Mingus Speaks

by John F. Goodman

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.

Genres: Music, Jazz, Biography, Memoir

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

After graduate school at the Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin, I taught English in New York at NYU and City College during the Vietnam years. I also wrote a music column for the New Leader, a notable small leftish monthly, and then wrote on jazz, classical and rock for Playboy for nine years.

Mingus was a source of fascination for me, both because of his music and his outspoken opinions on everything. Playboy commissioned my review of Mingus’s “comeback” concert in February 1972, and from there we got to know and trust each other so as to begin the interviews that would finally lead to this book.

Reviews

[dv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una lunghissima, in definitiva poco utile, esplorazione del "mingus-pensiero". Consigliato solo ai fan più affezionati.

[M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Amir Aharoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[John F Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

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....

[Matt Carton · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kurt Gottschalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review in the February, 2014, issue of the NYC Jazz Record. http://www.nycjazzrecord.com/