“Each time I see him, whenever I think of him, I realize again how uncategorizable the man and his music are. Having put all of his complicated life into what he writes and plays, Mingus has given us a remarkable musical autobiography – the record of a man who has persisted in finding his own way by continually penetrating as deeply as he can into the possibilities, the dangers, the confusions, the affirma­tions of an uncompromising existence among many who regard such fierce honesty as an aberration.” – Nat Hentoff, from his liner notes for The Best of Charles Mingus (Atlantic, 1970)