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Word From Mingus

Poet Langston Hughes helped write "Scenes In The City" for this 1959 Mingus album.
Poet Langston Hughes helped write "Scenes In The City" for this 1959 Mingus album.

On this edition of Night Lights, it's "Word From Mingus," a program of Charles Mingus' 1950s spoken-word collaborations with poet Langston Hughes, monologuist Jean Shepherd (who would go on to write and narrate A Christmas Story), and actor Melvin Stewart. We'll also hear Mingus' own performance of his piece "Chill of Death," written when Mingus was a teenager in the late 1930s and recorded for release on the 1972 album Let My Children Hear Music.