Mingus Dynasty (band) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mingus Dynasty was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

ensemble formed in 1979, just after the death of Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

, which featured many musicians Mingus recorded or played with. The group was named after the 1959 album Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959, and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.- Track listing :All compositions by Charles Mingus except where noted.# "Slop"# "Diane"# "Song With Orange"...

.

In 1988, the group expanded to a big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

format, and the Mingus Big Band has held weekly residency in New York City since 1991. Currently there are three Mingus repertory groups, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Orchestra. They all tour extensively world wide.

Among the group's alumni are Jimmy Owens

Jimmy Owens

Jimmy Owens may refer to:*Jimmy and Carol Owens, songwriting team*Jimmy Owens , jazz trumpet player*Jimmy Owens , race car driver...

, Randy Brecker

Randy Brecker

Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...

, Richard Williams

Richard Williams

Richard Williams is a Canadian animator. He is best known for serving as animation director on Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler...

, Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...

, Jimmy Knepper

Jimmy Knepper

James M. Knepper was an American jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Knepper was twice on the receiving end of Mingus' legendary temper...

, John Handy

John Handy

John Richard Handy III is an American jazz alto saxophonist.-Biography:In the 1960s, Handy led several groups...

, Craig Handy

Craig Handy

Craig Mitchell Handy is an American post-bop tenor saxophonist.Born in Oakland, California, Handy attended North Texas State University from 1981 to 1984, and following this played with Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, George...

, Joe Farrell

Joe Farrell

Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...

, Ricky Ford

Ricky Ford

Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Ford was born in Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1974 he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976...

, George Adams

George Adams (musician)

George Rufus Adams was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond...

, David Murray

David Murray (jazz musician)

David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...

, Clifford Jordan

Clifford Jordan

Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He also recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny...

, Nick Brignola

Nick Brignola

-Biography:He was born on July 17, 1936 in Troy, New York. Nick was born into a musical family in which his father played the tuba and his uncle played the banjo. As a mostly self-taught musician, he developed his facility on all of his instruments using unconventional techniques, which gave his...

, Don Pullen

Don Pullen

Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...

, Roland Hanna

Roland Hanna

Roland Hanna was an American Jazz pianist.Hanna studied classical piano as a boy, but was strongly interested in jazz. This increased after his time in military service.He studied at Eastman School of Music and Juilliard School...

, Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...

, Mike Richmond

Mike Richmond (musician)

Mike Richmond is an American jazz bassist.Richmond played guitar as a youth but picked up bass during high school. He attended Temple University and taught and played locally in the late 1960s...

, Dannie Richmond

Dannie Richmond

Dannie Richmond was an American drummer who was best known among jazz fans for his work with Charles Mingus, and among pop fans for his work with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond....

, Billy Hart

Billy Hart

William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...

, Kenny Washington

Kenny Washington (musician)

Kenny Washington is a jazz drummer born in Staten Island, New York.He studied at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts...

, Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden

Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...

, Aladar Pege

Aladár Pege

Aladár Pege , was a jazz musician from Hungary. He was well known for his work and was dubbed "the Paganini of double bass"....

, Reggie Johnson, Reggie Workman

Reggie Workman

Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....

, and Richard Davis.

Discography

Chair in the Sky (Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....

, 1980) U.S. Jazz #23
Live at Montreux (Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, 1980)
Reincarnation (Soul Note, 1982)
Live at the Village Vanguard (Storyville Records
Storyville Records
Storyville Records is a large international record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has licensed and reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appeared on such labels as Paramount Records,...

, 1984)
Big Band Charles Mingus (Soul Note, 1988)
Live at the Theatre Boulogne-Billancourt Vols 1 & 2 (Soul Note)
Mingus' Sounds of Love (Soul Note, 1988)
Next Generation Performs Charles Mingus Brand New Compositions (Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, 1991)
At the Bottom Line (West Wind Records
West Wind Records
West Wind Records was a jazz record label, releasing albums by many notable musicians during the 1980s.Some of these albums were previously issued on labels such as Circle Records .-Discography:*001 Anthony Braxton - The Coventry Concert 1980...

, 1995)

Discography

Further reading