Charles Mingus Revisited BBC Proms

Charlie Mingus's music is a great combination between bombastic and

beta. Blue whatever it plays, it has a feeling of tension, like it's

about to explode. It's always blues. If you don't know what that means

then check out Charlie Mingus. He's one of the baddest musicians to ever

lived. He's the King Mingus. Charles Mingus's work as a bass

player and as a composer, in many ways the two things merged into one.

They are both attached to his soul directly. Charles Mingus is where

chaos and beauty meet, and that place is a wonderful place, and a

tragic place. Over three decades he recorded 100 albums and worked with

everybody from Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis. Duke

Ellington was one of his biggest inspirations. For me that's huge. I

like Mingus because of that, that's all I need to hear! He was a

virtuosic bass player, he had unbelievable feel. This was a guy in

Charlie Parker's band. He played on the cutting edge. Every corner of

this music that you could exist in, Charles Mingus existed in. I think

what stands Mingus apart from a lot of his contemporaries is summed up

by blues and roots. I think it's the rates element for me which is what

resonates the most. It's this freight train of an approach to

mesmeric baselines, that you just don't forget. All his music, there a

melodic line through it that allows even a casual listener to just be

able to become immersed in the soul of it. He has integrity with

whatever he does, so if he's making music to get you shaking, you know

that this is a guy who knows how to shake. I think the Proms audience

can expect a very interesting adaptation of Mingus's music. It's

going to be nice and spicy. So I'm the bottom of hot sauce! -- bottle.

We want to have some friction, some battles, some war, and we want to

show people the depth of a composer who is seminal and stands amongst

all of the true greats of jazz music.

APPLAUSE That are

# Take away the grief you've caused # Can't sleep at night

# With the fear that I'll live it all again

# When you say she doesn't want me

# That has paid the price of love

People who are eccentric and also having some dark sides to their

character, they are very attractive for people after their time. Because

the moment they live, they suffer from it because they aren't

adjusting to society. Later on, they put people in heaven. It's always a

little bit late, I think. It would be very difficult for you

to find a musician or artist who has music with more struggle in it. But

you can see that this is also, there is a conceptual crew lying in his

music. His experience is struggle, so why would his music be laden with

release? It's not a simple music, it's not a music that says this is a

surface level of who I am. It says that levels to me and the music that

I play, that you have to come towards me to really comprehend. The

way that his legacy lives on through me is that people shouldn't always

just copy what other people are doing. It's more important to create

your own style based on your influences, because that's what he

did. I think you such an inspiration because he was a rebel, he was an

extremely complex, charismatic but enigmatic character. For me, to take

that into the symphonic context, is what made it appealing. I feel like

Charles Mingus's legacy is unquestionable. There are teachings

of his methods, the writings of his ways, and the fact is that if you

listen to his record now they still stand the test of time.

# All alone, sad clown with his circus closed down.

# Lost in a merry-go-ound, came a melody in my heart so yearning.

# Taught me to hear music out of love,

# Infinite, with the lover and beloved,

# Waiting To show what he sees

--so afraid And the one that keeps

# One's so sweet so overly loving and gentle

# He lets people into his innermost sacred temple

The insulting plan God must be a boogie man!

# Which one do you think he'd want the world to see

# Well world opinion's not a lot of help

# When a man's only trying to find out how to feel about himself

The cock-eyed plan God must be a boogie man!