Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog

Amazon.com

Don McGlynn's uncompromising and soulful documentary look at the tumultuous life of musician and rebel Charles Mingus is fascinating stuff. Mingus said of himself "I am half black man, half yellow man, but I claim to be a Negro. I am Charles Mingus, the famed jazz musician--but not famed enough to make a living in America." His statement summed up the conflict that plagued this musical genius his entire life: volatility, pain, prescience, and raw rage roiled inside a complex man, composer, bass player, and trombonist who transcended labels and refused to be pigeonholed into a single musical style--and who did not achieve real fame until late in his career. The documentary is full of well-preserved footage and contains interviews with many Mingus followers like Wynton Marsalis as well as performances by icons Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Gerry Mulligan. The film traverses past the musical legend with insight and information into Mingus's personal life, his civil rights activism, and his final triumph in the music world--just as his body began to deteriorate from Lou Gehrig's disease--to his eventual death in 1979. Mingus left a legacy composed of genius, vulnerability, brilliance, anarchy, and, as one friend noted, "the entire range of human emotion that is reflected in his music." --Paula Nechak

Customer Reviews:

Get the VHS Tape (5 stars), DVD has awful sound (1 Star).......2007-08-17

I have this on VHS tape and DVD. I've watched it dozens of times. To me, it's not about Mingus the bass player or composer. It's about how great artists are often conflicted, complex, sometimes self-destructive and contradictory people. And in this sense it is a 100% successful documentary with spot-on interviews. But the archival sound on the DVD is just terrible. Speaking and more mordern music sound is OK. Older music is better on the VHS tape.

Mingus..........2007-08-08

This is great for footage of Mingus...but Gunther Schuller really ruins the documentary-part of the film...claiming that he was Mingus' closest friend and he was the only one Mingus trusted. Now if that were true, then how come Schuller can't take Mingus' music anywhere near where Mingus took it? There are too many lame and repetitive interviews...but if you're in for the mingus footage, it's a good buy.

Mingus larger than life.......2007-05-12

The material featured on this DVD focuses on chosen points of Mingus'life as a composer and spans a wide sweep of the bassist and composer. For those who relished the thought of finally catching a glimpse of those so Mingusy bass figures, this is going to be a letdown. However, if you are going for Mingus the composer, this is definitely a must-have. There is good quality footage of live performances from the 60s and 70s which provide an appropriate overview of the relentess worker Mingus was and how wide-ranging his inspirational interests were. Mingus's two wives contribute poignant comments and lead you right into the man's passion and anguish. All the musicians interviewed give a clear sense of how galvanizing Mingus's presence was and Gunther's Schuller's musical comments are downright accurate and to the point and he does a concinving job of setting the record straight on Mingus the composer. One thing to mention though, if you like your bass loud and clear, particularly Mingus's warm tone, you might need to turn up the volume. Other than that, you have got to get this simply because there hasn't been much Mingus footage out there yet.

Brilliant musician - very good composer........2005-01-28

This documentary unapologetically has a mission: to elevate Charles Mingus' status to "great" composer. Whether he is or is not can be argued, but when compared with the likes of Duke Ellington who was unquestionably a great composer, he might move down just a notch. A "great" bass player? Unquestionably. Herein lies my complaint: not enough focus on Mingus the bass player. That being said, this documentary makes it clear that Mingus and music are one. The most introspective moments come in the form of home movies of Mingus sitting at the piano composing. One scene in particular has him playing "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on an old upright to his daughter. Clearly this documentary was a work of love put together by those who revere his music and want to keep it alive. Make no mistake, the music is great and this documentary is a worthy effort.

Great Mingus Footage, Bad Documentary.......2003-12-31

I must agree with the review entitled 'disappointed'. I am an avid collector of Mingus records and am familiar with much of his career. This attempt at a portrait of Mingus is poorly constructed and fails to provide even a basic overview of his life and music. There is no chronology as tantalising snippts of film jump from the seventies back to the fifties, with scarce an opportunity to listen to an extended piece. Rather than allow the rare concert footage and original recordings to 'speak for themselves', the filmmakers lean heavily on ponderous and repetitive interviews that either emphasise how volatile a personality was Mingus or how he was an American equivalent of a Schoenberg. There is virtually no discussion of any one of his many innovative recordings, and the film moves briskly through his 'golden period' of roughly '55 to '65 with little mention of his many great achievements. We are told repeatedly what a great composer and bassist Mingus was, and yet the film includes precious little footage of Mingus and his bands performing. As mentioned, the chronology of the footage is so poorly arranged that there is no sense of what a remarkable period of activity Mingus sustained during that ten year period in which the vast bulk of his classic recordings were made.
A disappointment, but worth having for the rare Mingus footage. But this poor excuse for a documentary does not serve as a good introduction to his career.

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