Customer Reviews

Charles Mingus: Mingus in Greenwich Village

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2 star:		(3)
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This film is a trip for the true Mingus wanna-be. It is certainly not overly accessible, but please don't pass this by if you want to view Mr. Mingus in his own context. I loved every minute of this experience, especially chanting the poems along w/ the whole audience at the theatre I saw it in. For those who can't get enough of Mingus it's a treat.

This DVD is an expanded version of a section of "Triumph of the Underdog". Basically, it is a documentary centering on Mingus' eviction from his appartment in Greenwich Village. I was dissapointed with it since it contains very little music and I had already watched "Triumph of the Underdog".

This is a great movie that shows Mingus as he was at a time when his world was falling apart. It's not always entertaining, and not always interesting, but like his book "Beneath the Underdog" you need to just roll with it. Mingus was an interesting man, and he had a pretty winning personality, even if what he talked about couldn't always be understood.

Just as in life, artists and musicians aren't always the way we'd like them to be. From stories about the anti-social aspects of Miles Davis, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, and others, artists are there to create art and make a living. This documentary shows Mingus in an honest light, as Mingus could have refused to let the filmmaker put out the film in 1968, after Mingus had left music and started an even greater financial and spiritual decline. But he let it be seen, which is a testament to the man Mingus could be.

Recommended, and also is on the 1972 Berlin DVD.

As a documentary, this is a mess. As a concert film, it isn't long enough. As an example of cinema concrète, well, who knows...

Interview bits with Mingus in his loft apartment are spliced with club concert footage. The interviews are mostly monologues, as Mingus spews free associative stream of consciousness juju, at one point firing his shotgun into the apartment's ceiling. Later, as he's being evicted for nonpayment of rent, he wishes aloud for the Red Chinese "to blow you people up." The concert material is worth watching, of course, for the opportunity to see the late master at work. But you might want to be charitable and skip the rest, unless The Ever Popular Addled Artist Effect has strong charms for you.

I am a Mingus "completist" who has to see or hear everything by Mingus, and I have seen it, and don't recommend it. It was made in 1968. As noted above,it centers around Mingus' eviction from his apartment. As much as I think Mingus is one of the great geniuses of jazz, I cannot say he is an admirable personality in his private life. He rambles and mumbles his way through this film, and doesn't convince me he doesn't deserve to be evicted. There is one embarrasing segment where his very young daughter wanders through this mess of a apartment with Mingus carrying around a loaded rifle, and I feel sorry for her. The only tantalizing parts of this film are several short segments of a gig Mingus played with a group with an all-star lineup:John Gilmore, Lonnie Hillyer, Charles McPherson, Walter Bishop Jr. and , of course Dannie Richmond. The trouble is we never hear more than a minute or two of this band at a time. If only the DVD had consisted of this group playing the whole set, it would have been worthwhile.