Beneath The Underdog

"Mingus was something else. A pure genius."
Miles Davis
Mingus by Mingus. From shabby roadhouses to country estates, from the psychiatric wards of Bellevue to inner worlds of mysticism and solitude, these are the celebrated, anguished and, above all, profoundly moving memoirs of the great jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus - one of the most extraordinary autobiographies ever written.
"An outlandish, brilliant autobiography." Newsweek
"A fascinating insight into mingus' mind - unforgettable." The Times
"Rich on anecdote and emotional self-analysis ... Read this and it'll make you mad at what he went through." Uncut
"There has never been an autobiography like Beneath the Underdog, a riveting work of highly subjective reminiscences and tortured self-analysis." Richard Williams

Charles Mingus was born in Arizona in 1922. He settled in New York in the 1950s, where he played and recorded with the leading musicians of his time, such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington. Mingus toured extensively throughout the world, including Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States. He died in 1979. Both New York City and Washington, D.C., honoured him posthumously with a 'Charles Mingus Day'.