There was no one in jazz quite like bassist Charles Mingus. An iconoclast, an intellectual, a satirist and a poet, Mingus essentially redefined the rules of large ensemble jazz during his heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, liberating it from the constraints of swing and bebop and opening it up to the possibilities of the avant-garde. And while he never fully embraced that movement, he certainly helped lay the groundwork for the generation of artists who would usher it in. At the same time, he brought strong political themes into his work that would strengthen jazz’s power as a means of social commentary, addressing, through his music and his lyrics, subjects as crucial as racism and poverty in America. As a bassist, he fused high art with old soul, weaving homespun threads of blues through compositions that were often highly intricate and musically challenging. This playlist spans the bulk of his recorded career, incorporating songs from some of his most important albums and from his finest collaborations (including a stunning trio album with Duke Ellington and Max Roach). It’s not a complete retrospective, but more a vista into Mingus’ fascinating and creative mind. After all, this is the player who once said, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creative.”
