Short YouTube commentary by Lennon Bone (uploaded April 11, 2022) about jazz composer Charles Mingus and an anecdote that he taught his cats to use the toilet (he even created a pamphlet). The speaker uses this quirky personal detail to make a broader point: knowledge of artists’ personalities and oddities can deepen listeners’ appreciation of their music.
I saw this article in the New York Times about Charles Mingus. If you're not familiar with Mingus, he's an incredible legendary jazz composer, arguably created some of the most important music ever written and he taught his cats how to the toilet. Now this is not a joke. He actually created a whole pamphlet. So he had multiple cats in his apartment in New York and they would use the toilet. I've heard of other people doing this before, so it's not that new to me. This brings up an interesting point because I'm always thinking about why we love the artists that we love. The point is it's never always about the music. It's also about who they are as people, the other quirky, weird things that they've done, the stories that they have in their everyday life. And so when Mingus teaches his cat how to use I am enthralled with this information. In a weird way, I'll probably like his music more.
