Charles Mingus was a musician’s musician. Uncommonly talented, Mingus was the first bassist to transform his instrument from a rhythm-maker to the star of the ensemble.

A worshipper of Duke Ellington, Mingus’ compositions were kaleidoscopes of blue notes and sharps. Mingus’ odd sense of humor emerged in album titles like Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, and song titles “Oh Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me” and “If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.”

By the time The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963) was released, Mingus butted heads with band members. At a Philadelphia show, he punched trombonist Jimmy Knepper in the face. Another time, he shattered a $10,000 bass, an act which later inspired The Who’s concert-closing demolitions.

In a 2003 report from The British Journal of Psychiatry, British psychiatrist Geoffrey Wilson hypothesized that Mingus suffered from cyclothymic mood disorder, as he showed the irascible, paranoid symptoms of the illness; furthermore, it wasn’t so much that Mingus was a jerk, but that he was mentally unstable. Black Saint was the ultimate confession of this instability; Mingus even included an essay by his psychologist in the album’s liner notes.

Black Saint burns with anguish. Mixing the sounds of film noir with Ellington-esque orchestrated jazz, Mingus created a revolutionary tonal palette, one that captured the romantic alto of Charlie Mariano, bellowing timbers of tuba and baritone saxophone, and a stunning collection of muted trumpets and trombones. Even more, Mingus dabbled in flamenco sketches, and Black Saint features a-cappella passages with Spanish-tinged guitar and formal solo piano.

Though rooted in traditional orchestration, Mingus was a pioneer of the avant-garde. He layered all of the sounds from his eleven-piece band like an impressionistic painter. The results could seem messy and unpredictable, but his efforts ultimately reveal the blues, purples, and overwhelming honesty of the recording.

Mingus planned this album to the inch. Though he allowed for improvisations during rehearsals, the actual recording sessions followed Mingus’ exact intent, so much so that studio overdubbing was utilized for the first time even during post-production of a jazz album.

Mingus did not necessarily employ “melody” with his compositions, but rather, he uses motifs that he constantly repeats. Black Saint is a cohesive piece of orchestrated jazz. Think of the album as one forty-minute symphony. Instead of the traditional jazz formula, where one piece includes a theme, improvisations, and then a restatement of the theme, the album includes rich harmonies, soloing, and multiple motifs; these elements are imbalance. To break down the album is frustrating, but Black Saint as a coherent whole is a masterful exercise in thematic composition.

Mingus’ use of muted brass becomes more poignant with each listen. Mutes, when used effectively, add waterfalls of mystery to a recording (consider Miles Davis). Black Saint, however, includes mutes as extensions on the theme of primal emotion. Mingus manipulated the tones of the mutes to give the trumpets and trombones the ability to speak a strange, otherworldly language. Think of it this way: when Jimi Hendrix used a wah-wah effect on his guitar for the song “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” the effect gave his guitar a vocal quality as the tones jumped up and down the scale.

Mingus pushes the possibilities of the muted brass to far greater heights. The language on this recording is just beyond recognition; it cries out for understanding. Mingus was trying to express his troubled psyche with words, except he had no words. He had only thoughts, emotions, frustrations, and the haunting realization that nobody can understand and nobody can help. Mingus presented no easy resolution to these feelings, and he ended the album with one alto sax note, which fades off into the distance.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady represents the epoch of Charles Mingus’ career, and the recording, on every listen, reminds me of the emotional juggernaut that is music.