Charles Mingus

Capable of the most thunderous outbursts of anger as well as the most disarming fits of tenderness, Mingus , a powerful double bass player , inexhaustible composer , high-flying arranger and intractable conductor , died in 1979, leaving to posterity a musical legacy that reflects his contradictory personality: storms and thunderstorms rub shoulders with azure skies and rainbows according to the artistic moods of their creator.

But let's not be mistaken: the teeming musical world of Mingus contains riches of a magnitude comparable to that of the greatest ( Ellington , Monk ). For our man was not only a demiurge, he was also a sorcerer, capable of mastering fire and ice, of blending tradition and modernity , of making a standard sound like an avant-garde work or of making us take one of his most advanced creations for a composition from the 1930s.

And then, always lurking in a corner ready to pounce, the influence of roots, blues, and gospel, to which the knight Mingus had pledged unwavering allegiance. A true, enormous, superb creator, the likes of which jazz has known only a dozen. Charlie, your galactic outbursts, your barely controlled excesses, your demands for freedom, your thirst to create, we sorely miss all of this...