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• Charles Mingus was an Internationally famous Jazz bassist, composer and bandleader who recorded many influential albums throughout his career. While Mingus' volatile temperament and on-stage intensity earned him the nickname "The Angry Man of Jazz," his fierce originality, compositional genius and soulful improvisations helped make him one of the leading figures in Jazz for over three decades. Besides performing and recording, Mingus also produced a number of highly regarded written compositions, including his masterwork Epitaph, which was performed in its entirety only after his death.

• Fast Facts

  1. Name: Charles Mingus, Jr.
  2. Nickname: "The Angry Man of Jazz"
  3. Born: April 22, 1922
  4. Died: January 5, 1979
  5. Born in Nogales, Arizona
  6. Raised in: Los Angeles, California

• Career

  Although he was born in Arizona, Mingus was raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. After developing an early affinity for the Jazz music of Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, Mingus took up the Upright Bass in high school and was soon playing in Jazz bands for Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton. While living in New York City, Mingus got a chance to record and perform with a number of the top Jazz musicians of the day, including Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and Max Roach. Over the course of the next decade, Mingus released a torrent of original compositions and recordings, many of which are now considered classics. After a lengthy battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease, Mingus died in 1979 at the age of 56.

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