I know nothing of this man. Educate me.

Hip cats just say "Mingus".

Wikipedia is a good place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus

Purchase Haitian Fight Song, it's a good start, at least it was for me. It has a sweet, driving bass line, and just a very cool, overall feel.[/b]

The only album of his i have is "Mingus Ah Um" and i love it. Very good bass. I probalby need to get a couple more of his albums myself.

mowbs, begin with either Mingus Ah Um or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. It doesn't matter, I love them both to death. Then go for Blues & Roots.

Mingus Ah Um is so good. This guy was brilliant, I can't wait to get into the Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

Meditations on Integration is possibly the greatest song of all-time.

It sounds pretty cool. Mingus' music is simply amazing.

Also check out the Mingus Big Band. I saw them a few years ago and they were fantastic. Put on a great show with Mingus standards and a couple of originals.

Blues and Politics is a great CD.

tijuana moods, mingus dynasty, and oh yeah are all better than ah um in my opinion but everything in his catalogue gets overshadowed by that one unfortunately like with miles and kind of blue.

Everyone has a most well-known album. That won't stop me from checking out the others.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is simply amazing. Now I need to get Blues & Roots, Tijuana Moods and Mingus Dynasty. I honestly don't have enough good things to say about this guy though, simply brilliant.

Black Saint is awesome, as is Mingus Ah Um. However, I haven't gotten into Mingus' style of jazz as much as progressive, cool, and fusion jazzes.
Coltrane for life.

One thing I love about him is that he doesn't have a specific style, but you can always tell his recordings. He has such a unique voice, just like Ellington.

This is completely true.

One band of his that I've only recently discovered (don't know how i missed it for so long) is the sextet with Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Coles, Jaki Byard, and Dannie Richmond. They didn't record in the studio but there are a lot of live albums out there. They are simply amazing and have perhaps surpassed Miles' 2nd great quintet as my favorite jazz group of all time.

I've become convinced that almost all of Mingus' very best stuff involves Dolphy (Presents Charles Mingus, At Antibes) and Byard (Black Saint) either seperately or, even better, together (the 64 group, Mingus x5). Then again maybe that's just a reflection of my obsession with both those guys.