Reddit mentions of Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog

Triumph of the Underdog, the madman himself.

There's a Mingus documentary in which one of his horn players (can't quite remember who) says that Mingus taught him to solo as if it were a conversation. He quoted Mingus saying something along the lines of "You don't walk up to somebody and say 'HELLO HOW ARE YOU DOING I'M DOING JUST FINE TODAY THANK YOU!', instead you just say 'hi, how are you....that's good... i'm doing alright, too.' and you have a conversation from there."

I try to apply that principle to all of my solos, along with remembering basic rules of grammar such as run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, etc, to help with phrasing. I will always try to be better at using silence, though. In particular, Ahmad Jamal's playing has shown me the beauty of silence.