Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus

by Charles Mingus

Book Overview

Bass player extraordinaire Charles Mingus, who died in 1979, is one of the essential composers in the history of jazz, and Beneath the Underdog , his celebrated, wild, funny, demonic, anguished, shocking, and profoundly moving memoir, is the greatest autobiography ever written by a jazz musician. It tells of his God-haunted childhood in Watts during the 1920s and 1930s; his outcast adolescent years; his apprenticeship, not only with jazzmen but also...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679737618
• ISBN13: 9780679737612
• Release Date: September 1991
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great literature? No, but an interesting artifact anyhow...

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.

Mingus 1, 2, or 3? All Together.

Total stream of consciousness...what a life of a Jazz giant..he was larger than his size and knew how to swing with the best...this book should be used as a study in neurosis and literature..not just the story of the underdog..the pain is there so is the awareness of personality..ones own..not as a disorder but as a spirit in motion. The colorful personalities are real,you won't learn much about Mingus the musician but Mingus the man.

A new way of approaching the autobiography

Mingus was, and always will be, in a world of his own. Be it with his bass playing, compositions, social life, or just his unique and obscure way interpreting life. This book has touched on many subjects , not just jazz, but with many other topics. The stories are often blown out of all proportion, the mark of a great storyteller? Mingus the ego is evident. If people don't dig that, then they shouldn't listen to him, or any other artist in their particular idiom, as ego is like tension, and creativity, and love and hate, and all the things you just can't contain within the skin and the 2D world. The first few chapters are deceiving, as it comes over like Ming's Father is writing the book. The conversation with Bird and Diz and Lucky Thompson on stage. Chatting with 'Fat Girl,' and the discovery of the origin of 'Donna Lee,' all worth the price if you love these players. There was a story once that went something along the lines of a critic chastizing Ming for his singing on the 'Blues and Root's' lp. Ming responded aptly with: 'If I sing, then it is myself whom I sing for, not you, or anyone else. I can only sing for myself. It's like, if I punch you in the mouth, I can't bleed for you, that's your job, right?' I reckon that goes some way to describing the man and his fury.

The Black Saint in a Sinner's Body

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.

one crazy life

Charles Mingus was an excellent musician. This is a common known fact of those who appreciate jazz. But not many more people past that know that Mingus was much more than a musician, he did much more that. In the beginning of this book Charles as a boy and follows him through his boy hood and talks about learining to play the cello, how he got picked on by bullys, young love, and more crazy things. -He has describes more crazy things he has seen and done just till the end of high school than I will probably do my hole life.- It has a smoth transition from boyhood to adult hood. Through out this book he talks about the loves that crossed his life, and the tales of his times being a pimp. I would like to warn all readers that this in not for the lighthearted, this book is full of foul language and explicit details of his sexual experiences. This maybe one of the main reasons that I could not find this book at the public library. Beyond that this book is a fun tale of the jazz bassists life. Finally if you are a BASS PLAYER you should read this before you stop playing.