R.I.P. Sue Mingus.

[Hardbopjazz]

Sue Mingus has passed away. For years she did all she could to keep Charles Mingus’ music alive.  

[JSngry]

Whoa....sure hope the business is positioned to continue,

RIP.

[felser]

RIP

[mikeweil]

RIP

[Milestones]

Sad news.  I Imagine she must have been well up there in years.  It seems fitting she would die in Charles Mingus' centennial year.

 

[Guy Berger]

RIP.

She had an impressive legacy - I wish more great artists had such dedicated, relentless advocates.

[medjuck]

Sad.  I just read her autobiography Tonight at Noon.  

[Gheorghe]

3 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Sad.  I just read her autobiography Tonight at Noon.  

I also did read it, but it made me so sad to read that almost from day to day description of Mingus´  terrible terminal desease. I mean not only be confined to a wheelchair but not even able to move your hands and have difficulties to speak, I think it´s inhuman, such a terrible thing , I almost had to cry , I loved Mingus soo much and he was my first great inspiration of jazz. 
Sue was a wonderful woman, there sure were some bad times in their marriage too as maybe both were difficult personalities, that sometimes clashed but she was also a stunning tall lady , a pleasure to look at her. 

 

[clifford_thornton]

Damn, that is too bad. She did great work. RIP.

Regarding Mingus' ALS, it is a TERRIBLE disease, just cruel and awful.

[Jason Bivins]

RIP.

[sidewinder]

Very sad to hear this. Saw her pretty well every time there was a Mingus Dynasty or Big Band on UK tour, the last time would be at Bath around 2010, when she did stage introductions. I don’t think she was with the Big Band at Ronnie’s in late 2019.

Some years back I had a query about one of Mingus’ self-issued LPs so emailed her and got a helpful response.

A real force for good in jazz - RIP.

Edited September 26, 2022 by sidewinder

[Ken Dryden]

I love the stories of her walking past cashiers with unauthorized records of her husband’s music.

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

I love the stories of her walking past cashiers with unauthorized records of her husband’s music.

Oh, man, I don’t think I’ve ever heard those. Do tell!! — if there are any juicer details.

[jazzbo]

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/27/magazine/angry-mrs-mingus.html#:~:text=The%20first%20time%20Sue%20Mingus%20got%20caught%20stealing,three%20Mingus%20CD%27s%20she%20carried%20in%20plain%20view.

 

“At first,” she says, “I tried to deal with the problem directly. I went into record stores and told the owners they were selling illegal merchandise. That didn’t do much good, so then I started to go in the stores, gather up the bootleg copies and walk out with them. Most of the time I wasn’t even stopped, because they knew the records were illegal. But it wasn’t solving the problem.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-19-ca-620-story.html

[Ken Dryden]

Sue Mingus was not the typical “jazz widow” but an activist who fought to get her husband’s music performed, recorded, reissued and respected. She will be missed.

[Gheorghe]

14 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

 

Regarding Mingus' ALS, it is a TERRIBLE disease, just cruel and awful.

That photos of Mingus on the White House lawn being greet by the President , where Mingus bursted out in tears.....everytime I see that it brings tears into my eyes, serious ! 

 

10 hours ago, jazzbo said:

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/27/magazine/angry-mrs-mingus.html#:~:text=The%20first%20time%20Sue%20Mingus%20got%20caught%20stealing,three%20Mingus%20CD%27s%20she%20carried%20in%20plain%20view.

 

“At first,” she says, “I tried to deal with the problem directly. I went into record stores and told the owners they were selling illegal merchandise. That didn’t do much good, so then I started to go in the stores, gather up the bootleg copies and walk out with them. Most of the time I wasn’t even stopped, because they knew the records were illegal. But it wasn’t solving the problem.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-19-ca-620-story.html

Yes, I also have read this. Sure, records should not be bootleg and I always try to buy legit albums if I buy an album, but sometimes you just don´t know it´s a bootleg. 
Maybe that´s the reason why two important live albums who might have documented his huge world tour in 1977 can´t be found anymore: The Mingus at Spain, and the Mingus at Buenos Aires both from summer 1977. I mean those quinted live versions of his last huge suites  "Cumbia and Jazz Fusion", "Three or Four Shades" were much more exiting that the quite overproduced studio sessions where producers interfered with Mingus´ own choices of players, at least that´s what I supose. 
At least some of those concerts from 1976 (with Danny Mixon on piano) and 77 (with Bob Neloms on piano) should be released now. We have tons of "new discoveries" from the band with Dolphy (which anyway is one of the greatest things I ever heard on record), but at least for those of my generation who attended live performances of Mingus in the second half of the 70´s in the post Adams/Pullen Period, some good concerts should be made available for the public......

