With the start of the month of April, Straight No Chaser begins a month long celebration of the life and music of Charles Mingus, one of the most important jazz performers, composers and personalities ever.
Six years ago I interviewed Kris Gabbard, the author of Better Git It in Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus (University of California Press), who considered Mingus not just one of the most important figures in jazz, but in American 20th century music as a whole. At that time I wrote:
Classically trained on cello, (Mingus) moved to jazz music and played with virtually every major figure in the history of jazz in his lifetime, starting with New Orleans legends Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory. He played bass in the “Greatest Jazz Concert Ever” at Massey Hall in Toronto, sharing the stage with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Max Roach. He recorded with his father-figure Duke Ellington (Money Jungle) , but also with Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, and helped launch the careers of Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, and Paul Bley. As a composer and bandleader, his works moved from bebop to blues, from ballet scores to orchestral pieces, from in-your-face civil rights protests to moving elegies. At his death from ALS in 1979, he was working with Joni Mitchell on the album that would eventually be called Mingus.
To that I would add that his importance as a figure of African-American excellence and pride, of political protest, and as creator of artist-owned and run record labels and workshops, he is almost unparalleled in jazz.
It would take more than a month to truly explore his life, influence and music, and what better place to begin than with a young musician who carries the torch of his music as a member of the Grammy-winning Mingus Big Band? Sarah Hanahan plays alto saxophone, and will appear at The Django, home of the Mingus Big Band’s “Mingus Monday” performances on April 2 leading her own group.
A graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz Studies at the University of Hartford, Sarah is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in jazz performance at Julliard. She not only is a member of the Mingus Big Band but plays lead alto in the current iteration of the Diva Jazz Orchestra, currently celebrating its 29th year of performing. She has shared the stage with the likes of Jason Moran, Javon Jackson, Christian McBride, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Rufus Reid and more She will tour Europe with the Ulysses Owens Jr. Generation Y Band in May, and be seen across the US with the Mingus Big Band and Diva Jazz Orchestra this spring and summer. She hopes to record her initial album this fall.
Podcast 894 features my conversation with Sarah Hanahan, as we talk her love of the music of Charles Mingus, what she has learned by her tenure in Big Bands and working with Jason Moran, and her plans for the near future. We’ll hear Charles Mingus play “Profile of Jackie” and Sarah play her own “Melodee.”
