Satchmo, Miles, Mingus, and the Performers Choices

A Lecture by 

Krin Gabbard
Adjunct Professor of Jazz Studies
(Columbia University)

Wednesday, September 28nd , 2016, 7pm
101 Prentis Hall
632 West 125th Street
New York, NY 10027
Columbia University Manhattan-ville Campus

Event Description:
Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, Charles Mingus was surely aware of Louis Armstrong and his crowd-pleasing behavior on stage. Many performers of later generations, most notably Miles Davis, went to the opposite extreme and appeared to hold the audience in contempt. Mingus, by contrast, tried to reason with his audience, often lecturing them but also finding ways to entertain them without compromising his own convictions. Having played in bands led by both Armstrong and Lionel Hampton, Mingus understood the choices Armstrong faced as a performer and rejected Davis’s aloof stage manner. But Mingus was just one of many critics who had something to say about Armstrong on stage. Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, Robert G. O’Meally, and Brent Hayes Edwards have all made strong arguments about how we should think about Armstrong.

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