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Title: Mingus: A Critical Biography by Brian Priestley ISBN: 0-306-80217-1 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Giant of Jazz
Comment: This is a slightly disappointing, but still very good biography of one of the greatest jazz composers and probably its top bassist. Mingus, using a mixture of jazz, blues, church music, European impressionism and march music, and folk, wrote some of the most outstanding music of the 20th century. A man of wide-ranging, complicated emotions, lionesque appetites, and varied intellectual and creative pursuits, this titan of modern music is a fascinating biographical subject.
However, Brian Priestley does not capture the full measure of the man and his music. I'm not sure what the subtitle "A Critical Biography" is meant to convey, but there is not enough musical criticism. Particularly in the second half of the book, Priestley resorts to an "and then he wrote" approach, painstakingly detailing every new composition or derivative, and every new musician in the ever-changing Mingus ensemble. There is musical analysis, but often it is more technical than critical. Referring to a song on "East Coasting" Priestley writes, "it incorporates passages of G minor twelve-bar blues only slightly different from the opening of 'Eulogy' (Im/bVImaj\bII7\V7 instead of Im|bVImaj7\IIm7b5\v7)." The first part of this sentence is the more revealing: "It is a tribute to Mingus' maturing methodology that ideas are shown to be capable of repetition and rearrangement."
This does not go far enough, though. Why did Mingus "cross-breed" so many of his works, as Priestley notes but never really examines. The reasons (aesthetic, psychological--practical in the case of "Slop") for the similarities among some works (e.g., "Better Get Hit Into Yo Soul", "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", "Slop," and other compositions is never really explored. Were Mingus' edits across versions and his reworking of similar themes an attempt to forge a new "traditional" folk music within a mere two decades? (Perhaps this hypothesis is off, but I would have preferred that Priestley write a more encompassing analysis of both the whole of Mingus' work and its constituent parts.)
Conversely, we may praise the author for not indulging in psycho-biography, for including extensive well-documented quotes from Mingus as well as other musicians, and for describing enough on-stage Mingus behavior to get a sense of his personality. One might want to read the excellent though brief "Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs" for a better look at the offstage Mingus and his relationships with non-musicians.
The strength of the book is the extensive documentation of the entire Mingus discography, the ever shifting lineups, and both the recorded and non-recorded performances. This must have been a labor of love, as Priestley gives the definitive record of Mingus' output and how the performances map onto the different albums. The appendices include musical notations of ten (!) bass excerpts, a second-by-second structural analysis of "The Black Saint...,"and notes to all citations in the book. This is invaluable for the Mingus fan.
Priestley's writing can be awkward, "She it was who wrote....," and strained "Any minimally serious astrological guide will describe the typical Taurean as having outsized physical appetites; what is perhaps even more relevant to Mingus is the ability to treat extramarital affairs (like the ice-cream [sic] of which he was so fond) as a dessert complementing, but in no way threatening, any long-established relationship."
Despite the reservations noted above, I can recommend this book as a comprehensive resource for Mingus fans. It also includes enough personal information and sympathy (through interview excerpts with Mingus and others) that one begins to appreciate his complexities. There are a few clues to his Joycean autobiography, "Beneath the Underdog," and one gets a good sense of the racial tensions and injustices battled by Mingus. Finally, judging from the reviews of the other major Mingus biography, "Myself When I Am Real," this is the best book currently available. It will be enhanced, however, if read with the aforementioned autobiography (as perplexing as it is) and "Mingus/Mingus," as well as the brief but excellent critiques in "The Penguin Guide to Jazz." Includes 25 black and white photos, notes, appendices, and an extensive index.
Rating: 2
Summary: Hisself when he was hardly real
Comment: What do you want from this Charles Mingus biography?
1. A depiction of Mingus the man, including a psychological and/or anecdotal interpretation of his character?
There's not a lot of that here. Although I will say that this falls into the category of what I call "John Bonham Biographies", named for the Led Zeppelin drummer who came off as a manic-depressive Jekyl and Hyde in the book "Hammer of the Gods". Another good example of this is humourist Michael O'Donoghue in Dennis Perrin's bio "Mr. Mike". Mingus, in Priestley's hands, is an extreme man. He is either a soulful genius, or a tyrannical, violent, out-of-control maniac. It always strikes me as a road too easily traveled by the biographer, and is thus distracting.
2. A theoretical explanation of Mingus' music, with the intent of illustrating why he casts such a powerful shadow over the jazz world (as unparalleled bassist *and* composer)?
There's oodles of that here. Unfortunately, it leaves very little room for the layman to join the party. At times the book reads like an advanced textbook on modern jazz theory. I guess I should have taken the title of the book -- "A Critical Biography" -- a little more seriously. Also, there are references made to Mingus quoting other songs within his own, which further baffled me, as it would anyone but the most knowledgeable jazz historian. And when he tries to determine Mingus' place in music history, Priestley isn't afraid to let the hyperbole fly. Like when he implies that rock 'n' roll is an indirect descendant from a relationship between Alexis Korner and Mingus in London. Or an attempt to elevate Mingus' jazz as an artform, when compared to the vacuous pop of the mid-1960s, which lacks credibility because the vacuous being compared to is the (relatively) sophisticated music of the Beatles! Or an absurd claim that a disastrous concert Mingus put on at the Town Hall in New York "caused more fallout than the almost simultaneous Cuban Missile Crisis"! These and other arguments are handled sloppily at best, and do a disservice to Mingus himself.
3. An explanation/refutation of Mingus' fantastic semi-autobiography "Beneath the Underdog"?
You're in luck, because at times it feels like Priestley has a copy of Mingus' book beside him as he writes, ticking off fact after fact as it is corrected or explained here. Which might have been helpful had I read "Beneath the Underdog", but I haven't. And now don't need to. He should have just published a version of "The Annotated Beneath the Underdog", and left the biography writing to someone else with an original sense of narrative.
So just be sure you know what your goals are when confronting this work. Jazzheads and Mingus-freaks, you're welcome to join the party. Casual jazz fans and Mingus admirers (of which I am one), step lightly. Fans of biography, do yourself a favour and pass on by. Oh, and I almost forgot. This book has the tackiest, creepiest, and most irresponsible closing line of any book I have ever read. I just hope that Dannie Richmond (drummer and frequent Mingus band member) hasn't seen it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Definitive Mingus Biography.
Comment: The reviewer from LA makes this book sound like a cheesy celebrity bio. Nothing could be further from the truth. Priestly has written a carefully detailed history of Mingus's musical life. There's an effort to make sense out of Mingus's wild autobiography Beneath the Underdog, and his personal life is discussed, as it should be, but Mingus's accomlishments and his place in jazz history are the main focus of this book. This is a first rate jazz biography.
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Title: Beneath the Underdog : His World as Composed by Mingus by Charles Mingus ISBN: 0679737618 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus by Gene Santoro ISBN: 0195097335 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Tonight At Noon: A Love Story by Sue Graham Mingus ISBN: 0306812207 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Charles Mingus - More Than a Fake Book by Charles Mingus ISBN: 0793509009 Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title:Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog ASIN: B00000IBMI Publisher: Koch Vision/Shanachie Video Pub. Date: 23 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.98 |
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