Sue Mingus has been guiding bassist Charles Mingus’s legacy since he died in 1979. She is the author of Tonight At Noon (Random House/Pantheon, 2002), a memoir of her life with Mingus. In this interview, Sue Mingus talks about the fourth annual Mingus High School Competition and Festival, happening this month in New York; how to bring Mingus’s music to the current generation of musicians; why she feels differently now about going after music pirates; her memoir and the idea of memory; and what lies ahead for the music and legacy of Charles Mingus.

NOTE: See a complete calendar of the Mingus High School Competition and Festival and also the performance schedule of the Mingus ensembles.