Candid Records, in conjunction with Charles Mingus’ Jazz Workshop, Inc., celebrates the genius of the legendary Charles Mingus with the long-overdue reissue of "Mingus at Monterey," available now on CD, 2-LP vinyl set, and for the first time ever, at all DSPs and streaming services.
Released initially on Mingus’ own short-lived mail order Jazz Workshop label and out of print for more than 40 years, the tour de force live performance from the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival captures Mingus at the top of his form and the height of his powers.
"Mingus at Monterey" has been remastered by 5x GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Michael Graves, with vinyl mastering by renowned engineer Jeff Powell. The 2-LP set includes the album’s original gatefold jacket artwork, meticulously restored and reproduced for this release.
Perhaps the most consistently requested reissue by Mingus fans, "Mingus at Monterey" proved a sensation upon its sold out limited edition run for Record Store Day 2025 earlier this year, ranking as Redeye Distribution’s top selling RSD release while reaching the Top 20 on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Albums and Jazz Albums charts, as well as #82 on the overall Top Catalog Albums and #102 on the Independent Albums Chart.
LISTEN / ORDER "MINGUS AT MONTEREY" HERE
Charles Mingus was a giant of American music, known for his powerhouse sound and authoritative technique, his unforgettable, irascible personality, and most importantly, his original compositions. His music, a transcendent blend of jazz, European classical music, bebop, the avant-garde, blues, gospel, and more, are a famously undefinable sound he himself dubbed simply as “Mingus Music.”
Mingus at Monterey stands as a chronicle of one of jazz’s most important figures operating at full strength during a hugely influential period. The herculean bassist and composer’s Sunday afternoon performance at the seventh annual Monterey Jazz Festival – the longest continuously running jazz festival in the world, held every September on the 20-acre, oak-studded Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, CA – was an absolute triumph.
It was met with breathless praise from publications such the New York Herald Tribune, where legendary critic (and Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder) Ralph J. Gleason wrote, “Mingus erased the memory of any bass player in jazz.” Or, as the San Francisco Chronicle opened its review, “Monterey belonged to Charles Mingus this year. All the way.” No easy feat, considering the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival also showcased Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. Anchoring a small group alongside two of his most trusted colleagues, pianist Jaki Byard and drummer Dannie Richmond, Mingus opened with a medley dedicated to his foremost musical hero, Duke Ellington. This was no casual tribute. Ellington was Mingus’ lodestar, the early influence who showed how music could hold majesty, complexity, and popular appeal all at once. A definitive reading of Mingus’ own noirish masterpiece, “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk,” followed by what proved the performance’s incontrovertible highlight: A thrilling, 25 minute rendition of “Meditations on Integration” bolstered by the addition of a big band. The composition gave tempestuous musical voice to Mingus’ passion for civil rights and earned an explosive standing ovation and national applause from such high-profile outlets as Time, which declared “Meditations on Integration demonstrated that Mingus must be ranked among the greatest of jazz composers.”
In Mingus’ own words, “It’s taken me a long time to get to where I want musically. I just wish that I could give you that picture, that moment at Monterey along with this music. This is the sound that people heard at Monterey and the life of the music is there. That’s why I bring this record to the people. I give you the Monterey music as a token of love, as a memory.”