Editing Charles Mingus (section)

===Early life and career===
Charles Mingus was born in [[Nogales, Arizona]]. His father, Charles Mingus Sr., was a sergeant in the [[U.S. Army]].<ref>Santoro, Gene. ''Myself When I am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus'' (Oxford University Press, 1994); {{ISBN|0-19-509733-5}}</ref> Mingus Jr. was largely raised in the [[Watts, Los Angeles|Watts]] area of Los Angeles.

Mingus's ethnic background was complex. His ancestry included German American, African American, and Native American heritage.<ref name="Santoro, 2000">Santoro, 2000</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Todd |title=I Know What I Know: The Music of Charles Mingus |date=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313082009 |page=5}}</ref><ref name=Horton/> His maternal grandfather was a Chinese British subject from [[Hong Kong]], and his maternal grandmother was an African American from the southern United States. Mingus was the great-great-great-grandson of his family's founding patriarch who, by most accounts, was a German immigrant.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} In Mingus's autobiography ''[[Beneath the Underdog]]'', his mother was described as "the daughter of an English/Chinese man and a South-American woman", and his father was the son "of a black farm worker and a Swedish woman". Charles Mingus Sr. claims to have been raised by his mother and her husband as a white person until he was fourteen, when his mother revealed to her family that the child's true father was a [[Slavery in the United States|black slave]], after which he had to run away from his family and live on his own. The autobiography does not confirm whether Charles Mingus Sr. or Mingus himself believed this story was true, or whether it was merely an embellished version of the Mingus family's lineage.<ref name="autogenerated1991">{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Todd S. |title=I know what I know: the music of Charles Mingus |date=2006 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-275-98102-0 |location=Westport, Conn}}</ref> According to new information used to educate visitors to Mingus Mill in the [[Great Smoky Mountains National Park]], included in signs unveiled May 23, 2023, the father of Mingus Sr. was former slave Daniel Mingus, owned by the family of his mother Clarinda Mingus, a white woman. When Clarinda married a white man, Mingus Sr. was left with his white grandfather and great-grandparents. His father, who later changed his name to West, apparently did not have a relationship with Mingus Sr.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2023/06/03/word-from-the-smokies-uncovering-the-origins-of-mingus-family-saga/70281040007/|title=Uncovering the origins of Mingus family saga|last=Searcy|first=Aaron|work=[[Asheville Citizen-Times]]|date=3 June 2023}}</ref>

His mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for other music, especially that of [[Duke Ellington]]. He studied [[trombone]], and later [[cello]], although he was unable to follow the cello professionally because, at the time, it was nearly impossible for a black musician to make a career of classical music, and the cello was not accepted as a jazz instrument. Despite this, Mingus was still attached to the cello; as he studied bass with [[Red Callender]] in the late 1930s, Callender even commented that the cello was still Mingus's main instrument. In ''Beneath the Underdog'', Mingus states that he did not actually start learning bass until [[Buddy Collette]] accepted him into his swing band under the stipulation that he be the band's bass player.<ref name="autogenerated1991" />

Due to a poor education, the young Mingus could not read musical notation quickly enough to join the local youth orchestra. This had a serious impact on his early musical experiences, leaving him feeling ostracized from the classical music world. These early experiences, in addition to his lifelong confrontations with racism, were reflected in his music, which often focused on themes of racism, discrimination and (in)justice.<ref name=Horton>{{cite web |last=Horton |first=Ernest Aaron |title=Charles Mingus and the Paradoxical Aspects of Race as Reflected in His Life and Music |url=http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04072007-140228/unrestricted/ERonHortonDissertation.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425062001/http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04072007-140228/unrestricted/ERonHortonDissertation.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 |url-status=live |publisher=Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh |date=2007 |access-date=11 October 2011}}</ref>

Much of the cello technique he learned was applicable to [[double bass]] when he took up the instrument in high school. He studied for five years with Herman Reinshagen, principal bassist of the [[New York Philharmonic]], and compositional techniques with Lloyd Reese.<ref>{{cite web |title=Charles Mingus &#124; Charles "Baron" Mingus: West Coast, 1945–49 |url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=7105 |website=Allaboutjazz.com |date=1 February 2001 |access-date=8 October 2009}}</ref> Throughout much of his career, he played a bass made in 1927 by the German maker [[Ernst Heinrich Roth]].

Mingus was already writing relatively advanced musical pieces in his teenage years; many are similar to [[Third Stream]] in that they incorporate elements of classical music. A number of pieces were recorded in 1960 with conductor [[Gunther Schuller]], and released as ''[[Pre-Bird]]'', referring to [[Charlie Parker|Charlie "Bird" Parker]]; Mingus was one of many musicians whose perspectives on music were altered by Parker into "pre- and post-Bird" eras.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

Mingus gained a reputation as a bass prodigy. His first major professional job was playing with former Ellington clarinetist [[Barney Bigard]]. He toured with [[Louis Armstrong]] in 1943, and by early 1945 was recording in Los Angeles in a band led by [[Russell Jacquet]], which also included [[Teddy Edwards]], [[Maurice James Simon]], [[Wild Bill Davis]], and [[Chico Hamilton]], and in May that year, in Hollywood, again with Edwards, in a band led by [[Howard McGhee]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Jazz Discography Project |title=Charles Mingus Catalog |url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/charles-mingus/catalog |website=Jazzdisco.org |access-date=8 October 2009}}</ref>

He then played with [[Lionel Hampton]]'s band in the late 1940s; Hampton performed and recorded several Mingus pieces. A popular trio of Mingus, [[Red Norvo]], and [[Tal Farlow]] in 1950 and 1951 received considerable acclaim, but Mingus's race caused problems with some club owners and he left the group. Mingus was briefly a member of Ellington's band in 1953, as a substitute for bassist [[Wendell Marshall]]; however, Mingus's notorious temper led to his being one of the few musicians personally fired by Ellington ([[Bubber Miley]] and drummer [[Bobby Durham (jazz musician)|Bobby Durham]] are among the others) after a backstage fight between Mingus and [[Juan Tizol]].{{sfn|Hentoff|1978|pp=34-35}}

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. In response to the many sax players who imitated Parker, Mingus titled a song "If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" (released on ''[[Mingus Dynasty]]'' as "Gunslinging Bird").<ref>{{cite web |title=Mingus Explains Song Titles|url=https://www.charlesmingus.com/mingus/mingus-explains-song-titles |website=Charles Mingus |access-date=12 January 2021}}</ref>

Mingus married four times. His wives were Jeanne Gross, Lucille (Celia) Germanis, Judy Starkey, and [[Sue Mingus|Susan Graham Ungaro]].<ref name="Santoro, 2000"/>