Charles Mingus was born in 1922, in the state of Arizona, United States of America, and had a both artistic and personal intense life until his precocious death, in 1979, at the age of fifty-six, victim of a degenerative disease. His body of work was decisive to the discovery of new paths in jazz and to prod the aesthetical revolutions which radically transformed the shape of the music of the second half of the past century. Albums such as Pithecanthropus Erectus and Mingus Ah Um, and the artistic partnerships with jazz luminaries such as Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Eric Dolphy, among others, are mandatory references to any history of jazz music, having contributed to the recognition of Mingus artistic vision in the transition of bebop to the avant-garde movements which exploded during the seventies of the twentieth century.

The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble of variable formation formed in 1991 and led by Sue Mingus. It began as a musical residency in jazz clubs in New York and, since then, the group has performed live all over the world, having also released ten records, including the album Big Band Live At Jazz Standard. The ensemble has benefited from the contributions of its members, including some of the most reputed contemporary jazz musicians, such as Randy Brecker, Conrad Herwig, Frank Lacy, Vincent Herring, Donny McCaslin, George Colligan or Jeff “Tain” Watts, among others.

Although Charles Mingus’ does not need to be celebrated in order to survive time, on the other hand the possibility of hearing his compositions interpreted in live concert allows the audience the access to another and more intangible form of experience of the bassist and composer’s art, different from the experience of listening to his records. One of the most original dimensions of Mingus’ compositions was, besides his unique melodic and rhythmic structures, the dynamics of collective improvisation which he conferred to his bands. Those principles are strictly respected by the Mingus Big Band and, at the same time, reformulated according the coordinates of the musical idioms of the extraordinary musicians who form the ensemble. Therefore, this concert will constitute not only a moment of pure interpretation of Mingus’ work but also a catalyst of new creative acts, faithful, however, to the spirit and the artistic integrity of the work of one of the greatest genius of North-American music.