

Wouldn't want to ruin your palate

[brocktonblockbust]

I will say though without the slightest nuance of pretentiousness that to see those clash and sex pistols videos in a thread about Charles Mingus ---that great man Charles Mingus--- approaches blasphemy!

BWAHAHA!

What are you some kind of musical fundamentalist? You going to tell us what we can read and when and where it is appropriate to read it next?

You always resort to extreme analyses of what people say. I didn't say you did or did not have the right to listen to whatever music you want. I am just making my own opinion known that the sex pistols and The Clash are absolute jackshit compared to Charles Mingus.

[Gandalf]

Nonsense Brock. Critics and fans alike class London Calling as one of the greatest albums of all time. It is some of the best rock and roll in music history. Never Mind the Bollocks is more flawed, but God Save the Queen is one of the most spine tingling 3 minutes of rock ever made. It is beautiful, angry and imbued with meaning.

Now if you were to call out Justin Beiber or Miley Cyrus you might have a point, but you are picking on some of the most meaningful, tuneful, zeitgeist capturing moments in music history.