[CJ Shearn]

On 9/26/2022 at 5:01 PM, Ken Dryden said:

Sue Mingus was not the typical “jazz widow” but an activist who fought to get her husband’s music performed, recorded, reissued and respected. She will be missed.

Her stories of wishing the alternates and unreleased takes were not released in the Mingus Columbia box booklet are very interesting 

[Ken Dryden]

4 hours ago, CJ Shearn said:

Her stories of wishing the alternates and unreleased takes were not released in the Mingus Columbia box booklet are very interesting 

Gerry Mulligan felt the same way, even about the Mosaic box which restored Dick Bock’s edits to his Pacific Jazz recordings. Artists now know that if you don’t want alternates, false starts and breakdowns issued, have them destroyed once an album has been completed and released. Though sometimes the master take selection seems a bit arbitrary and a case can be made that another take is just as good, if not superior to a master take.

[John L]

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

Gerry Mulligan felt the same way, even about the Mosaic box which restored Dick Bock’s edits to his Pacific Jazz recordings. Artists now know that if you don’t want alternates, false starts and breakdowns issued, have them destroyed once an album has been completed and released. Though sometimes the master take selection seems a bit arbitrary and a case can be made that another take is just as good, if not superior to a master take.

I imagine that sometimes artists believe that they did have the outtakes erased but somehow the record company might "find" them later.

[Ken Dryden]

In his autobiography, John Fogerty mentioned that he always made sure that all outtakes and unissued tracks were destroyed after an album was finalized. There is little doubt that the unsavory Saul Zaentz would have issued everything that he could find after the breakup of CCR.

 

 

[soulpope]

On 26.9.2022 at 9:09 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

Oh, man, I don’t think I’ve ever heard those. Do tell!! — if there are any juicer details.

https://www.charlesmingus.com/sue-mingus/revenge

[Rooster_Ties]

32 minutes ago, soulpope said:

https://www.charlesmingus.com/sue-mingus/revenge

Fabulous telling. Thanks for sharing that!

[Gheorghe]

12 hours ago, soulpope said:

https://www.charlesmingus.com/sue-mingus/revenge

Hello also from a rainy day Viena *

Yes, I knew the story about Sue Mingus stealin´ records from record stores, Well a quite arbitrary way of rezolving the "problem"...

About the record: Well, I think the "Great Concert of Mingus" in Paris 1964 with Dolphy was reissued hundreds of times. As most European jazz fans I had the America 3 LP set of it. I remember I got it just gratis from a guy who acclaimed that he "likes Modern Jazz" but couldn´t do nothing with this. When I was at his place he spinned the first section of "Parkeriana" and when the bridge with the tempo changes and potpourrie of varios other bop themes came, he stopped it and said "they completly crazy, this is not music", and I thought right now it´s becoming interesting and said I like it and he gave it to me, and it would be my second "jazz LP" in my life and settled the pace for my further musical developement..., I hadn´t even heard the name Parker at that time and hadn´t heard so called "Free Jazz" yet, so this became the starting point for my further musical explorations....

The Photo of Mingus in Tunisian wardrobe is well known and it is also in Sue Mingus´ book. 
I would have liked to hear something from the music they had played down there. They say it was the seeds of his further mega-work "Three Worlds of Drums", with its oriental flair.....

* A propos rainy day: Good idea for a song to play. Gotcha do it as a first tune on a gig when it rains "Here´s that rainy day"...... nice tune....

Edited September 30, 2022 by Gheorghe

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

Hello also from a rainy day Viena *

Yes, I knew the story about Sue Mingus stealin´ records from record stores, Well a quite arbitrary way of rezolving the "problem"...

About the record: Well, I think the "Great Concert of Mingus" in Paris 1964 with Dolphy was reissued hundreds of times. As most European jazz fans I had the America 3 LP set of it ....

Greetings from Tyrol 😇 .... this is a different Concert though ....

[Gheorghe]

22 hours ago, soulpope said:

Greetings from Tyrol 😇 .... this is a different Concert though ....

From Tyrol ? Hope it´s a vacation, or did you move back ? 

Different Concert......might be worth listening, though I wouldn´t buy it, if I bought all them different concerts and venues where Mingus played with Dolphy and Byard 1964, I´d have to eat "Grammeln" (kennst den Spruch von anno dazumal: "5 Schilling für die Schrammeln, und morgen ess´ ma Grammeln") ......