Mingus Big Band April 25, 2011

The spirit of the man lives on in his music, and so Nat Hentoff’s words from nearly a half–century ago still ring today: “A remarkable element in Mingus’ influence on his sidemen is his capacity to generate and sustain a fierce collective swing which is at the same time both loose and what I can best describe as spontaneously exclamatory. The seeming paradox of Mingus is that so forceful a personality can create situations which so irresistibly propel his sidemen to be so fully themselves.” (From the liner notes to the 1963 Impulse! LP Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus)