A pioneering bassist and composer, Mingus redefined jazz's terrain. He penned over 300 works spannig gutbucket gospel, Colombian cumbias, orchestral tone poems, multimedia performance, and chamber jazz. By the time he was 35, his growing body of music won increasing attention as it unfolded into one pioneering musical venture after another, from classical-meets-jazz extended pieces to spoken-word and dramatic performances and television and movie soundtracks. But Mingus got headlines less for his art than for his volatile and often provocative behaviour, which drew fans who wanted to watch his temper suddenly flare onstage. Keeping up with the organized chaos of Mingus's art demanded gymnastic improvisational skills and openness from his musicians, which is why some of them called it "the Sweatshop". He hired and fired musicians on the bandstand, attacked a few musicians physically and many more verbally, twice threw Lionel Hampton's drummer off the stage, and routinely harangued chattering audiences, once chasing a table of inattentive patrons out of the FIVE SPOT with a meat cleaver. But the musical and mental challenges this volcanic man set his bands also nurtured deep loyalties. Jey sidemen stayed with him for years and even decades. In this biography, Santoro probes the sore spots in Mingus's easily wounded nature that helped make him so explosive: his bullying father, his interracila background, his vulnerability to women and distrust of men, his views of political and social issues, his overwhelming need for love and acceptance. Of black, white, and Asian decent, Mingus made race a central issue in his life as well as a crucial aspect of his music, becoming an outspoken (and often misunderstood) critic of racial injustice. Santoro gives us a vivid portrait of Mingus's development, from the racially mixed Watts where he mingled with artists and writers as well as mobsters, union toughs, and pimps to the artistic ferment of postwar Greenwich Village, where he absorbed and extended the radical improvistation flowing through the work of Allen Ginsbert, Jackson Pollock, and Charlie Parker. Indeed, unlike most jazz biographers, Santoro examines Mingus's etra-musical influences - from Orson Welles to Langston Hughes, Farwell Taylor, and Timothy Leary - and illuminates his achievement in the broader cultural context it demands. Written in a lively, novelistic style, "Myself When I Am Real" draws on dozens of new interviews and previously untapped letters and archival materials to explore the intricate connections between this extraordinary man and the extraordinary music he made.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Prologue: Better Get It In Your Soul; 1. Growing Up Absurd; 2. Black Like Me; 3. Making the Scene; 4. Life During Wartime; 5. Portrait of the Artist; 6. The Big Apple, or On the Road; 7. Pithecanthropus Erectus; 8. Mingus Dynasty; 9. Camelot; 10. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady; 11. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest; 12. Beneath the Underdog; 13. Let My Children Hear Music; 14. Changes; 15. Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid, Too; Notes; Bibliography; Discography; Acknowledgements; Index

Reviews

Santoro, who covers music for New York's Daily News, has attempted not only to capture the complex, contradictory character of jazz bassist and composer Mingus, but also to assert his music's towering significance in American culture as a whole. With such an ambitious goal in mind, it is hard to understand why he dispenses with a critical approach to the man and his music in favor of hagiography, portraying Mingus as a larger-than-life genius who was beyond reproach. Misdeeds often attributed to Mingus, whether they be numerous betrayals of friends and lovers or an alarming tendency to pull knives on people, are explained away as the eccentricities of an artist. This rambling book is not without revealing details about Mingus's life, however. In the Watts section of Los Angeles, where he grew up, Mingus, with his light complexion, could pass for neither black nor white, which, Santoro argues, cemented the feeling of being an outsider that both haunted and drove the musician for the rest of his life. When writing about Mingus's actual musicmaking, Santoro is in his element. He does an admirable job of describing the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the jazz workshops. There is also an abundance of anecdotes about Mingus's legendary onstage hijinks, including smashing his bass (he did it before Pete Townshend), haranguing the audience and sitting down to a steak dinner in the middle of a performance. Yet Santoro ultimately fails to marshal his sources into a nuanced portrait, producing a mythological figure, not the man himself. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

"The definitive Mingus biography."--The Boston Book Review
"The best examination yet of an American original."--Washington Post
"The great bassist and composer's wild, turbulent life [is] wonderfully captured by Santoro....In sharp and lively prose, [he] digs deep into Mingus' past to sort out the strands of his life..."--Rolling Stone
"As Mingus's story unfolds, Santoro keeps the backbeat with perspectives on the socio-political churnings over those years, all of which affected Mingus's life and music....Santoro is on target, and his writing...soars."--The Boston Globe
"This is a biography as gargantuan in scope and ambition as Mingus himself, and highly recommended."--The Seattle Times
"Written with the elegant hand of an experienced journalist and the insight of a musician with first-rate ears, the book accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of casting a revealing light upon the inner life of its enigmatic subject."--Los Angeles Times
"Santoro brings his re

Over the past few years, several exceptional biographies on key jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Sun Ra have appeared. Santoro (music critic, the New York Daily News; Dancing in Your Head) has produced a work that belongs with this elite group. Mingus!s super-human energy and creativity are the hinges of this work, which is filled out with numerous anecdotes and short, insightful quotes from family, friends, and colleagues. The historical setting is also valuable, showing how Mingus influenced and was affected by events and movements during his lifetime (e.g., the so-called 1960s counterculture). Other fascinating facets come to light, including Mingus!s heritage (he had Native American, Chinese, black, and white ancestors). Mingus!s opinionated, boisterous, and often mean-spirited personality was balanced by his desire to impart musical ideas and other thoughts to those willing to listen and learn"it!s amazing that there were so few who ended up totally antagonized after the Mingus treatment. After reading this work, Mingus!s fictionalized account of his life, Beneath the Underdog (Vintage, 1991. reprint), makes much more sense. Highly recommended for public, academic, and music libraries."William G. Kenz, Moorhead State Univ., MN Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.