This weekend, some of Richmond’s favorite local jazz musicians will be coming together to celebrate a legend and donate their time to an important cause. Through the Mingus Awareness Project, they’ll highlight the renowned bassist and pianist Charles Mingus with new arrangements of his compositions — and raise money for the ALS Association, which fights the disease that Mingus lost his life to in 1979.
Inspired by similar festivals across the country, local artist Brian Jones began curating the Mingus Awareness Project in 2007, and it’s been a vital opportunity for local artists to connect. This year, though, they’re doing things a little differently: instead of one all-day event, the festival will be held over the course of a full weekend, Aug. 9–11.
Tenor saxophonist Charles Owens and trombonist Toby Whitaker will be performing on night three of the festival. I spoke with them about Mingus’ legacy, their plans for the show, and how the Mingus Awareness Project has shaped the Richmond jazz scene.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Annie Parnell: You’re both performing at the final night of the Mingus Awareness Project this year,. What can listeners expect to hear?
Charles Owens: Toby and I are gonna both lead our own separate groups. I know that for me, it's going to be a mix of Charles Mingus originals and Charles Owens originals. And I'll be playing saxophone and keyboards, my Nord, and it will have Randall Pharr, the bass, and this great new drummer in town named Karl Tietze. And I know Toby's got some really cool stuff planned. Right, Toby?
Toby Whitaker: Yes. We did this once before about 10 years ago with a group I put together, so it's essentially most of the players from that date, with a couple exceptions of people that couldn't make it or are no longer in town.
It’s gonna be an octet — so five horns, bass, drum set,and percussion. We have Brian Jones on drums, Will Roman on percussion, Randall Pharr will also be playing bass with us. And then for the horns, myself on trombone. We have Bob Miller on trumpet. Jason Scott on alto sax, John Lilley on tenor sax, and JC Kuhl be playing baritone sax.
Wow. And for one of the pieces, there's a potential for a couple extra horns to be added just because it's a larger kind of orchestrated piece.
CO: Fine, I'll do it!
TW [laughing]: But it's to be discussed. We'll see.
You mentioned having done something similar about 10 years ago – is that the set that you released as an album a couple years back?
TW: Yeah, it was the same deal. It was the Mingus Awareness Project. And we had Lance Koehler from Minimum Wage [Recording] come in and record it. And it turned out, the performance was really good. So Brian had Curtis Fye from Spacebomb do some mastering, and then they put it out under Brian's label, Slang Sanctuary.
It was just three tunes at that particular show — you know, they used to do it all in one night, where there'd be five or six different groups. It was about, you know, maybe a 20-minute or 30-minute set. This one is spread out over three nights, and it's just two groups per night, so each group will be doing a slightly more extended set. So we've taken some of the old tunes and then added some new tunes.
CO: Yeah, the last time I did it was at The Camel, and we did like three songs. And it was great, it was incredible hang, but it’s cool the way they’re doing it this year.
As you might guess from the title, the festival honors and promotes Charles Mingus’ legacy with performances of his compositions. Do you feel that legacy in your music today?
TW: I mean, for sure, he was a huge influence on me as a musician in general. He was one of the earliest influences that I had, because, you know, growing up my knowledge of jazz in my early life was very limited. But he was one of the first artists that I heard that just blew my mind — like, “what is this? What is going on here?”
The compositions, the ferocity of the musicians in the group, it's definitely something that I'm sure impacts anything I've ever written or arranged in my entire life.
CO: Yeah, I would say the same. When I first started at The New School in 1992, there was a huge portrait of Charles Mingus in the window. And I would see him every day. As a fresh high school graduate, I didn't really know much about him, but that picture definitely made me get into him. And there's some records that I've subsequently got into that were huge influences on me for a number of musical reasons.
There's a lot of material that he recorded in the early ‘60s live in Europe, with the sextet featuring Danny Richmond on drums, Jaki Byard on the piano, and Eric Dolphy on not just alto, but bass clarinet and flute. And, of course, Charles Mingus. These were extended concerts with really long solos, and the songs could be 20–25 minutes long.
There's a particular one that I'm thinking of now that I just listened to every day, it seems like, for a year straight, got really obsessed with. It's Live in 1964, and the song is called “Praying with Eric.” The thing that keeps going through my head now is the moment where Charles Mingus has his bow out and he's bowing the bass super, super high on the neck, and then Eric Dolphy, he's playing the flute.
And at one point, they're both playing in the exact same register, because Eric Dolphy is playing really low and Charles Mingus is bowing really high. And they're right at the same note, the flute and the bass, and it sounds incredible. It’s a seriously crazy cosmic moment.
TW: Yeah, I think that's something — obviously Mingus was a brilliant composer and not just a bass player, but he would really push the limits of each instrument and each instrumentalist. Extreme in every way. His ballads are extremely beautiful, musicians are extremely virtuosic. And the compositions can be extremely simple or just like the most difficult thing you've ever seen on paper.
CO: That’s a great observation, Toby. I totally agree with that. Yeah, he's been a huge influence. And then of course, all the great tenor players who have recorded “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” which is one of the best melodies ever written. Also, you know, I got into him via Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell put a great album out called Mingus. There's a great vocal version of “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.
So yeah, Charles Mingus has loomed over my whole musical life for sure.
Literally and figuratively.
CO: Indeed! And his music is still very much alive today. You know, there's a Mingus big band that plays in New York every week. And there's also a Mingus small group, I think it's called the Mingus Dynasty. And so his music is still being kept alive by all of us, as well it should.
