Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus
Donald Macleod and biographer Brian Priestley explore the life and music of the great jazz double bass player Charles Mingus
Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus - Bassist to Bandleader
Donald Macleod looks at how Mingus went from being a leading double bassist to becoming a composer. Featuring Mingus Fingers, Eclipse, Half-Mast Inhibition and Getting Together.
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Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus - Bird and Other Influences
Donald Macleod explores music Mingus wrote as the 1960s began, including tributes to his influences, such as Charlie Parker, as well as pieces reacting to the civil rights struggle.
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Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus - Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Donald Macleod explores Mingus's Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, which was completed in the wake of a disastrous retrospective concert at the Town Hall in New York in 1960.
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Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus - Epitaph (1965-1979)
Donald Macleod charts Mingus's final years, by which time he had managed to achieve a resurgence and official recognition following some very dark times in the mid-1960s.
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Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus - This Is Almost My Time (1957-1959)
Donald Macleod explores Mingus's music of the late 1950s, looking at the factors affecting his composing, from gospel influences to his working relationships with his bandmates.
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