Mingus Big Band

Founded in 1991 and managed by Charles Mingus’s widow, Sue Mingus, the Mingus Big Band is a New York City-based ensemble with a rotating cast of musicians that primarily plays the late jazz legend’s scores. The group, which can number up to 20 musicians at a time, usually plays a weekly gig in New York City, cycling through Mingus’s repertoire of lengthy, complex, often avant-garde compositions. The band has included such musicians as Chris Potter, Alex Foster, Randy Brecker, John Stubblefield, James Carter, Frank Lacy, Lew Soloff, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, among others. The band’s impressive discography, which includes both concert and studio recordings, is surpassed only by the experience of hearing them live.