91.5 Jazz and More

All About Jazz is celebrating Charles Mingus’ birthday today! One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bassist, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church— choir and group singing— and from “hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old.” He studied double bass and composition in a formal way (five years with H…