Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34515 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-03-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

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

From the Back Cover
Charles Mingus--Triumph of the Underdog is the first comprehensive documentary about jazz bassist, bandleader, and composer Charles Mingus. Mingus led a tumultuous life filled with trauma and frustration, joy and creativity. Not light enough to be considered white and not dark enough to fit into the black community, he was an outcast in American society who charted his own path. Likewise, his legacy as a 20th century composer reaches far beyond conventional jazz idioms.

Mingus apprenticed with people like Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Charlie Parker before going out on his own and becoming a musical force for more than a decade. When interest in his music waned at the height of the rock era in the mid-1960s, and one of his closest collaborators, Eric Dolphy, died, Mingus was institutionalized due to psychological problems. Upon his return to the music scene, he began playing more concerts and his record sales zoomed. This golden period of recognition ended when he contracted Lou Gehrig's Disease and his muscles began to deteriorate. He died in 1979.

Exhaustively researched, virtually everything used in this film is extraordinarily rare--newly unearthed performance footage, previously unpublished photographs, radio broadcasts, and private interviews. Abundant clips of Mingus in performance in the 1960s and 1970s perfectly illustrate both his joy and his rage. Nine years in the making, this lucid, involving portrait shows the many faces and tortured heart of a musical genius. He titled his 1971 autobiography Beneath the Underdog, but by the end of his life, with his ambition and resolute sense of purpose, the underdog ultimately triumphed.

Performances include "Epitaph," "Peggy's Blue Skylight," "Better Get Hit in Your Soul," "So Long Eric," "Sue's Changes," "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," and more. Produced by Don McGlynn and Sue Mingus. Directed by Don McGlynn.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
I had high hopes for this film, as I am enormous admirer of Charles Mingus, and a passionate collector of his records, but, unfortunately, "Triumph of the Underdog" is a jumbled mess. It's a great example of how important editing is in documentary. When you have a bad editor, or an director who doesn't understand editing, you end up with a film like this. After a meandering introduction, which does little to whet one's appetite for the subject at hand, the rest of the film is loosely structured around the story of Mingus's life. Yet it presents only shards of that life that are incomplete and often unclear, and there are many gaps. For some reason, many of the interview subjects were shot in pairs, so while one person is talking, the other is left to stare at them. For some reason, Gunther Schuller is used a primary interviewee, but he can't hold the film together and he's an odd choice in any case. There is wonderful footage of Mingus performing, but, like the rest of the film, it is not well used, and we often get only bits and pieces of songs that don't add up to anything. There is fascinating footage of Mingus shooting a gun in his apartment and later being evicted (shot by another documentarian in the 60's) but, again, that whole story is not as clear or compelling as it could have been. This is just a huge missed opportunity, as you can see from the footage available and the musicians interviewed that a great film could have been constructed here. After all, we're dealing with one of the most dynamic, exciting musicians and compelling personalities of recent times. For anyone who loves Mingus and loves jazz, only buy this if you can put up with the frustration you will feel at all that could have been. You'll enjoy the bits and pieces, but if you want good filmmaking about jazz, there are much better films: "Straight, No Chaser", "Let's Get Lost", or "Great Day in Harlem" are all worth watching. In the meantime, let's hope that someone with more skills as a filmmaker will get a hold of this footage.

One of the best jazz documentaries
I have seen a lot of the many jazz biographies and this one is probably the best. If this isn't the best, it's right near the top. I found it very involving, dramatic and sometimes quite funny. Mingus was a fascinating personality, and this documentary gets into many aspects of his character. A lot of the press about him emphasizes the violent side of Mingus, but there were many other aspects, which this documentary thankfully explores. There is quite a fascinating array of films clips of Mingus, most of which I haven't seen before. And there many other interviews. Probably the most interesting is when two of his wives are interviewed together. Quite engrossing. Really a great documentary. Don't miss it.

Great Mingus Footage, Bad Documentary
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.