Kevin Ellington Mingus (KEM) is an accomplished contra-bassist and performer who works with innovative and improvisational modes that highlight his talent outside the often-strict categorization of the jazz genre.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1976, he was raised in the heart of a Jewish family by his mother, away from the creative legacy of his grandfather and jazz icon Charles Mingus, to which he belonged. He started playing the guitar at the age of ten and a year later joined the San Diego Youth Orchestra, where he switched to the contra-bass, a move motivated by the similarities of the instruments. It would not be until two years later that he discovered his grandfather’s passion for the bass. Soon after he was invited to join musical director Jimmy Cheatham in a mentorship program at the University of California, San Diego, where he played with the university big band until he graduated high school.
While attending the University of California, Berkeley, KEM formed a duo with pianist Vijay Iyer and worked with poet Amiri Baraka. At this early stage of his career, collaborations with musicians and poets on the forefront of experimental music, including Dr. Anthony Brown, Wadada Leo Smith and George Lewis had a strong impact on him. By that point, KEM had immersed himself in a wide range of musical genres. He continued his studies in Argentina during the late 1990s at the Manuel de Falla Music Conservatory, studying tango, bandoneon and composition with Nestor Marconi.
Playing in non-traditional constellations where the bass has an expressive voice while pushing the range of his instrument to develop progressive techniques has enabled KEM to reflect his heritage and contemporary ideologies in music. This style was brazenly evident in his duo with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa while performing in the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series from 2000 to 2003. He has also performed and recorded with Asian American jazz movement musicians Glenn Horiuchi, Francis Wong and Miya Masaoka. Insistent on working towards creative freedom, KEM carries his music with an independent spirit to audiences, unbound by musical borders.
Currently based in Berlin, Germany, he continues to foster new relationships in sound and is expanding his collaborations into theatre and new media, gaining experience in filming and producing documentaries. He worked intensively with Croatian filmmaker Sasa Oreskovic in Soundless Fall of the Gravitation and Rio Pekos. Since then, inspired by a vision to understand his family heritage in forms other than music, Mingus on Mingus was born, a documentary that follows KEM’s journey through the lore and legends of jazz history to find his grandfather.
