Quote Blog

Mingus 1-210

So far in the book, I have been learning about the early and mid life of Mingus. Growing up, Mingus was subjected to physical abuse and racism from those around him whilst growing up in Los Angeles.   The only positive thing that came from Mingus' life in his early years was his profound love for music which was given too him by his father when his father decided that Mingus needed to learn an instrument. The second instrument that Mingus picked was the Cello. The first was Trombone, but his father decided that Cello was a better instrument. Soon he began to take lessons with a local white music teacher named Mr. Arson. Mr Arson taught for instant results and not for long term success. In this specific quote, the narrator (god) talks about how Mr Arson taught Mingus how to use his ears and ignore reading sheet music.

“Im sure mr arsenal hadnt any idea that his shortcut method would turn out to be great for jazz improvisation, where the musician listens to the sounds he’s producing rather than making intellectual transference from the score paper to the fingering process” (Mingus 29)

This so far relates directly to Mingus throughout his later career. Mingus begins to get deeply into jazz, where sheet music and playing what is on the paper does not matter. If Mingus had taken the route of playing what he was told and not what he heard in his head, he would have become a classical musician. This is especially true because he spent most of his school days playing classical music up until he switched to playing bass as a teenager and learning under Red Callender. He soon got gigs with jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker before becoming his own personal band leader. Throughout these gigs, hearing the music and playing it is an essential ability to have. This ability lets one be creative and improvise at their own freedom, saying what ever they need too/want to say. In addition, with Mingus leading a band and writing his own music, this meant that each time he played one of his pieces, it was different because he was not relying on sheet music to tell him and the band what and how to play the song.

This applies to be, because I have been taught the same way. The first five years of me learning music have not had a single interaction with sheet music. It has not been until recently that I have begun to learn how to read. The only reason I have started learning to read sheet music is so that I can learn jazz heads and be successful in college. Aside from that, my ears have been my best friends. There are so many situations in blues and jazz that a musician has to hear something happen and respond to it. My favorite example of this is when I got the chance to play with one of my idols Joe Louis Walker. The two of us started a call and response routine that commonly happens in the blues. One player states something with his instrument and the other takes that idea, plays it and then modifies it to respond to that idea. These ideas are spontaneous and can't be written down in the moment, so the both of us must be able to hear what is being played and authentically respond to that player. 

Here is that video. JLW