Charles Mingus discusses live performances.

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Charles Mingus discusses the blues.

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Charles Mingus discusses musical inspiration.

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Q: “Very hard to get people to go out anymore, I find. Just to go out and, you know, hear good players even…”

A: Charles Mingus: “Live music. It's too bad ... recording does a lot to keep people home. I remember ... Ernie Raul [ph], he used to play first trombone with Lyle Hampton.”

Interviewer: “Yeah.”

Charles Mingus: Lyle Hampton. He said ...”

Interviewer: “Marshall Rosberg [ph]?”

Charles Mingus: “Yeah, Marshall Rosberg [ph]. No one ever thought of that in those days. This is before Charlie Parker and them recorded it. He says, "Those guys are going to mess up, make some records, and everybody is going to be playing. If they wouldn’t make any records, just record - just play in person or in performance and they'd make a million dollars." And he is probably right because, you know, because everybody just follow ’em around with a tape recorder, you know, and soon as they play it, it will become the thing to play. If they, you know, they could play something corny and I've heard ’em do it intentionally, you know.”