Charles Mingus has been one of my favorite Jazz artists and composers. This 2 disc box set comes with a 52 page booklet. I had three of his releases on cassette and a few more on CD. This is all I have left. Cd 1 starts off with a 27 minute piece called “Cumbia & Jazz Fusion” commissioned by an Italian movie producer for the soundtrack for a film about drug trafficking. It’s a suite in 10 parts with lots of Latin percussion, sax, trumpet, bassoon, clarinet and of course Mingus’s bass. From 1977, it’s his last recorded music as he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease later that year. He would die in January of 1979 on my birthday. “Myself When I Am Real” is a 7 minute piano solo by Mingus, not his main instrument but still good. “Haitian Fight Song” and “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” two of his better known works are next, the later one I knew from being on one of Jeff Beck’s 70’s albums and with a melody most people would know. Half Mast Inhibition” is another one with a large band numbering over 20 with Eric Dolphy playing woodwinds and Max Roach on drums being 2 I recognized. I listen to two tracks from Disc 2. Another long piece, the 23 minute “Meditations on Integration” was recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1964 with Mingus playing a bowed bass. It has some nice quiet moments with piano and flute. “Portrait” is the oldest track on this anthology from 1955. One of a few songs Mingus wrote with lyrics it is sung by Jackie Paris.