www.kerouacalley.com
A Directory of the Beat Generation
and the Beat Related on the World Wide Web
*Jack Kerouac Alley (formerly Adler Alley or Adler Place) is a one-way alleyway in Chinatown, San Francisco, California that connects Grant Avenue and Columbus Avenue, running between "Vesuvio Cafe"
(255 Columbus Ave.) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "City Lights Books" (261 Columbus Ave.).
Charles Mingus
1922-1979
". . . In this modern jazz, they heard something rebel and
nameless that spoke for them, and their lives knew a
gospel for the first time. It was more than a music;
it became an attitude toward life, a way of walking, a
language and a costume; and these introverted kids...
now felt somewhere at last." -John Clellon Holmes
Charles Mingus Quotes
“Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?” -Charles Mingus
“Just because I’m playing jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions.” -Charles Mingus
“If someone has been escaping reality, I don’t expect him to dig my music.” -Charles Mingus
“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” -Charles Mingus
“Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker’s next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?” -Charles Mingus
“In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.” -Charles Mingus
“They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.” -Charles Mingus
“I’m too busy playing. When I’m playing I don’t pay attention to who’s listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don’t listen to one instrument; you listen to music.” -Charles Mingus
“I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.” -Charles Mingus
“I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.” -Charles Mingus
“Had I been born in a different country or had I been born white, I am sure I would have expressed my ideas long ago. Maybe they wouldn’t have been as good because when people are born free–I can’t imagine it, but I’ve got a feeling that if it’s so easy for you, the struggle and the initiative are not as strong as they are for a person who has to struggle and therefore has more to say.” -Charles Mingus
“Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own!” -Charles Mingus
“It (jazz) isn’t like it used to be. The guys aren’t together. They’re all separated. Individuals now. Bird was a symbol. It was a clique, a clique of people. Who all believed in one thing: gettin’ high. And playin’.” -Charles Mingus
“Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.” -Charles Mingus
“That sound in tune to you? Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I’m playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you should do that. Maybe I got it from her. She said singers when they grow old have a tendency to go flat. So if you sing sharp as a young person, as you get older and go flat, you’ll be in tune. In other words, it’s never thought good to be flat. It means you can’t get to the tone.” -Charles Mingus
“Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don’t care what you play anyway.” -Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Multimedia Directory
Charles Mingus - Flowers For A Lady (1974)
Charles Mingus Sextet - Live in Norway, 1964 Part 1
Charles Mingus Sextet - Live in Norway, 1964 Part 2
Charles Mingus Speaking
Charles Mingus Sextet - Live in Norway, 1964 Part 3