What are some of your personal favorite Mingus compositions?
TW: The trombonist that played with him the most was Jimmy Knepper, and he's just a very unique trombonist and very cool. He was one of those players that you immediately know it's him when you hear them, and is just a very deliberate player, I would say. But he recorded the ballad “Invisible Lady,” which is just a gorgeous ballad, and it's so well-suited for the trombone. That's one of the tunes that sticks out.
The album Let My Children Hear Music, one of the most important recordings of music that exists in human existence. The song “The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife” is amazing, that entire album is just beautiful, and it features a lot of larger ensemble orchestrations where you can see him branching out of his more traditional small group stuff.
CO: There's definitely classics that that everyone loves, like “Nostalgia in Times Square,” I think that's just a classic tune for the ages. One of my favorites is “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, and Then Silk Blues,” which is such a beautiful ballad, but also it's so bluesy and so emotional and happy and sad. It's a real journey.
What’s the name of the one I'm blanking on? It goes — [hums “Fables of Faubus”]
TW: “Fables of Faubus.”
CO: Yeah, I just kept thinking “governor,” I couldn't think of it. But I mean, as much as that's played by high schools and colleges, that song is incredible and so unique and really groundbreaking at the time. That's from an album that was from that was released in ’59. The year 1959 in jazz is one of the heaviest — pretty much the biggest one as far as what was got released.
TW: “Duke Ellington Sound of Love” is another one. I think the older I get, I'm more drawn to the ballads. That's another just absolutely gorgeous tune, either the vocal version, or the instrumental version. We just did a recording with Doug Richards a couple years ago that featured his arrangement of that tune, which is awesome.
The Mingus Awareness Project has been running since 2007, and I know you both have been involved in previous years. How did you get involved originally?
TW: I mean, originally, for me, it was just going to it. They've always been some of the coolest jazz shows in Richmond, just because the festival brings together a lot of people. Everyone’s playing gigs, so you don't always have time to go to other people's gigs. This is one where it's like, “Oh, you're on that too? Awesome, you could play in my group!” and then it's like, “There's gonna be a whole set that's just Cameron playing solo bass!” or all sorts of different things.
I think Doug has had a full big band sometimes. And that's the other cool thing about Mingus, is there’s anything from solo bass to trio to big band to the Epitaph stuff, which I think was written for double jazz orchestra. You can really span any orchestration there. The compositions just sort of stand on their own, so it almost doesn't matter what instruments you throw in there.
But I think at the end, Brian asked me to put something together in I think it was 2014, and then I played with Doug Richards’ group a few years back. But yeah, mostly I just like going to those shows, because something really exciting is always gonna happen.
CO: For me it was, of course, through Brian Jones. The first time Brian ever asked me to do anything was to play A Love Supreme in a church show with him. It was the first time I'd ever performed A Love Supreme, and that was amazing. And so then, after that, we played gigs together, and he just one year asked me to put together a trio. We did “Fables of Faubus” that time, at The Camel. And it was a really great hang.
It wasn't a commercial gig, you know. In other words, everyone's donating their time, so the vibe is, “we're gonna do exactly what we want.” There was some really wild, free playing, and they were playing videos of Mingus in between the bands, and everyone was sitting on the floor. It was a really cool vibe. I've done it that one time, and I'm so glad to be back doing it again. Shoutouts to Brian Jones.
TW: Yeah, total respect to Brian for not just putting on this show year after year after year, but you know, just his contribution to music from the Richmond scene. The 20 or 30 albums he's put out, I know, have been an influence on me compositionally. He's another one of those artists that, whether it's a trio or larger ensemble or smaller ensemble, his very organic compositional styles stand on their own.
But also, through his curations, he has really contributed a lot — not just to the overall music scene here, but also helping musicians themselves grow.
It sounds like in addition to bringing awareness to Mingus, the festival is also a rallying force to bring the local jazz community together.
CO: Yeah, I think it's a great community building hang for sure. You know, Carl, my drummer, is new in town. He's from New Orleans. I was trying to sell him on this, like “Hey, man, you want to play a gig for free and donate your time?” And one of the things I told him is, “it's going to be a lot of great musicians there, it's going to be great hanging, and you’ll meet some people.”
Another aspect of the festival is its fundraising mission – it raises money for the ALS Association. Do both of you want to speak a little on what that piece of it means to you?
TW: I mean, of course, that's what Mingus himself passed away from. I don't know about Charles, but I've known friends of friends and family or friends that have suffered, and it's just an atrocious illness. And it's so sad, not only for the people that go through it, but also the family members and those that have to support that person as they're going through it. It's really terrible. It's hard to imagine a better cause to be donating my time to.
CO: Yeah, I couldn't have really said it better. I love donating my time for good causes. And I love playing just to make people happy in general. That's what I'm in this for. And if this can help anyone, I'm really grateful to be here to be able to do it — because I'm healthy, you know. It feels good to be healthy, feels good not to have anything wrong, and it's a blessing and something that we have to really remind ourselves of. It's really important, so I'm happy to donate my time.
The Mingus Awareness Project will be held throughout Richmond this weekend from Friday August 9th to Sunday August 11th. Ticket information is available online. All proceeds go to benefit the ALS Association.
Charles Owens will be releasing an album with his trio in December called The Music Tells Us. Toby Whitaker will be performing with Bio Ritmo at the North Carolina Folk Festival next month.
