Sue Mingus

Sue Graham Mingus is an American record producer and band manager. She is the widow of jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus.

After Charles Mingus' death from Lou Gehrig's disease[1] in 1979, Sue Mingus established bands to perform his music, beginning with the Mingus Dynasty, a septet that tours internationally and performs regularly at Jazz Standard in New York City. The Dynasty alternates with the Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra.[2] Mingus produced several albums with these bands. In 2011, Mingus Big Band Live at Jazz Standard won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.[3][4]

She produced two legacy albums: Charles Mingus: Music Written for Monterey, 1965 (Mingus Music, 2006) and Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 (Blue Note, 2007).[4][5]

In 1989, Sue Mingus produced Mingus's Epitaph for thirty-one musicians in its premiere at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and again in 2007 when it toured four cities and was broadcast by National Public Radio.[6]

Through Mingus's publishing company Jazz Workshop, Mingus has published educational books, Charles Mingus: More than a Fake Book, Charles Mingus: More than a Play Along, dozens of Mingus Big Band charts, guitar and piano charts and a series for students called Simply Mingus, all distributed by Hal Leonard Publishers.

In 2009, through Let My Children Hear Music, the nonprofit created to promote Mingus' music, she presented the First Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition[7] at Manhattan School of Music with Justin DiCioccio.[8]

In 2002, she published a memoir, Tonight at Noon: a Love Story, that was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book.[9][10]