Myself When I am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus - Hardcover

"Physically bearish and imposing, Mingus always seemed even larger psychically, a figure to fill the room, alter the vibes, suck up all the aira cross between Falstaff and Othello. In his marvelous hall of mirrors, Myself When I Am Real, Gene Santoro has grasped him whole, or at least as whole as one can expect from mere prose. Some passages suggest the hammering rhythms of a drum solo, others the sprawl of a Mingusian piano meditation. It is a stunning achievement." --Gary Giddins, author of Visions of Jazz: The First Century "Physically bearish and imposing, Mingus always seemed even larger psychically, a figure to fill the room, alter the vibes, suck up all the aira cross between Falstaff and Othello. In his marvelous hall of mirrors, Myself When I Am Real, Gene Santoro has grasped him whole, or at least as whole as one can expect from mere prose. Some passages suggest the hammering rhythms of a drum solo, others the sprawl of a Mingusian piano meditation. It is a stunning achievement." --Gary Giddins, author of Visions of Jazz: The First Century "Physically bearish and imposing, Mingus always seemed even larger psychically, a figure to fill the room, alter the vibes, suck up all the aira cross between Falstaff and Othello. In his marvelous hall of mirrors, Myself When I Am Real, Gene Santoro has grasped him whole, or at least as whole as one can expect from mere prose. Some passages suggest the hammering rhythms of a drum solo, others the sprawl of a Mingusian piano meditation. It is a stunning achievement." --Gary Giddins, author of Visions of Jazz: The First Century "Physically bearish and imposing, Mingus always seemed even larger psychically, a figure to fill the room, alter the vibes, suck up all the aira cross between Falstaff and Othello. In his marvelous hall of mirrors, Myself When I Am Real, Gene Santoro has grasped him whole, or at least as whole asone can expect from mere prose. Some passages suggest the hammering rhythms of a drum solo, others the sprawl of a Mingusian piano meditation. It is a stunning achievement." --Gary Giddins, author of Visions of Jazz: The First Century

Charles Mingus was one of the most innovative jazz musicians of the 20th century, and ranks with Ives and Ellington as one of America's greatest composers. By temperament, he was a highly-strung and sensitive romantic, a towering figure whose tempestuous personal life found powerfully coherent expression in the ever-shifting textures of his music. Now, music critic Gene Santoro strips away the myths shrouding "Jazz's Angry Man", revealing Mingus as more complex than even his lovers and close friends knew. A pioneering bassist and composer, Mingus redefined jazz's terrain. He penned over 300 works spanning gutbucket gospel, Colombian cumbias, orchestral tone poems, multimedia performance, and chamber jazz. By the time he was 35, his growing body of music won increasing attention as it unfolded into one pioneering musical venture after another, from classical-meets-jazz extended pieces to spoken-word and dramatic performances and television and movie soundtracks.