Musician Red Callender Dies Of Cancer At 76

LOS ANGELES - Red Callender, the jazz bass player who introduced the legendary Charles Mingus to that instrument, died from complications of thyroid cancer. He had turned 76 on Friday.

Mr. Callender's wife, Mary Lou, said her husband died Sunday at their home in suburban Saugus.

"He was a man capable of doing everything from symphony work to country and Western to gospel to jazz, even some stuff with James Taylor to avant-garde or Dixieland," Mrs. Callender said. "He never put any kind of music down. He always went to a job and did it 100 percent."

Mr. Callender was born George Sylvester Callender in Haynesville, Va. He studied tuba, bass, trumpet and harmony as a boy. He moved to Los Angeles and made his recording debut with Louis Armstrong when he was 19.

In 1939 a determined 17-year-old boy named Charles Mingus asked Mr. Callender to teach him the bass. He charged the teen-ager $2 an hour, and after the lessons they shared ice cream and dreams.

Mr. Callender also played with such jazz giants as Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon and Benny Goodman.

One of the first black musicians to break the color barrier in Hollywood during the 1950s, he performed extensively in TV, on shows starring Carol Burnett, Danny Kaye, Flip Wilson, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jonathan Winters.

He last performed on New Year's Eve in Santa Monica.

He also is survived by four children and three grandchildren.