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Charles Mingus - S02E06

April 14, 2026 · 59 min

Show notes

A celebration of the complicated life and innovative music of Charles Mingus whose powerful voice for civil rights and hot temper earned him the reputation as “The Angry Man of Jazz.”

We’ll talk with his widow Sue Mingus about her husband's compositional genius, explore his music and virtuosic bass playing, hear the story behind his legendary collaboration with Joni Mitchell, and learn about the efforts to keep the legacy of Mingus’s music alive. One from the vaults – this episode was produced for Jazz Connections, an earlier version of The New Jazz Archive.

Episode Transcript

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Sue Mingus

Music

  • Charles Mingus “Moanin’”
  • Charles Mingus “Prayer for Passive Resistance”
  • Charles Mingus “II B.S.”
  • Charles Mingus “Free Cell Block F, ‘Tis Nazi U.S.A.”
  • Duke Ellington “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo"
  • Charles Mingus “Pithecanthropus Erectus”
  • Charles Mingus “Reincarnation of a Lovebird”
  • Charles Mingus “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blue”
  • Charles Mingus “Better Git It in Your Soul”
  • Charles Mingus “Boogie Stop Shuffle”
  • Charles Mingus “So Long Eric”
  • Charles Mingus “Freedom”
  • Deborah Harry and Andy Summers “Weird Nightmare”
  • Mingus Big Band “Eat That Chicken (Paella)”
  • Charles Mingus “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”
  • Charles Mingus “Freedom, Pt. 2 (Clark In the Dark)”
  • Charles Mingus “Pedal Point Blues”
  • Mingus Big Band “Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi U.S.A.”
  • Charles Mingus and Joni Mitchell “The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines”
  • Charles Mingus and Joni Mitchell “God Must Be a Boogie Man”
  • Charles Mingus “Oscar Pettiford”
  • Charles Mingus “Peggy's Blue Skylight”

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Jeff Haas

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts by Erik Saras

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

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The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.

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