Charles Mingus was a jazz composer, pianist, and bassist. As a bassist, he developed a strong, unmistakable identity, melding counter melodies and inner harmonies. But his lasting legacy was as a composer. Mingus composed more than three hundred works and left the largest body of jazz compositions after Duke Ellington. His original scores are housed in the Library of Congress, along with the works of Mozart and Beethoven. Starting in the 1950s, Mingus's experiments with atonality and dissonance made him a leading figure among modern jazz composers, and his brilliant use of the bass elevated that instrument to solo musicians.