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Mingus Speaks
Charles Mingus is among jazz's greatest composers and perhaps its most talented bass player. He was blunt and outspoken about the place of jazz in music history and American culture, about which performers were the real thing (or not), and much more. These in-depth interviews, conducted several years before Mingus died, capture the composer's spirit and voice, revealing how he saw himself as composer and performer, how he viewed his peers and predecessors, how he created his extraordinary music, and how he looked at race. Augmented with interviews and commentary by ten close associates--including Mingus's wife Sue, Teo Macero, George Wein, and Sy Johnson--Mingus Speaks provides a wealth of new perspectives on the musician's life and career.
As a writer for Playboy, John F. Goodman reviewed Mingus's comeback concert in 1972 and went on to achieve an intimacy with the composer that brings a relaxed and candid tone to the ensuing interviews. Much of what Mingus shares shows him in a new light: his personality, his passions and sense of humor, and his thoughts on music. The conversations are wide-ranging, shedding fresh light on important milestones in Mingus's life such as the publication of his memoir, Beneath the Underdog, the famous Tijuana episodes, his relationships, and the jazz business.
As a writer for Playboy, John F. Goodman reviewed Mingus's comeback concert in 1972 and went on to achieve an intimacy with the composer that brings a relaxed and candid tone to the ensuing interviews. Much of what Mingus shares shows him in a new light: his personality, his passions and sense of humor, and his thoughts on music. The conversations are wide-ranging, shedding fresh light on important milestones in Mingus's life such as the publication of his memoir, Beneath the Underdog, the famous Tijuana episodes, his relationships, and the jazz business.
350 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
8 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
John F. Goodman
6 books7 followersHow do you make sense of the daily disasters pouring out of Trump & Co.? Start at the beginning.
Trumpworld Begins takes you back to 2016–2018—the years that primed everything that followed. Donald Trump's first term shattered the gentility of the Obama era and launched an era of backstabbing, ideological warfare, and a constant desperate scramble for the President's ear. The chaos unfolding today didn't appear out of nowhere. This is where it grew.
Drawing on his political blog from those pivotal years, author John F. Goodman captured the first-term culture as it happened—using satire and humor, monologues and dialogues, and sharp media analysis to document the disintegration of American political institutions in real time. These posts are the soil in which the present disorder took root.
Inside, you'll find:
• A cast of characters straight out of a lunatic asylum
• Feckless Democrats who helped enable the very fiascos they claimed to oppose
• A clear-eyed look at how Trump's brand of corruption actually operates
• How the guardrails were removed—and why so few saw it coming.
Trump has never changed character. His lunacy has only advanced. Trumpworld Begins records in vivid snapshots how we got from there to here—and why, if only we'd been paying closer attention, the signs were impossible to miss.
This is not typical political nonfiction or standard political commentary. It is a living document—part history, part provocation, part cultural autopsy—and a stark reminder of how it all began.
Trumpworld Begins takes you back to 2016–2018—the years that primed everything that followed. Donald Trump's first term shattered the gentility of the Obama era and launched an era of backstabbing, ideological warfare, and a constant desperate scramble for the President's ear. The chaos unfolding today didn't appear out of nowhere. This is where it grew.
Drawing on his political blog from those pivotal years, author John F. Goodman captured the first-term culture as it happened—using satire and humor, monologues and dialogues, and sharp media analysis to document the disintegration of American political institutions in real time. These posts are the soil in which the present disorder took root.
Inside, you'll find:
• A cast of characters straight out of a lunatic asylum
• Feckless Democrats who helped enable the very fiascos they claimed to oppose
• A clear-eyed look at how Trump's brand of corruption actually operates
• How the guardrails were removed—and why so few saw it coming.
Trump has never changed character. His lunacy has only advanced. Trumpworld Begins records in vivid snapshots how we got from there to here—and why, if only we'd been paying closer attention, the signs were impossible to miss.
This is not typical political nonfiction or standard political commentary. It is a living document—part history, part provocation, part cultural autopsy—and a stark reminder of how it all began.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 21, 2017
Una lunghissima, in definitiva poco utile, esplorazione del "mingus-pensiero". Consigliato solo ai fan più affezionati.
May 12, 2018
This book was fun at times, while he was at topic on the avant garde movement, the nature of good black music and art discussions. His endless stories with the mafia, and women (who, to surprise no one, are incredibly sexist, and I mean it because he brags about having slept with thousands of women, assuming as an unavoidable fact of life that men WILL trick women and use their bodies so in case they should have a pill, "although not always with them") are among the most regrettable wastes of print to ever exist.
Just to be clear I have my reservations about the whole deal, but please give men a little more responsibility over this.
Just to be clear I have my reservations about the whole deal, but please give men a little more responsibility over this.
May 29, 2025
I'm writing this a couple of years after I finished it. What do I remember? That it was very fun to read. With all the man's imperfections, all the ways in which I could disagree with both the hero and the interviewer, it was still very fun to read. I don't remember a lot of the details. But ultimately, the biggest contribution of this book to my life was that it made me listen to Let My Children Hear Music again, and again, and again, and again. And for that, I'm enormously thankful to the interviewer.
April 22, 2025
Basically an oral history of the famous Jazz man. His views on music are the most interesting. Like many other Post-WW II Jazz Giants, he had some tough times and died relatively young. He talks about the 5 years after Eric Dolphy died where he did little composing and released almost no albums.
He got back into the swing in 1970, but came down with ALS in 1975 and died in 1979 - age 56.
He got back into the swing in 1970, but came down with ALS in 1975 and died in 1979 - age 56.
September 7, 2013
Lots of reviews are posted here: http://mingusspeaks.com/reviews. And an extended interview with me was just posted here: http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/2013....
June 25, 2015
As good a book as I have ever read on Mingus. More an oral biography/autobiography than anything else, Goodman shines on a light on the eccentricities, contradictions, genius, and humanity of Mingus the man. Highly recommended for any music fan, or any fan of creative persons.
January 8, 2014
See my review in the February, 2014, issue of the NYC Jazz Record. http://www.nycjazzrecord.com/
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews