Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
read it again and again!, 15 Mar 2001
By A Customer
Mingus starts with his birth experience, oddball schooldays, from being bullied to being a pimp to having a jam with Tatum and falling in love with Bird. All the way you are absorbed into how he thinks, his attitudes, and especially his vulnerability, its very frank and cutting. Some of the best parts include his relationship with Fats Navarro, which have some really deep undertones, his first go at pimping with meeting his "uncle" in San Fran, to his trip to New York. Honestly, along with Art Peppers book, this is one of the best up front books documenting a jazz musicians (ming would deny he was one) life. You will read it many times!!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beneath the Underdog, 29 April 2007
This is a good look at the life of Mingus, written in a very open, honest and conversational style. It isn't so much about his music life, as about his lifestyle that helped create the jazz he played. If you want an in-depth look at his recording career and concerts then look elsewhere, but if you want an in-depth look at the man then this is the place. You get plenty of stories of his childhood and various loves, as well as his experiences with being a pimp and in a psychiatric ward. An engrossing read, I gave it only four stars as I came away knowing very little about his music career, but that doesn't take away from the intimate nature of this autobiography and portrayal of the man.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
MINGUS the surprising, 1 Jun 2009
First of all, it was really surprising for me to see how much of the book has nothing to do with the music - this is a very personall confession, told in a form of a novel in which, accidentally, some of the characters (besides Mingus) have the names of Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and, since the depiction of Red Norvo is not very flattering (and he was very much alive when the book was published), he is "hidden" but instantly recognizible to anyone who has some knowledge of the illustrious carreer of Charles (not Charlie!) Mingus...
The hero of this autobiography/novel, very often presented in third-person narration, is very much concerned with spirituality and sexuality, so the important people from the author's life (family, friends, lovers, prostitutes, pimps, medical professionals) are often not the ones you've heard of before reading the book, while some familiar names (Fats Navarro, Nat Hentoff) are here because they were important for the main topic of the book. And the topic is Charles Mingus, the human being, the man - Afican, White and Asian /but dominantly black/ - musician, lover, son, father, patient... Lover again...
Naturally, if you DON'T know much about Mingus' remarkable music, you will hardly reach for the book but, if you do, this will be an interesting insight into his rich mind.
Eric Dolphy is mentioned only once, I don't remember the mention of people like Danny Richmond or Jimmy Knepper in the entire book, but the web of a complex and intricate life is remarkably presented. Compared to the music, this is not the best work of Charles Mingus, but if you like his music you probably won't mind reading this... After all, there's a lot of sex, psychiatry, violence and music inside this book; there's something for everyone's taste.
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