I've got a big chunk of his catalogue:

CDs:
http://i40.tinypic.com/29qfh4l.jpg

Vinyl:
http://i39.tinypic.com/vcx9h3.jpg

. . .and I have to say that there's not really a bad album in the bunch. He's not like the other jazz giants you mentioned (Trane and Miles), who both have periods in their respective catalogues that can be divisive among fans: With the late 60's/70's fusion and 80's stuff for Miles and the free stuff for Trane, these are both periods that a lot of people enjoy, but you will have a hard time finding people that are just as big of fans of Kind of Blue as they are of On the Corner or just as big of fans of Blue Train as they are of Interstellar Space.

Not the case with Mingus. He was so consistent that I would venture to say if you pick up one of his, say, Impulse albums and dig it, you'll dig everything, in varying degrees. Practically the only distinguishing trait for his music is the size of the band. The smaller group stuff tends to be a bit more adventurous, but the composition style is the same as when he worked with larger bands.

Personally, I prefer his 70's stuff, just on the basis of it being less familiar than his previous material. It was also in the 70's that he really started to focus on being a composer, so the music often takes on more of classical approach than ever before. But, through it all, there's always a very strong blues influence, so even though the songs are structured like a multi-movement orchestral piece, they're still played like a jammin' jazz group. If I had to pick one from this era, I'd say the Changes albums are my favorite.

Some notable Mingus contributions that you should be aware of:

Jazz at Massey Hall: http://amzn.to/IZAv61
Is one of the best jazz albums ever. The group is unbelievable.

Money Jungle: http://amzn.to/HE3foK
One of Duke's greatest performances and Mingus is just insane through the whole thing; you can tell he was showing off for his idol.

Hope this helps.

~Austin

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