“I am convinced that the unifying element in Mingus’ music is passion…the basest materials were melted down and purified in the heat of the Mingus furnace. Not a dispassionate note was sounded: Players either stood the heat or left the kitchen. Many who stayed never had finer hours than those Mingus provided.” – Composer/arranger Sy Johnson, from his liner notes to Nostalgia In Times Square / The Immortal 1959 Sessions(Columbia Records, 1979)