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"Ladies and gentlemen, please don't associate me with any of this. This is not jazz. These are sick people."

— Charles Mingus

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Composers from the United States Jazz musicians Bassists Pianists from the United States African Americans

Original Language: English

Sources

After angry altercations at a reunion gig (4 March 1955), as quoted in Myself When I Am Real : The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (2001) by Gene Santoro; Bud Powell was reportedly drunk, smashed the keyboard and walked off stage, and Charlie Parker stood at the microphone calling: "Bud Powell, Bud Powell." A week later Parker was dead of cirrhosis of the liver.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus

After angry altercations at a reunion gig (4 March 1955), as quoted in Myself When I Am Real : The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (2001) by Gene Santoro; Bud Powell was reportedly drunk, smashed the keyboard and walked off stage, and Charlie Parker stood at the microphone calling: "Bud Powell, Bud Powell." A week later Parker was dead of cirrhosis of the liver.