"The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" by Charles Mingus was recorded fifty nine years ago today on January 20th, 1963.

"The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" by Charles Mingus was recorded fifty nine years ago today on January 20th, 1963.

"... I wrote the music for dancing and listening. It is true music with much and many of my meanings. It is my living epitaph from birth til the day I first heard of Bird and Diz. Now it is me again. This music is only one little wave of styles and waves of little ideas my mind has encompassed through living in a society that calls itself sane, as long as you're not behind iron bars where there at least one can't be half as crazy as in most of the ventures our leaders take upon themselves to do and think for us, even to the day we should be blown up to preserve their idea of how life should be. Crazy? They'd never get out of the observation ward at Bellevue..." --Original Mingus liner notes from "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady"

There was a time when Charles held up $5 bills at his gigs to encourage listeners to get out of their seats and dance to the music.

"They killed jazz when they took dance out of it... " - C.M.

Born April 22, 1922, join us in celebrating 100 years of Great American Composer Charles Mingus!