2022 marked the 100th birthday of Charles Mingus, whose musical legacy is still ongoing. After his death in 1979, Mingus became acknowledged as one of the most important American composers in the jazz idiom, after Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. While his accomplishments as a bassist were startling and innovative, as a composer Mingus was equally inventive. He looked both forward and backward— drawing inspiration from his predecessors and introduced new concepts of melody, rhythm, harmony, and form as tools to be wielded by future generations. His compositions are now firmly ensconced in jazz’s core repertoire, as evidenced in this stunning boxset spanning Mingus’ final studio recordings for Atlantic Records. Charles Mingus began his first contract with Atlantic Records in 1956 with the career-defining Pithecanthropus Erectus, released under the name: The Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop. While the contract was non-exclusive, he followed up his Atlantic debut with The Clown and Tonight At Noon before recording for several other labels in the period between 1956 and 1961. In 1973 Atlantic Records began its second period of recording with Mingus, which resulted in seven studio albums. The story of a new phase in Mingus’ music – his last phase – begins with the recordings in this boxed set. Featuring all of his 1970’s output for Atlantic Records, all configurations of the album include previously unreleased outtakes of “Big Alice”, “The Call” and “Music For Todo Modo”. There is also an extra set of takes of “Big Alice” and “The Call” on an Outtakes disc exclusive to the vinyl format.
The set will be released as both an 8LP and 7CD configuration.
