Watts area of Los Angeles, California. His mother’s paternal heritage was

Chinese and English, while historical records indicate that his father was the

illegitimate offspring of a black farmhand and his Swedish employer’s white

granddaughter.

His mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus

developed an early love for jazz, especially the music of Duke Ellington. He

studied trombone, and later cello. Much of the cello technique he learned was

applicable to double bass when he took up the instrument in high school.

Beginning in his teen years, Mingus was writing quite advanced pieces; many

are similar to Third Stream Jazz. A number of them were recorded in 1960 with

conductor Gunther Schuller, and released as Pre-Bird, referring to Charlie “Bird”

Parker.

Mingus gained a reputation as something of a bass prodigy. He toured with

Louis Armstrong in 1943, then played with Lionel Hampton’s band in the late

1940s; Hampton performed and recorded several of Mingus’s pieces. A popular

trio of Mingus, Red Norvo and Tal Farlow in 1950 and 1951 received

considerable acclaim, but Mingus’ mixed origin caused problems with club

owners and he left the group. Mingus was briefly a member of Ellington’s band

in the early 1950s, and Mingus’s notorious temper reportedly led to his being the

only musician personally fired by Ellington (although there are reports that

Sidney Bechet in 1925 was another), after an on-stage fight between Mingus and

Juan Tizol.

Also in the early 1950s, before attaining commercial recognition as a bandleader,

Mingus played gigs with Charlie Parker, whose compositions and

improvisations greatly inspired and influenced him. Mingus considered Parker

the greatest genius and innovator in jazz history, but he had a love-hate

relationship with Parker’s legacy. Mingus blamed the Parker mythology for a

derivative crop of pretenders to Parker’s throne. He was also conflicted and

sometimes disgusted by Parker’s self-destructive habits and the romanticized

lure of drug addiction they offered to other jazz musicians.