From the shabby roadhouses to fabulous estates, from the psychiatric wards of Bellevue to worlds of mysticism and solitude, these are the moving memoirs of the great jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Mingus was something else. A pure genius. I loved him." Miles Davis; "The jazz world has seen its fair share of compelling autobiographies but none to rival the quality of Beneath the Underdog. A shocking and brilliant book. Five stars." Q; "There has never been an autobiography like Beneath the Underdog. A riveting work of highly subjective reminiscences and tortured self-analysis." Richard Williams; "[Mingus'] autobiography teeters between derangement and genius." Time Out; "An outlandish, brilliant autobiography." Newsweek
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Charles Mingus (1922 - 79) is widely acknowledged as being the most influential and important post-bop bassist to have emerged from the jazz world. Not simply a player, he us also considered to be, along with Ellington, Monk and Jelly Roll Morton, one of the most important and experimental composers in 20th century black music. Prolific output in a career that spanned close on 50 years.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Black Saint in a Sinner's Body,
By Sean K Hur (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beneath the Underdog (Paperback)
If you are a fan of Charles Mingus' music, you will certainly enjoy this wonderfully bombastic character in his autobiography. His story has his life woven in with some fictionalized characters and segments "jazzed" in, which adds quite a peculiar nature to his work. However, you will never guess what segments are true and which aren't. The work is very peculiar as an autobiography, revealing more the conversations and the feelings he underwent through his travels as opposed to a straight narrative from beginning to end. His work goes through a path of flashbacks and such, with a major emphasis on women (esp. his lovers), the road, and his jazz music. The interesting people he meets in his travels are well interweaved, and really make the story. My only criticism is when this "jazz" story starts to ramble out into peculiar segments which seem to lose your attention. The work tends to well reflect the chaotic nature of this genius. It is also a treat to listen to his music while reading... One of the many pleasures I've undertaken in. Highly recommended reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great literature? No, but an interesting artifact anyhow...,
By R G-S "listen with all your might!" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beneath the Underdog (Paperback)
Those looking for anything like a conventional musical bio should go to "Mingus, a Critical Biography" by Brian Priestley; "Underdog" isn't that at all; it's an artifact of Mingus' peculiar world-view at a particularly hard time in his life.
Mentally ill? Mingus was long noted for fits of depression (in spite of repeated success in the music industry, he nevertheless ended up working for the post office on a number of occasions) and a volcanic temper (he re-counts an on-stage knife-fight with Ellington trombonist Juan Tizol, but leaves out mention of his punching Jimmy Knepper in the mouth hard enough to break teeth). He sometimes channeled it for art: he was probably the first musician ever to release an album ("Black Saint") with liner notes from his psychoanalyst. In "Underdog", he recounts checking himself into Bellvue Hospital, in an ill-considered search for "some rest". That got him, he says, an offer of a lobotomy, but also yielded a song, "Hellview of Bellvue/Lock 'em Up", and he raised the interesting question: if a somewhat successful half-black jazz musician in 1960's America believed that people were out to steal from him and oppress him, was he acutely paranoid, just observant, or both? Sexually escapist, and scatological? Well, yes, but before feminism, or political correctness, and not without pay-back: the man who bragged of trying to bury his misery in [...] and dope never apparently finds them to be a satisfactory release, and after all the orgies, writes a tune called "Half-Mast Inhibition". . . So, listen to the music first. See the short b&w documentary. If you want accurate linear bio information or critical analysis, go to the Priestly book. Then put on "Black Saint", "Mingus Am Uh", or "Blues and Roots", and read this.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beneath the Underdog,
This review is from: Beneath the Underdog (Paperback)
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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